This album features the great tenor player alongside Clifford Brown and Max Roach in their Quintet with Richie Powell and George Morrow.

The tenor chair had changed hands at the tail end of 1955, when Harold Land returned to Los Angeles (for family reasons), which set the stage for the young Sonny Rollins to step in. Rollins’ style proved a perfect fit for the group’s extraordinary equilibrium between fast tunes and delicate ballads, all combined with careful arrangements (mostly written by pianist Richie Powell). However, this fantastic formation was destined to end in tragedy, for in the early morning hours of June 26, 1956, Clifford Brown died in a car accident (at the age of 25) along with pianist Richie Powell and Powell’s wife.

In the short time between Rollins’ arrival and Brownie’s death, the group had the chance to enter the recording studios on three occasions (they were, nevertheless, privately recorded live at several venues). The results of those three sessions – the quintet’s only official legacy – originally appeared on two albums: ‘Clifford Brown And Max Roach At Basin Street’ and the album reissued here, ‘Sonny Rollins Plus Four’ (later reissued as ‘3 Giants!’).

Features two bonus tracks recorded at the same sessions but not included on the original LP.

180g vinyl – audiophile pressing.