Review, Sonny Rollins, Way Out West, Deluxe Boxed Set, As Good as It Gets
I went to my mailbox the other day and there was a record box. This was strange because I hadn’t remembered ordering any records. But there it was and I opened it. Surprise! A brand new boxed set of Sonny Rollins Way Out West. A promo copy. Understand, I’ve gotten about three promo copies in the 15-plus years I’ve been doing Jazz Collector. I don’t typically do reviews, so nobody puts me on the list. I did make the list on this one and, man, am I pleased. This is a really fantastic set, just what a reissue should be all about. Two LPs, including material that was never released at all and some material that was only issued on CD. New liner notes, including quotes from a 2017 interview with Sonny conducted specifically for the release of this set. Great Bill Claxton photographs and high-end packaging all the way around. Congratulations to Craft Recordings for doing justice to a great album on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of its original release. A couple of bonuses on the album are
snippets of conversations between Sonny and the musicians and Sonny and producer Lester Koenig. Hey, just hearing Sonny singing a few lines of I’m “An Old Cowhand” – yippee yi yo kayah – is worth the price of admission. Not to mention his query about why there might be a problem with using the title “After You’ve Come,” instead of the accepted title of “Come, Gone.” But the real highlight is, of course, the music. First of all the sound on these LPs is excellent. The additional tracks comprise single new takes of “I’m An Old Cowhand,” “Come, Gone,” and “There is No Greater Love.” There are also two takes of “Way Out West.” The “No Greater Love” and first take of “Way Out West” are issued here for the first time.
Listening to the unreleased takes and the ones previously issued on CD, which I never heard before, you realize just how inventive Rollins was in this period. His approach to “Cowhand” is quite different than the originally issued version and you just don’t find him repeating himself anywhere. It certainly helps that he was working with Ray Brown and Shelley Manne. The fact that they had never played together before and began this session at 3 a.m. just tells you the kinds of special gifts that these three musicians had, all of them at the peak of their powers. I just took a look over at Amazon and the retail price of the boxed set is $72.19. Well worth it, IMHO.
We’ll give Sonny the final word on this, from the new liner notes by Neil Tesser. Tesser asked Sonny to talk about his quality of play on the record. Sonny’s reply:
“You know, I’m not a good guy for praising or appreciating my own work. That’s the reason I like to practice – to get better, to get to the next album. Yeah, it was OK. I had some great people. It was a unique concept; I’m glad I did it. And then William Claxton, that iconic photo. I’m glad it happened, but other than that, I’m not good at rating it.”
That set looks great! Though I believe the unreleased takes of “I’m An Old Cowhand”, “Come, Gone” & “Way Out West” were available on the highly recommended “Contemporary Alternate Takes” LP:
https://www.discogs.com/Sonny-Rollins-Contemporary-Alternate-Takes/release/3844974
The “CD” tracks were also issued on vinyl in 1986 as Alternate Takes C-7651 ( with three tracks from Contemporary Leaders). Mastered by George Horn, it also features an alternate Claxton desert photo on the back cover. Now the question is… since I have an early mono copy, a remarkable AP 45 stereo copy and the Alternate Takes Lp do I need this box for the two additional tracks? Silly question. Of course I do. Thank goodness for Amazon Prime.
Where did my comment from yesterday go?
Looks very tasty! Will have to get me one of those boxes.
I was thinking the same thing Bill, although I don’t have the alternate takes. Hmmmmm.
I have NM copies of the 1st mono and Stereo pressings of this great record. Do I need this? Hell yeah!!! Just ordered it!
Aaron, it’s probably still there. The site is having caching issues lately.
And what a nice surprise, Al!
gregorythefish, yep it’s here today but wasn’t yesterday.
looks great , is this a all analog production ? As good as a Music Matters record I hope …
thanks for any help , Craig
There have been a large number of comments, mostly negative, on this pressing on message boards (such as Steve Hoffman’s). Some of the comments are related to the album, itself – for many commenters Way Out West is not their favorite Rollins lp. Others complain that the pressing isn’t a all analog. The last group thinks the price should be much, much lower. Fremer at Analogplanet.com has some interesting background on the pressing. I’m really interested to read the thoughts of anyone who has both an early pressing and this one. I’m also curious if anyone can compare this to either of the earlier AP pressings. As I recall the AP pressings were bright.
Man, back in the day (late seventies to early eighties) I got promos of everything. Then the bean counters got involved. And promos got hard to come by. This looks like a wonderful set, they were smart to send a copy.
I received this reissue, and have original mono and stereo as well as the 45 RPM AP pressing. The AP 45 pressing does not sound bright. This reissue sounds bright. Compared to any of the above, it really sounds bright and thin. A shame, because Craft has does some high quality reissues–this is the first dud. By the way, the “booklet” included is a single fold-over page with printing on four sides. A little skimpy.
That brings back a lot of memories. I had the great blessing to work with Sonny’s quartet in Dec. 1964 as a trumpet player at Shelly’s Mannehole.
He graciously asked me, as a first tune, what I wanted to play, I said There Is No Greater. I think of it over the years as a wild and woolly Dixieland that went on for 15 minutes.
I finished the gig with the quartet and joined him 6 months with a quintet at the Vanguard.
Sonny has remained close friends to my wife and I over the years. We have long conversations about deep subjects over the phone. Joy and I both cherish our relationship to this dear friend and Great Artist.