Sonny Rollins – Newk's Time (Blue Note Classic)

There is probably no other musician who has understood how to give even the best-known pieces from the "Great American Songbook" or other sources a completely new dimension with his imaginative improvisations like Sonny Rollins. An excellent example of this is the 1957 album "Newk's Time", on which he and his quartet take hits from Broadway musicals as well as pieces by Miles Davis and Kenny Dorham and make them their own. One highlight is the interpretation of "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top", which the tenor saxophonist plays as a duo with drummer Philly Joe Jones, to whom Rollins also dedicated the album's only original composition.