The story behind puzzle No. 12
Sonny Rollins · Saxophone Colossus · Prestige · 1956
It starts with a drum pattern and a melody you could sing on a beach. St. Thomas opened Saxophone Colossus, and it became Sonny Rollins's best-known tune.
Rollins recorded St. Thomas on June 22, 1956, for Prestige. Saxophone Colossus came out the next spring. At the time, Rollins was also a member of the Clifford Brown and Max Roach Quintet, and Roach plays drums on the album.
The melody traces back to a Bahamian folk song called Sponger Money, which became a nursery song in the Virgin Islands. Rollins's mother sang it to him when he was a child. Pianist Randy Weston actually recorded the tune first, in 1955, under the title Fire Down There, but Rollins's version is the one that stuck.
Listen to how Rollins plays with the melody itself, bending and restating it instead of drifting away from it. Max Roach's drum solo keeps the dance rhythm going even while he improvises.
Who's on it
Keep listening
Play Moritat from the same album next. It is the tune most people know as Mack the Knife.
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