Search - Sonny Rollins :: Night at the Village Vanguard 2

The second volume of these 1957 recordings continues the evening performance begun on A Night at the Village Vanguard, Volume 1 with Wilbur Ware and Elvin Jones. It's a uniquely gifted threesome, with each musician seeming to invent new ways to swing and without a note or a musical opportunity wasted. Both Rollins and Ware reveal their relationship to Thelonious Monk in the ability to create complex, arresting music out of shifts in rhythmic inflections. It's especially apparent in the second version of "Softly As in a Morning Sunrise." In this context, Jones has an opportunity to show just how melodic a drummer he could be. The two versions of "Get Happy" demonstrate Rollins's ability to make complex and witty music out of the most banal materials, while "What Is This Thing Called Love" is a tour de force of sustained group invention. --Stuart Broomer