It’s hard to think of a jazz album more celebrated than Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus. Recorded in 1956, it’s one of the landmark albums of modern jazz, and the title track is Rollins’ best-known composition. It’s a perfect example of his hard-driving style, with its fierce emphasis on the beat and its sheer energy. And yet it’s also a showcase for Rollins’ technical facility and melodic invention.
On the other five tracks, Rollins and his rhythm section (pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Doug Watkins and drummer Max Roach) explore a range of styles, from the bluesy St. Thomas to the hard bop of Blue Seven, with stops along the way for a ballad (You Don’t Know What Love Is) and an Afro-Cuban number (Mangoes).
Rollins’ playing is consistently brilliant, full of the kind of lightning-fast changes of direction that only a master improviser can pull off, and his solos are consistently inventive. Saxophone Colossus is essential listening for any jazz fan, and a must-have album for any Sonny Rollins fan.