MFSL 1-272 TEST PRESSING San Ricker Master SONNY ROLLINS Plus 4 SEALED

$

153

SONNY ROLLINS Plus 4  
New & Sealed Audiophile Vinyl Record

Record Label: Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-272 (Test Pressing)

Never Released On MFSL Vinyl (Originally Released In 1956). Limited Edition Audiophile Test Pressing. All Tube, Half Speed Mastering By Stan Ricker. Sourced From Original Analogue Master Tapes. Album is packaged in a generic white sleeve with the following information stamped in the upper right hand corner:

NOVEMBER 16 2002
MFSL-1-272 A4

A search of MFSL index numbers say that this *SHOULD BE* Aimee Mann's "Bachelor No. 2," but it's not. Play grade reveals it to be Sonny Rollin's 1956 classic, "Plus 4" (I played an open copy - not this one that is still sealed) Of all the documentation that I've been able to dig up, Plus 4 was released on Mobile Fidelity SACD, but NEVER on vinyl. Apparently this is a test pressing for a vinyl record that was NOT officially released!

These highly collectible test pressings are from the first stamper and sometimes less than 10 exist. Test pressings reflect the closest you can get to the lacquers and hence have a special collectible value.

Condition: New and still sealed in it's original plastic sleeve. Perforation is completely intact. Corners are sharp and unbent. Spine, top and bottom are solid and free of chipping or splits. Mint.

Disclaimer: Because this record is sealed, I am taking it on faith that the vinyl within is what's marked on the jacket. As I've said, it's the only identifying marker on the LP.

(Here is the complete track information for Plus Four... because of the way the album is marked, I believe it to ONLY have Side One)

Side 1
1. Valse Hot
2. Kiss and Run

Side Two
3. I Feel a Song Coming On
4. Count Your Blessings
5. Pent-up House

Review: Following his Chicago sabbatical of 1955-56, Sonny Rollins was spiritually and physically rejuvenated. And on this date, he's clearly inspired by Max Roach and Clifford Brown's depth of spirit. Multi-dimensional re-arrangements of popular songs were a Brown-Roach trademark.

 "Kiss And Run" is treated to a stop and go intro, then settles into a brisk 4/4, as Rollins, Brown and the perenially underrated Richie Powell fashion long dancing lines. "I Feel A Song Coming On" creates tension by alternating a vamp figure with a swinging release. Rollins takes an immense solo, contrasting chanting figures and foghorn-like long tones with Parker-ish elisions, and Brown answers with buzzing figures and daring harmonic extensions. Then Roach takes things out with sweeping melodic choruses and polyrhythmic fanfares, setting the stage for a torrid tenor-trumpet duel.

On "Valse Hot," we have an early example of a successful jazz waltz as Rollins offers up one of his most charming themes. Max Roach treats the European three with the dancing elan of an American four, and Rollins responds by floating in between the beat, syncopating in Monkish stabs and thrusts, as Brown answers with the kind of rhythmically complex, sweetly articulated melodic lines that have inspired every modern trumpeter.