MFSL 1-272 TEST PRESSING Never Released Vinyl SONNY ROLLINS Plus 4 RARE Sealed
$
278
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Description
SONNY ROLLINS Plus 4
New & Sealed Audiophile Vinyl Test Pressing
Record Label: Mobile Fidelity MFSL 1-272
Here is a REAL curiosity that some audiophile out there may have an answer for. Up for bid is a Mobile Fidelity Test Pressing. Record is packaged in a generic white sleeve with the following information printed on it:
OCTOBER 24 2002
MFSL-1-272 A2/B2
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 NOT on vinyl. Apparently this is a test pressing for a vinyl record that was NEVER 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: Generic all-white record sleeve is 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.
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.
