Sonny Rollins Quartet w/ McCoy Tyner, The Half Note, NYC February 11, 1966

In the 1960s Alan Grant, a DJ on WABC-FM in New York City, hosted the show “Portraits In Jazz“ that broadcasted live from the Half Note Club. Most well-known from this program are the John Coltrane Quartet radio broadcasts from Spring 1965, which captured the classic quartet at perhaps its most ferocious, not long before the group disbanded (and which was many decades later formally released as the double-CD One Up, One Down). Less well known are a couple of Sonny Rollins broadcasts from this period, including this one. Sonny was in a strange place in 1966, and the music you can hear on this recording reflects his restlessness. This 37-minute recording consists of one continuous flow of music, in which Sonny changed the tune seemingly every few minutes and at whim without warning to the rhythm section. This is probably about as “out“ and chaotic as I have heard Sonny. I included some track markers below, but Sonny goes in and out of tunes (and then back in again) with such frequency and i