In jazz history, Sonny Rollins ranks among tenor-saxophone giants with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster and John Coltrane. In his dazzling 60-year career at the top, Rollins has balanced melodic development with unpredictable phrases, infusing his innovative ideas with his memorable wit.

Who else could take the show tune "How Are Things In Glocca Morra?" and turn it into a fertile device for a heated solo? On Vol. 1, Rollins plays that song and several of his originals in a quintet with Donald Byrd and Max Roach. While Rollins has composed quite a few jazz standards, his four songs on Vol. 1 (particularly "Decision" and "Sonnysphere") are long overdue to be revived. But who else could play those songs with the passion, intensity and humor of the immortal and always-original Sonny Rollins.

This pressing is on SRX Vinyl. SRX stands for “Silent Running Xperience.” SRX is our own proprietary formula, conceived and developed by Rick Hashimoto of Record Technology and manufactured by TPC Plastics. Its noise floor is fathoms lower than any other vinyl we know of out there past or present. Records pressed with it look like normal black discs until you hold them up to the light and see that they are translucent and smoky, silvery gray in color. The near-perfect silence of SRX Vinyl virtually frees the music from groove noise and draws you further into the listening space, setting it in relief so distinct, full and spacious it’s nearly sculptural. You hear more of what’s on the original tapes, not only of the notes played on the instruments but the experience of the event itself. That's why we call it Silent Running Xperience.

Like all Music Matters Jazz releases, this is cut from the original analog tapes, mastered by Ron Rambach and Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio, and pressed at Record Technologies Inc (RTI). The gorgeous gatefold jacket is from Stoughton Printing in City of Industry, California and includes exclusively licensed photos from the original session inside.

See more Sonny Rollins records here.