Sonny Rollins: I Can't Get Started

The only ballad and one of the shortest tunes that Rollins played on this historic first live-at-the- Vanguard recording session provides a good opportunity to appreciate Elvin Jones's usually underrated brushwork, and to revel in the way the tenor adapts his powerful, heavy tone to a slow tempo. Or rather adapts it to his way of playing, for Rollins keeps accelerating and slowing down his delivery as he improvises melodic phrases, giving "I Can't Get Started" an unusually dynamic twist. When the final stop chorus arrives, with its quotation of the classic "'Round Midnight" intro, the overall feeling is that the Colossus has reshaped Vernon Duke's standard according to his own taste.