Tour de Force

Tour de Force Artist: Sonny Rollins
Label: Ojc
Category: Music



Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1


UPC: 025218609524
EAN: 0025218609524
ASIN: B000000Y5O


Release Date: 1991-07-01

Related Categories:

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Listmania:

  1. My favorite SONNY ROLLINS, in order

Tracks:

  1. Ee-Ah
  2. B. Quick
  3. Two Different Worlds
  4. B. Swift
  5. My Ideal
  6. Sonny Boy (Bonus Track)

Similar Items:

  1. Rollins Plays for Bird
  2. Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders
  3. Work Time
  4. Moving Out
  5. Sonny Rollins, Vol. 1

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Rollins' farewell to Prestige.......2002-07-20

Sonny Rollins recorded a lot for Prestige in the 1950s, the central body of work being the six albums recorded from December 1955 (_Worktime_) to December 1956 (_Tour de Force_/_Sonny Boy_). By consensus the greatest achievements among these albums are the remarkable _Saxophone Colossus_ & _Tenor Madness_. _Tour de Force_, the last of the albums, is a less compelling listen, perhaps, but is of equal importance. Rollins' impatience & restlessness are audible: this is in the strict sense an "experimental" record, trying out different things in the studio in a way that is fascinating though rather uncomfortable to listen to.

Like the preceding date, _Rollins Plays for Bird_, this album is preoccupied with Charlie Parker's legacy, mere months after Parker's death. This gives the album a strange edginess. On the one hand there's "B. Swift" & "B. Quick", themeless improvisations on "Lover" & "Cherokee" on which Rollins & Roach decided to play as fast as possible. The results are interesting though not exactly swinging--arguably such tempos make more sense in free jazz than they can here (& indeed Rollins's lines can disconcertingly resemble Evan Parker on these tracks). These sit oddly with two ballads sung by Earl Coleman, a Billy Eckstineish singer now almost exclusively remembered for cutting "Dark Shadows" & "This Is Always" with Parker. Prestige later repackaged this album with the outtake "Sonny Boy" & another track from _Plays for Bird_, "The House I Live In", dropping the vocal tracks, under the title _Sonny Boy_, & perhaps they were right: the juxtaposition is mostly rather odd instead of effective. "Ee-Ah" is an unusual rhythmically off-kilter blues.

In many ways a very impressive album, I nonetheless find _Tour de Force_ hard to warm to. Certainly worth a listen, but I would more strongly recommend _Worktime_, _Saxophone Colossus_ & _Tenor Madness_.

4 out of 5 stars Forceful Playing on "Tour De Force".......2000-08-25

"Tour De Force" finds Sonny Rollins playing some of his fastest and most forceful tenor saxophone. It is no surprise that Sonny is joined once again on the kit by Max Roach (with Kenny Drew and George Morrow also in the band), because few drummers could keep this pace going on the album's smokers, the aptly named "B. Swift," "B. Quick," and "Ee-ah," and the only slightly slower (normal hard bop speed) "Sonny Boy." "Tour" also features two tracks with vocals by Earl Coleman, the tender ballads "My Ideal" and "Two Different Worlds." While it's not "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" (even though this pre-dates 'Trane's session by five years), it's pretty good. However, the disparity between the "speed bop" and the ballads is so great, it causes "Tour De Force" to feel schizophrenic. There is great material here, but I only give it four stars because the album doesn't flow together very well.

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