Well, now you’re talking. All criticism of reissue illustration (e.g. the “images”, in this case by Francis Wolff) or presentation (misnaming a famous track as ‘Blues Seven’) vanishes to nothingness when you have four albums of such quality. The 15-month period in which they were recorded represents a high point of Rollins’s early career and, while the title album saw him still recording for Prestige, his subsequent freelancing found the remainder appearing on three other labels (Way Out West, Contemporary), The Sound Of Sonny (Riverside) and Newk’s Time (Blue Note). In 1957, as well as sideman dates, he also completed four other albums under his own name including the famous Village Vanguard session, but nothing that puts the present work in the shade. By the time of Saxophone Colossus, he’d spent several months with the band of Max Roach (who appears as his sideman here) working alongside Clifford Brown (whose tragic death occurred a mere four days later), and his powers of invention, on for instance ‘Moritat’ and ‘St. Thomas’, were paraded with consummate skill and total relaxation. The same applies to Newk’s Time, including the unprecedented unaccompanied tenor-and-drums duo with Philly Joe on ‘Surrey With The Fringe On Top’. The Sound Of is perhaps less celebrated, but its emphasis on shorter tracks (a deliberate dig at Prestige) saw stimulating support from Haynes, not least on the current song ‘Just In Time’ (which Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau saw fit to imitate in 1994). Finally, the famous Western trio trip with the rhythm-section of Brown and Manne (soon to be dubbed the ‘Poll Winners’) sees Sonny untrammelled by either track-timing or a chordal instrument, and taking every advantage. None of the few alternate takes released later (or studio chat from the Way Out West session) are here, but that’s a small price to pay. For every reader who thinks they know the contents backwards, there are details to surprise you again and, for those less than totally familiar with Rollins 1956-57, remarkable revelation awaits you.