Way Out West

Way Out WestWay Out WestSonny Rollins · 1957 (1957) was Rollins's deliberate choice to go pianoles. Recorded in Los Angeles with West Coast heavyweights Ray Clifford BrownClifford Brownクリフォード・ブラウン and Shelly Manne. Without a chordal instrument, every line Rollins played was completely exposed.

Ray Brown died in 2002, yet his name still appears in the credits of the 2021 album Deciphering the Message — a record built not from new sessions but from re-edited vintage Blue Note tape, so a half-century-old bass take turns up on a release dated almost two decades after the player's death.

The Way Out West session (1957) began at 3 a.m., because that was the only hour all three players were free — Rollins had night gigs and Shelly Manne had daytime studio work. A scheduling accident that ran until dawn is what survives as the standard pianoless-trio date.