Sonny Rollins - Way Out West

Sonny Rollins's 1957 Way Out West is one of the most influential jazz albums of all time. It comes from a prolific period for Rollins, and features Ray Brown on bass and the west coast drummer Shelly Manne. The cover shot and some of the titles ("I'm an Old Cowhand", "Wagon Wheels") suggest a send-up, but Rollins has always loved conjuring rich narratives from camp material, and after the intro to "Cowhand", he's off on one of his odysseys of seamless runs and biting accents over Brown's driving pulse.

He's luxuriously wayward on Duke Ellington's "Solitude" and swaggeringly productive on the up-tempo "Come, Gone" – the album's standout episode, represented here in two takes.

Heavyweight vinyl produced by Original Jazz Classics for Contemporary Records in 2009. Remastered at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley. Faithfully replicated artwork including Lester Koenig's absorbing original sleeve notes.

TRACKLISTING:

I'm An Old Cowhand
Solitude
Come
Gone
Wagon Wheels
There Is No Greater Love
Way Out West