Three out of the five compositions on Saxophone Colossus are Rollins' originals with "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "Moritat" filling out the record. The latter is what listeners will recognize as "Mack the Knife," credited here as in other versions to Kurt Weill, and taken from the original German name for The Ballad of Mack the Knife. The second album, Work Time, has only one original and includes great uptempo versions of classics like "There's No Business Like Show Business" and "It's All Right With Me." The only man in common in the lineup on both albums is Max Roach on drums; Roach provides perfect counterpoint to Rollins' punchy horn lines and keeps impeccable swinging time at even the most blistering fast tempo. Tommy Flanagan and Ray Bryant ride the piano across the two albums, with Doug Watkins and George Morrow on bass. Work Time was the earlier album by a year, and has a looser, seat-of-the-pants feeling to it, as if the entire band is hanging on by a thin line almost all the time. Contrast this with Saxophone Colossus where even the fastest tunes contained studied, methodical solos by Rollins and the rest.
From the joyous island rhythm of "Saint Thomas" to the aching melancholy of "You Don't Know What Love Is" to the quirky downtempo "Blue" to the jolly winking "Moritat" to the asymmetrical driver "Strode Rode," Saxophone Colossus tells an epic musical tale in just five songs. Bundling the pushy, raucous, and joyful songs from Work Time is like adding maple syrup to the icing already on top of the cake... Any tenor saxophone player that doesn't know at least one of Rollins' solos from this collection by heart is a jazz illiterate, and for those hearing Sonny Rollins: Saxophone Colossus for the first time, prepare to have your heart broken and your mind blown, all with a "colossal" smile on your face.
