Sonny Rollins
Tenor Sax Solo on
St. Thomas

About

Opening the solo section, this tenor sax improvisation spans five choruses of the 16-bar form at a brisk latin feel at 210 BPM. Rollins's initial five-chorus tenor saxophone solo is a landmark of thematic improvisation, each phrase logically developing from the one before it in a display of motivic development that jazz scholars have studied extensively. This is the longest solo on the recording in terms of chorus count, suggesting a featured role in the arrangement. Following this solo, Max Roach takes over on drums.

Sonny Rollins was 25 to 26 years old at the time.