Saxophone Colossus

Saxophone Colossus is one of Sonny Rollins' most acclaimed albums. Recorded and released in 1956, it is indisputably the masterpiece of a series that he recorded with Max Roach in the mid to late 1950s.

Related Topics:
Sonny Rollins - Albums - 1956 - Max Roach

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Of the five tracks on the album, three are by Rollins, and two are standards. "St. Thomas" is a calypso-based piece named after Saint Thomas in the Virgin Islands; the piece became oe of Rollins' best-known compositions, and this was its first recording.

Related Topics:
St. Thomas - Saint Thomas - Virgin Islands

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"You Don't know What Love Is" is a ballad standard by Don Raye and Gene DePaul, covered by everyone from Chet Baker to Cassandra Wilson, and given a distinctively bleak treatment by Rollins. "Strode Rode" is named after the Strode Lounge, a jazz club in 1950s Chicago.

Related Topics:
Don Raye - Gene DePaul - Chet Baker - Cassandra Wilson - Chicago

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"Moritat" is a song from Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's The Threepenny Opera, better known in English as "Mack the Knife", and gets closer to its original feeling than some of the bouncier, jazzier covers by other musicians. Finally, "Blue Seven" is a minor blues.

Related Topics:
Bertolt Brecht - Kurt Weill - The Threepenny Opera - Mack the Knife

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