What’s wrong with jazz? This is what’s wrong with jazz!
This essential two disc set has the essential albums of the essential tenor saxist teamed with essential sidemen blowing with his essential tone at a time when jazz was essential to American culture. Rollins was coming into his own as THE voice on the tenor sax, and these are the albums that did it. Rollins is in quartet and quintet format here, at times going toe to tow with his “rival” John Coltrane on the marathon “Tenor Madness” or joining up with his buddy Thelonious Monk on celebratory pieces like “I Want To BE Happy” and “The Way You Look Tonight”. His classic quintet with Clifford Brown/tp and Max Roach/dr include the majestic “I Feel A Song Coming On” and the ahead of its time “Valse Hot” while every track from the Desert Island Disc Saxophone Colossus is here, and believe me, you’ll end up memorizing every note on pieces like “Blue Seven”, “St. Thomas” and “You Don’t Know What Love Is”. Inspiring on a plethora of levels, and an indictment on today’s navel gazing posers.