Much reissued and with much justification, this material now looks like ‘early Rollins’ but, as he'd been recording since 1949 when he was 18, you can believe that he definitely had it all together by this stage. The albums, reproduced in chronological order, are the 1956-57 Tenor Madness, Way Out West, Newk's Time and the slightly later The Bridge. Only the secondnamed has no chordal instrument (Ray Brown doing the necessary) and otherwise it's all quartets with the sole exception of Madness’s titletrack, where the equally ‘early’ Coltrane tagged along for extended solos and exchanges with Rollins. The chordenabled Garland, Kelly, Hall and each of the drummers simultaneously stimulate and stay out of the way of the saxophone colossus (the album of that name being on AvidJazz's previous set), though special mention should be made of the Sonny/Philly Joe duet version of ‘Surrey With The Fringe On Top’. Throughout, the saxophonist displays not only amazing freedom of melodic variation but an extreme rhythmic fluidity, such that less competent backing musicians would doubt their own accuracy. Whether you're new to this material, or think you know it backwards, you're in for a vertiginous ride.