A Newbury Comics exclusive color vinyl pressing.
Sonny Rollins’ Saxophone Colossus, consistently included on lists of the greatest jazz albums, showcases virtually every brilliant aspect of his complex musical personality.
Rollins fronted a foursome including Tommy Flanagan, the consummate accompanist and an always-engaging piano soloist, Doug Watkins, one the supreme time-players of his day, and drummer Max Roach, whose radar-eared work was nothing short of miraculous. Though by the mid-1950s he was considered the up-and-coming young tenor man, Rollins (b. 1930) hit his stride as never before, forging such epochal performances as his signature calypso “St. Thomas” (in its debut recording), the sardonically witty “Moritat” (aka “Mack the Knife”), and especially the original minor-key blues opus “Blue 7,” wherein Rollins’s “thematic improvisation” came to the fore.
