I never realized Rollins had a quartet for a short period in 1963 with Don Cherry, Henry Grimes, and Billy Higgins--a pianoless group similar to those of Ornette shortly before (Cherry and Higgins had of course played in Ornette's groups shortly before.)
(I knew some Rollins trio recordings with Elvin and Wilbur Ware--also pianoless.) I love the absence of piano because it allows for so much space in the music for the bass and drums. Cherry is in top form, a nice complement to Rollins as he was on Coltrane's The Avant-Garde, in another shadow-Ornette group (Ornette's musicians without Ornette himself). The Coltrane group with Cherry and Ed Blackwell, however, never quite comes together in satisfactory form.
That sounds like a dynamite lineup. Billy Higgins is a terrific drummer.
ResponderEliminarIf someone wanted to make a list of the most masterful, imaginative, innovative, and up-to-date jazz musicians of 1959, Mingus, Miles, and Rollins would probably have been on it.
ResponderEliminarAnd Ornette came along and laid a heavy influence on all of them.
It's astonishing.