Rollins’ Seven-Year Stretch

Sonny Rollins has long dis-favored having his past recorded efforts reissued. Both the tenor saxophonist and his wife and manager, Lucille, feel that the older albums compete with new releases for consumer dollars. Also, Rollins never has been completely satisfied with past albums--or any album, for that matter. So how did Orrin Keepnews, for many years Rollins’ producer at both Riverside and Milestone Records, approach his former artist when producing the extensive “Sonny Rollins: The Complete Prestige Recordings,” a just-released, seven-CD set covering the years 1949 to 1956?

“I just called him and told him I was doing it,” said Keepnews, who has also produced several Rollins reissues for RCA Records. “It was more a personal function, than business. I wanted to make sure he didn’t get mad at me if he suddenly saw the package on the market. I want to keep my friendship with him in shape.”

Surprisingly, Rollins even cooperated on the project, which documents many of his finest early performances. He allowed himself to be interviewed by the set’s booklet annotator Bob Blumenthal, and then later checked the writer’s work for accuracy.

Keepnews correctly describes Rollins’ Prestige period, when he recorded with such giants as Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane, as a seven-year stretch where “he went from just being a tenor saxophonist to being Sonny Rollins, who is probably the greatest improvising jazz artists there’s ever been.”

The set, which comprises both material currently available on CD, as well as selections that are heard on CD for the first time, begins with a 1949 date with trombonist J. J. Johnson, when Rollins was just 19, and concludes with three superlative 1956 sessions, including the masterpieces “Saxophone Colossus” and “Tour de Force.”

The latter, a quartet date featuring Max Roach, includes two incredibly fast performances of Rollins originals based on the chord changes of the tunes “Lover” and “Cherokee.” These tracks--to most ears, two of the most complex and inventive jazz improvisations ever recorded--have been dismissed by the self-deprecating hornman as “immature.”

The collection includes a snippet of previously unreleased material: a two-minute cadenza that Rollins tagged on at the end of “Sonny Boy,” and which has remained in the Prestige vaults until this package. “This was the first recorded example of Sonny’s extended ending approach which he does so frequently now,” said Keepnews.

Diz Is Back and the Bowl’s Got Him: Trumpet innovator Dizzy Gillespie will make his first public, though non-performing, appearance since undergoing major surgery in May when he takes the stage Wednesday at the Hollywood Bowl. The program--a birthday tribute to Gillespie, who will be 75 on Oct. 21--spotlights such artists as Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry and Harry (Sweets) Edison.

Reached at his home in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., the renowned Gillespie said in his usual musical rasp, “It’ll be nice to see all my friends in Los Angeles.” Asked if he’s feeling good, he answered: “Yeeaahh!”

“Dizzy’s improving, though he doesn’t have a lot of strength,” said the trumpeter’s longtime associate and publicist Virginia Wicks. “But he might come out here and surprise us all, and sing a song or play his rhythmstick.” On doctor’s orders, Gillespie only plays his trumpet for brief moments at home, Wicks said.

Critic’s Choice: Guitarist John Scofield, who starts a six-night stand at Catalina Bar & Grill on Tuesday is, as they say in tennis, playing in the zone: He’s putting all his notes in all the right places. Scofield’s latest performances show him to be a musical Flying Wallenda, walking an aural tightrope between the proven and the untried, the expected and the daring. So far, he’s pulled off this risk-taking adventure, which makes this lengthy local stint all the more promising.