Tenor sax giant Sonny Rollins took a six-year break from recording after fulfilling his contract with Impulse! but continued to tour periodically. In the spring of 1967, Rollins played gigs with Stan Tracey's trio in England and Holland. The promoter enlisted a local rhythm section -- bassist Ruud Jacobs and drummer Han Bennink -- to accompany him. The trio played a concert, a televised club date, and recorded in the studio. The concert has seen several bootleg releases of varying quality, but the television and studio tapes were long thought lost to time. Enter the Netherlands Jazz Archives. They discovered them in an unmarked box, then contacted the devoted crew at Resonance. Three years in the making, this multi-disc set contains two-plus hours of music, which was cut over three days in May 1967. The young Bennink and Jacobs were more than qualified: They had already supported touring American jazzmen including Wes Montgomery, Ben Webster, Johnny Griffin, and Clark Terry.
The four recordings at Vara Studio in Hilversum begin idiosyncratically with the ballad "The Blue Room." Rollins offers the melodic statement unaccompanied, then plays dreamily atop a strolling bassline and brushed drums. "Four" picks up the pace with a loose, joyous bop feel. "Love Walked In" reveals Bennink's syncopated fills swinging as hard as his timekeeping, while Rollins is at his lyrical and optimistic best. "Tune Up" is a wonderful bop sprint with a killer bass solo from Jacobs. These performances are followed by two from the Go-Go Club, televised for a weekly jazz program hosted by Jacobs' brother and sister-in-law. "SonnyMoon for Two" and "Love Walked In" are fingerpopping, fire-breathing takes. On the latter, Rollins stretches out so much that he adds three minutes to its normal runtime. The Hague concert contains five lengthy performances; three are near or over the 20-minute mark. The interplay across the show is fiery -- check the pace and wild improvisation on the Latin-ized "Three Little Words." The rhythm section seems audibly astonished to discover that Rollins was capable of carrying them. That realization consequently opens the gateway to an uncommon freedom and connection in a pickup trio. On the medley of "They Can't Take That Away from Me" and "SonnyMoon for Two," the band drives bop blues to the breaking point as Rollins expands the harmonic frame on each chorus. He opens "On Green Dolphin Street" unaccompanied before Bennink's rim shots and Jacobs' intricate, propulsive lines join in double-time. While Rollins always swings, his solo on "Love Walked In" does so with a forceful, punchy dissonance. The band's interaction on "Four" is knotty, intricate, and nearly symbiotic even before their kinetic solos. Throughout the gig, Rollins offers clever quotes from his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz, Caribbean, and pop tunes to the crowd's delight. Rollins in Holland is handsomely packaged with rare photos and some lengthy historical essays. The importance of this release cannot be overstated; Rollins' playing here is at a peak of unfettered creativity, communicative openness, and technical acumen.