Sonny Rollins
WWOZ Jazz Tent
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
New Orleans, Louisiana
April 29, 1995 (5:40 - 7:00PM)

Tracks 1-6
Source: Sony PC-52 Mic > Sony Walkman D-3 Cassette Recorder
Transfer: Maxell XL 2 Cassette > TEAC A-103 > Sony W500c CD Burner > HD > CD-R > EAC > CEP > CD Wave Editor > FLAC
Taped by gibman

Track 7
Source: Core Sound binaural mics with battery preamp > Sony TCD-D7 (48k)
Transfer (March 2006): Master DAT > Sony PCM-R500 > spdif > Audiomedia III soundcard > Macintosh G3/300 > Bias Peak 2.62 > firewire hard drive > Macintosh Powerbook G4/1000 > Bias Peak 4.14 > X Audio Compression Toolkit 1.55 > FLAC > TLH (WAV) > CEP > FLAC
Taped by nolataper

Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone
Clifton Anderson, trombone
Stephen Scott , piano
Bob Cranshaw, bass
Billy Drummond, drums
Victor See Yuen, conga

1. Long Ago and Far Away (Kern/Gershwin) - 8:59
2. Easy Living (Rainger/Robin) - 4:05
3. St. Thomas (Rollins) - 12:49
4. Blues Jam (Rollins) - 7:29
5. Don't Stop the Carnival (Rollins) - 9:50
6. I'll Be Seeing You (Fain/Kahal) - 1:58
7. Duke of Iron (Rollins) - 18:21

Total time = 63:34

Notes (applicable to track 1-6 only):
- The beginnings of "Long Ago and Far Away" and "Don't Stop the Carnival" are missing;
- Boosted levels in various spots to compensate for taper's adjustments and hard limited some applause sections;
- Applied an EQ that focused on low bands to target the wind noise. This mostly affected the right channel; and
- On the master, there's a drop out between "St. Thomas" and "Blues Jam." I deleted a few notes from "Blues Jam" to create the illusion of seamlessness.

Track 7 ("Duke of Iron"), the set's encore, is new to DIME. The beginning and ending are missing but all solos are complete.

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http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/sonny-rollins/Content?oid=1712706

The last time saxophonist Sonny Rollins played Jazz Fest, closing out the Jazz Tent in 1995, his performance resulted in a milestone moment. Russ Cole, a veteran sound engineer and long-time production manager for the British guitarist/songwriter Richard Thompson, remembered it this way: "Easily one of the greatest sets I have ever witnessed. Wildly ecstatic playing and an incredible audience. I thought I might spontaneously combust while I was dancing!"

In an interview with jazz writer Chip Stern in 1996, Rollins said, "There's something that I'm just getting to now, ever since I played at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival last year. During that performance, this just came to me, an expansion on the normal rhythms that bridge the jazz attitude with the rhythms of Congo Square. And since then, I've been working on it a little bit each time I play. Hopefully, it won't be long before I break through to something new in that area."

When I spoke with him recently at his retreat in upstate New York, Rollins still remembered that day fondly. He chose "St. Thomas" to close the set, and the song's calypso vibe, based on a folk tune from his family's native West Indies, seemed to connect with the Caribbean spirit that's part of New Orleans. "It was like I was getting in touch with my ancestors," Rollins says. "And then I was getting that back from the audience."