Sonny Rollins, A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters—Blue Note Tone Poet Series vinyl reissue (3 LP set) [2024]

Before I sat down to write this review, my hands were on the album, a glossy purple Sonny Rollins Stoughton printed jacket from Blue Note. Listening attentively, I got lost in the spell of it. I was stalled in a trance when the photograph of Cartier-Bresson of a cyclist and a handrail that seemed to propel him came to mind. Immediately after this, two of my best friends with whom I share a love of jazz also appeared. What is it about jazz and the chain of thoughts that come with it? Can we make a parallel of our free associations with the characteristic improvisation of the genre? After all, reverie and music go hand in hand. 

I was admiring Francis Wolff's photos of Sonny’s performance at the Vanguard (maybe that’s why I thought of Cartier-Bresson?). Wolff created some of Blue Note Records' most iconic album covers. His photographs always captured the sensibility, curiosity, and artistry of jazz legends. What he saw through his lens has helped us venture into a musical form that questions our intention and the way we choose to live our lives. 

Sonny Rollins's A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters (2024) is a new three-LP edition from Blue Note and their Tone Poet Series. Cut from Rudy Van Gelder's original master tapes with the Kevin Gray seal of approval and pressed on 180-gram vinyl. This vinyl of the complete masters includes the entire recording (including repeated tracks), with even a few words from Sonny during the show. The original album cover appears in this edition, as well as photos from the concert, essays by Nate Chinen and Bob Blumenthal, and interviews with Don Was and Sonny. And finally, an excerpt from Aidan Levy's biography “Saxophone Colossus”.

Rollins had been a Blue Note alum; he had previously recorded Sonny Rollins Vol. 1 (December 1956, Blue Note 81542), Sonny Rollins Vol. 2 (April 1957, Blue Note 81558), and Newk’s Time (September 1957, Blue Note 90833), three albums that need to be in everyone’s collection.

About the previous recordings: The original Blue Note 1581 recording A Night At The Village Vanguard came out in 1958, but soon after, more tracks (from the matinee session of November 3rd, 1957) were to see the light. Those tracks were presented on More from the Vanguard. By 1987, the entire concert was given in order of recording (though not repeated takes) on CD. We also have the Japan releases of the series Toshiba EMI A Night At The Vanguard on LPs. There are reproductions of the front covers of these Toshiba LPs in this triple-sleeve edition of Blue Note Complete Masters. Finally, there’s also a Classic Records 200gm LP from 2007.

Sonny’s first live recording at New York’s Village Vanguard (by then twenty-seven years young) was an eye-opener for other musicians. In the following years, Kenny Burrell, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane recorded their own live Vanguard albums. Today, there are over a hundred live recordings from the Vanguard. 

This album is a carefully worded conversation. A proclamation of a man, his art, and raison d’être. The last years of the 1950s decade were significant in many ways for Rollins. In the year of the recording, “Sonny had just gotten married (1957), and then separated from (Dawn Finney) and proposed to another (Shirley Carter) before he and Lucille Rollins moved in together in 1959, just ahead of Sonny’s first reclusive period” (Beuttler B., in “Documenting Sonny” article, 2023). 

He was to find himself experimenting with his craft; already in Way Out West (March 1957), he recorded with a bass and drums only. Nate Chinen, who wrote for the liner notes of this edition, comments on Sonny’s lineup: “[He was] working in the spartan format of tenor, bass and drums, with no chordal instrument to trace harmonic contours of provide helpful cover.”

Rollins used two bands for the three shows, the youthful nineteen-year-old drummer Pete La Roca (on the recommendation of Max Roach) and bassist Donald Bailey (who Sonny knew from his time in Baltimore; the bassist already had experience; he played with Miles, Roach and Parker). They performed in the afternoon matinee set. Rollins's other band was the well-known Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones (evening sets). Sonny’s change of heart about his band is still an unanswered question (first hiring La Roca and Bailey, then calling up his friends Ware and Jones)—what we do know is that Sonny sounds very different with each band. I’ll leave it to you to appreciate both styles and performance. Ware was at that time with Monk’s Quartet (Coltrane and Shadow Wilson), and with Jones, Sonny loved his playing, saying, “His beat was so liberating, so free, so universal” (Saxophone Colossus, Levy, 2022).

As for sound, I have only listened to the original 1581 recording and the 1987 CD, but I can say that both are sonically miles away from this new recording, and this can be heard immediately on Elvin’s drums, the open ambiance of the Vanguard and the extension of the bass, in tracks like “SonnyMoon For Two.” Dynamics in tracks like “Old Devil Moon” are flawless. There’s a smooth characteristic in this vinyl, one that’s a little unsettling because you are not supposed to have this good of sound and range of soundstage with three instruments in an open setting! A defined bass helps a lot, especially in live recordings, a muffled or depleted bass can make or break a jazz recording. Cymbals can sound nostalgic, too bright or muted, but here, they’re just right. Of course, the star of the show is the legend that is Sonny Rollins. There are moments where the dark and then optimistic “Sonny Sounds” compete with one another. 

As I listen in my audio system to this Tone Poet recording, I think it’s now my favourite from my collection. A balanced recording, the Tone Poet edition delivers in every sense. The often acute treble that you hear in live recordings is completely managed here; there’s no need to heighten the drums or bass, and the continuity of the sonic experience leaves you thinking of Rudy van Gelder and his sound, just flawless mastery. 

The late Max Gordon, owner of The Village Vanguard, in his book “Live at the Village Vanguard” (1980), says, “Sonny’s the greatest of them all two ways about it.” Few would argue. Sonny Rollins and his unique sound are a gift, his phrasing of hope and tremendous improvisational skill are picture-perfect (again, the Cartier-Bresson association).

So many photographs depict a time and space that seems almost a dream, an entire nascent culture of sound reserved for us. Blue Note and the new recording of the Tone Poet Series A Night At The Village Vanguard: The Complete Masters achieves something special: an intimate and imagined sense of being there with Sonny. In the relationship of listener and recording, there’s no better version of this album.

Ships on: December 5, 2024

Tracklist:

A1: Introduction
A2: Old Devil Moon
A3: Softly As In A Morning Sunrise
A4: Striver’s Row

B1: Sonnymoon For Two
B2: A Night In Tunisia
B3: I Can’t Get Started

C1: A Night In Tunisia (Evening Take)
C2: I’ve Got You Under My Skin

D1: Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (Alternate Take)
D2: What Is This Thing Called Love

E1: All The Things You Are
E2: Introduction
E3: Woody ‘N You
E4: Four

F1: I’ll Remember April
F2: Get Happy
F3: Get Happy (Short Version)