The title track of Sonny Rollins's 1962 comeback album is a rhythm changes contrafact based on George Gershwin's "I Got Rhythm," composed by Rollins himself and taken at a scorching tempo exceeding 320 beats per minute. The 32-bar AABA form provides a familiar framework for extended blowing, and Rollins exploits it fully with six commanding choruses of tenor saxophone improvisation. His playing here has the muscular authority and thematic coherence that characterized his best work, with long developmental passages built from simple motifs that are transformed through rhythmic displacement and intervallic manipulation. Jim Hall matches the intensity with three choruses of fleet, harmonically inventive guitar, while Bob Cranshaw and Ben Riley each take two choruses, the bassist walking with unfailing swing and the drummer maintaining the form with crisp precision even at this extreme tempo. The title refers to the Williamsburg Bridge, where Rollins famously practiced during his voluntary retirement from performing between 1959 and 1961, and the composition's confident energy seems to celebrate his triumphant return to public music-making. This track remains one of the most exhilarating rhythm changes performances in the jazz canon.
