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Sonny Rollins: The Bridge at 60

A fabulous album in every respect. Almost certainly my favourite Sonny Rollins album, though hard to pick as he made so many. I’ve got the Classic Records fancy audiophile pressing, which sounds superb, but the centring of side 2 could be a lot better. No idea how an audiophile company screws that sort of thing up.
 
Thanks for the reminder - good excuse to dust down my first press mono.

Too many great Rollins LPs to choose a favourite, although I think The Contemporary Leaders doesn’t get enough love (you know - the one Donald Fagen is listening to on Nightfly). Nice guitar from Barney Kessell.
 
What's the consensus on Sonny's recorded output post 1970-ish?

I remember really liking The Cutting Edge (even with the bagpipes) but need to revisit the later Milestone records I have. I suspect the Road Shows CDs are good but haven't investigated yet.

edit: a good excuse to dig out my US 1962 stereo!
 
I don’t really have much at all of Sonny post 1970, but I would like a good copy of The Cutting Edge because I saw him with Rufus Harley on bagpipes at Ronnie Scott’s in the mid 1970’s and I still remember it was a great concert. I stayed for both sets and to walk home to Stratford as all the night buses had stopped.
 
Sadly I think the consensus is that most of the post 60s recorded output is poor. G Man is good. Live was a different matter and I believe there are mountains of bootlegs to demonstrate this. The 50s and 60s output is so transcendent that it is hard to understand. Famously he doesn’t like recording but if that is so why did he keep doing it? I like the RCA recordings after the Bridge.
 
paulfromcamden said:
That's quite a trek Jim! I wonder if it was the same run of gigs as the one in 1974 this footage was shot at?

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Paul,
Thanks, I had forgotten all about that 1974 BBC rescued film footage. I did see it when it was on arena in 2012. I am fairly certain it was that run of gigs. I now remember it was in the summer and Sonny with this band was I think touring Europe and had played at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The set list there for that date gives the date as Saturday 6th July 1974.
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/sonn...es-congres-montreux-switzerland-2bd968ae.html
I think he was on for at least a week at Ronnie’s either before or after Montreux I can’t remember which (I just noticed it says 17th July in the end credits that was a Wednesday). Rufus Harley was dressed in a kilt, but it wouldn’t have been the filming night when I was there though as I am sure I would have remembered three cameramen filming.

It was a mid week day though. I think I left Ronnie’s sometime after 3am when it closed after nursing at the most 1 beer per set. Ronnie’s was expensive compared to the pub. So I was alert enough for the trek home, must have been about 2.5 hours and by the time I got back I should have been getting ready for work so I called in ‘sick’ for the day. :rolleyes:
 
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For me, Sonny's RCA recordings probably rank amongst his finest, as good as his BN and Prestige output was.

I am not enamored with his later albums. I have some of them but very seldom ever play them. He was still incredible when playing live in the 80s and 90s but I've always felt that his sidemen often were just not performing at the same level as he was.
 
I also saw him a few times live in the 80’s and 90’s when he played concerts in London and he was never less than excellent. One concert at the Barbican I remember as being particularly good, but not the details. Now my memory is going I wish I had kept a diary. :( You are right his bands were not always up to scratch and he was usually at his best when he played long unaccompanied or minimal accompanied .
 
The 2010 Barbican concert for his 80th birthday year was a highlight. Bob Cranshaw playing electric bass in other dates always annoyed me.
 
The only time I've seen him play was at the Barbican in 2012. One of our party turned up a few mins late so we had an agonising wait by the door listening to him playing St Thomas for what felt like hours before we could take our seats!
 
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