SONNY ROLLINS — Easy Living (review)

SONNY ROLLINS — Easy Living album cover Album · 1977 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
FunkFreak75
After years of resisting the trend of jazz musicians flocking to the more commercially successful ranks of Jazz-Rock Fusion experimentalists, veteran Sonny Rollins finally jumps on the wagon.

A1. "Isn't She Lovely" (6:39) nice Smooth Jazz cover of Stevie Wonder's classic hit (8.875/10)

A2. "Down The Line" (7:59) not bad Fourth Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion (13..375/15)

A3. "My One And Only Love" (5:05) a little too slow and dragging for my tastes. Nice soprano sax play with solid professional support. (8.75/10)

B1. "Arroz Con Pollo" (5:37) nice support music for Sonny's okay soprano sax play up top. Nice to hear the band get to stretch out (especially Tony). (8.875/10)

B2. "Easy Living" (6:09) nice spacious, late night blues song but again such wasted talent! (8.875/10)

B3. "Hear What I'm Saying" (9:40) weird sound engineering (weird sax sound mixed far too forward with everybody else way back in the mix). (It gets better as the song goes along.) Nice to hear Paul Jackson stretched out and some Charles Johnson and George Duke solos. Tony is awesome, too. (17.75/20)

Total Time: 41:18

With this talented of a posse, Sonny needed to do more upbeat, uptempo stuff to challenge them, keep them interested, show off the talent accompanying him.

B/four stars; a nice foray into the world of Jazz-Rock Fusion (much better than the previous year's effort) but still a lot of wasted talent and rather simplistic sax soloing.

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