Sonny Rollins : Pent Up House

Sonny Rollins, born in 1930 in NY, is a tenor saxophonist who played and recorded with Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey and Max Roach, amongst many, many others.

Sonny Rollins' best known album Saxophone Colossus was recorded in 1956 with Tommy Flanagan on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Max Roach on drums. That day he recorded the famous song called 'St Thomas', based on Carribean Calypso music.

Sonny Rollins is still recording and touring today. On 9/11/2001 he had to evacuate his appartment with only his saxophone in hand, when he heard the World Trace Center collapse. A few days later he recorded a concert at Berklee college: 'Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert'.

Here's the way I play Sonny Rollins' Pent Up House. I added a second voice in thirds to the kicks. Pent Up House is a lot of fun to play (uptempo).

Here's the chord progression used for the improvisations ( AABA):

|Am7                    |D7                      |Gmaj7                     |%                        |
|Am7                    |D7                      |Gmaj7                     |%                        |
|Dm7                    |G7                      |Cmaj7                      |F7                     |
|Am7                    |D7                      |Gmaj7                     |%                        |

Listen to samples from a recording of 'Pent Up House' by Sonny Rollins: 'Sonny Rollins Plus Four'