Live in Europe 1959 - Complete Recordings

3CD set, digitally remastered, deluxe digipak with a 20-page booklet. This release compiles all of Rollins' known recordings from the March 1959 European tour, presented here for the first time ever on a single set.

Included here are many hard-to-find performances and even a previously unissued set taped in Frankfurt. Bassist is Henry Grimes, while drummer Pete La Roca was replaced on two occasions by great American drummers who were living in Europe at the time: Joe Harris and Kenny Clarke. The long unavailable Aix-en-Provence concert with Clarke contains Rollins' last existing notes before his self-imposed exile from music. By that time the saxophonist felt frustrated, perceiving what he considered his own musical limitations, and right after this tour he would take the first - and most famous - of his musical sabbaticals. Rollins ventured to the Williamsburg Bridge to practice and didn't record again until his 1962 comeback album The Bridge. This set contains Rollins' only existing versions of "A Weaver of Dreams", "Lady Bird", "Cocktails for Two", and "Stay as Sweet as You Are".