"Kiss and Run" from the 1956 album Sonny Rollins Plus 4 is a brisk swing performance of Sam Coslow's composition, featuring three substantial solos from the cream of hard bop. The tune's ABA form spans 48 bars and is performed in B-flat major at a driving 266 BPM. Sonny Rollins launches the solo section with two choruses of characteristically inventive tenor saxophone, employing the thematic improvisation technique that would become his trademark. Clifford Brown follows with two trumpet choruses at an even faster clip of 272 BPM, his articulation clean and his ideas flowing with the effortless brilliance that made him one of jazz's greatest trumpeters. Pianist Richie Powell rounds out the solos with two choruses of his own, providing a more understated but harmonically astute contrast. This album documents one of the most formidable ensembles in jazz history: the Clifford Brown-Max Roach Quintet augmented by Rollins as a featured soloist. The session, held at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, captures the competitive but collegial spirit that defined this group. The up-tempo treatment of this obscure pop standard transforms it into a hard bop showpiece, with each soloist striving to match the intensity established by the previous player.
