Sonny Rollins
Tenor Sax Solo on
The Bridge

About

Sonny Rollins's tenor sax solo is the first of four solos on this recording. Spanning six choruses of the 32-bar AABA form in B♭ at a blazing 323 BPM with a swing feel, 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. "The Bridge" is a contrafact built on the chord changes of "I Got Rhythm," requiring the soloist to navigate a familiar harmonic framework with a different melodic identity.

Sonny Rollins was 31 to 32 years old at the time.