On the 60th anniversary of the first stereo issue of Way Out West on Lester Koenig's Contemporary label in 1957, Craft Recordings has done Sonny Rollins proud with a meticulously compiled package that pays appropriate tribute to the importance of this landmark recording. This deluxe edition comes housed in an impressive, hinged black box that holds a facsimile of the original Contemporary album, a second LP of bonus material, liner notes by Neil Tesser, plus rare photos by William Claxton. The colour saturation of the original iconic album cover is authentic; the only difference is the Stereo Records logo discreetly replaces that of Contemporary Records. The second album, Sonny Rollins Way Out West: Alternate Takes has a cover photo taken at the same photo shoot that produced the original cover image and includes three alternative takes that appeared on the CD reissue in 1988, plus alternative takes of ‘There Is No Greater Love’ and the title-track, both of which have never appeared on disc before. Each 12-inch disc is a 180gm audiophile pressing with the record label retaining the characteristics of the original Contemporary release, but again with the Stereo badge discreetly replacing the Contemporary Records one.

The trio format – saxophone plus bass and drums – might be said to be a sort of reoccurring leitmotif that appeared at regular intervals throughout Sonny Rollins' career. It was a combination that had briefly surfaced with Duke Ellington's Orchestra in the 1940s, on pieces such as ‘Conga Brava’ and ‘Cottontail’, when Ellington briefly dropped out during tenor saxophonist Ben Webster's solos, leaving him with just bass and drums accompaniment. When Rollins was a member of the Miles Davis Quintet in the 1950s, he was occasionally featured with just bass and drums accompaniment: “We would do something they called a stroll,” said Rollins, “which means the piano would lay out. And that certainly influenced my own appreciation for that way of communicating.” But, prior to Way Out West, nobody had produced an album-length statement with such sparse accompaniment. Hitherto, a chordal instrument – piano, guitar, vibes – would lay down the chord sequence on which the improviser would base his solo and it was generally considered that, without this safety net, it was easy to lose one's way in the heat of the improvisational moment. This was something that didn't concern a musician of Rollins' stature, and with Ray Brown and Shelley Manne he had two great players who were among the best in the business. What he was doing was loosening jazz from its harmonic shackles by giving him the freedom to move in, out and around the chord sequence at will, relying on the sharp ears of the bassist to follow him while providing harmonic correlation. It was a major stepping stone towards complete freedom. Eight months after this recording, Rollins recorded two volumes of A Night at the Village Vanguard, each with a different bassist and drummer, and with Way Out West they are among the most highly regarded releases of his entire recorded output. The repertoire Rollins chose, as he did throughout his career, included songs so unexpected that most people would never consider them as suitable vehicles for improvisation – such as ‘I’m An Old Cowhand' from a 1936 Bing Crosby film Rhythm of the Range or ‘Wagon Wheels’ from a 1934 film of the same name. Together with Ellington's ‘Solitude’, an ‘After You’ve Gone' contrafact ‘Come, Gone’, the standard ‘There Is No Greater Love’ and a Rollins original ‘Way Out West’, Rollins created a classic. On the second album of alternative takes there's some amusing studio chatter relating to ‘Come, Gone’, which can't be detailed here before the watershed, but in this set's totality what remains is the freshness of everyone's playing. It simply has not dated; whether this says a lot of where jazz is today is an argument best kept for another day, but in the context of this review, do not imagine you will be going backwards in a time capsule to listen to 60-year-old jazz. This is an album that may have been made in the past, but is very much of the present.