This surprised me because I at first assumed that because it was a Sonny Rollins album featuring a big band on one side and a small combo on the other, and Leonard Feather was the producer, it was "Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass," made in 1958 for the Metrojazz label (an imprint Feather created in partnership with MGM) and reissued on Verve as "Sonny Rollins Brass/Sonny Rollins Trio" once MGM bought Verve from its founder, Norman Granz, in 1961. It turned out to be a different album altogether, made for Period (a label usually associated with classical music, mostly recorded in Russia or elsewhere in Europe), and though the title is "Sonny Rollins Plays" Rollins isn't on the Thad Jones big-band side at all. And though the Rollins side was recorded the day after his Village Vanguard live recording (for which he brought in bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca, only to fire them midway through the date and replace them with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones, two years before John Coltrane also fired LaRoca and replaced him with Jones), none of the musicians on either version of Rollins' band at the Vanguard appeared here. Instead Rollins' sidemen were Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Gil Coggins on piano, Wendell Marshall (a veteran of Duke Ellington's band) on bass and Kenny Dennis on drums.
This surprised me because I at first assumed that because it was a Sonny Rollins album featuring a big band on one side and a small combo on the other, and Leonard Feather was the producer, it was "Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass," made in 1958 for the Metrojazz label (an imprint Feather created in partnership with MGM) and reissued on Verve as "Sonny Rollins Brass/Sonny Rollins Trio" once MGM bought Verve from its founder, Norman Granz, in 1961. It turned out to be a different album altogether, made for Period (a label usually associated with classical music, mostly recorded in Russia or elsewhere in Europe), and though the title is "Sonny Rollins Plays" Rollins isn't on the Thad Jones big-band side at all. And though the Rollins side was recorded the day after his Village Vanguard live recording (for which he brought in bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca, only to fire them midway through the date and replace them with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones, two years before John Coltrane also fired LaRoca and replaced him with Jones), none of the musicians on either version of Rollins' band at the Vanguard appeared here. Instead Rollins' sidemen were Jimmy Cleveland on trombone, Gil Coggins on piano, Wendell Marshall (a veteran of Duke Ellington's band) on bass and Kenny Dennis on drums.
just had a listen very nice
Good to hear that! Thank you.