“Love For Sale” (PDF) from the Frank Rosolino album, Free For All

Throughout the 1950s, the rise in popularity of West Coast jazz had literally cooled down the fervor and exhilaration of bebop’s artistic and political accomplishments, while the evolution of hard bop in the east brought danceable rhythms back into the foreground in support of soulful liberation. So when Frank Rosolino recorded the Free For All album in 1958, as noted in the liner notes of its eventual 1986 release, producer David Axelrod anticipated it to be “the first hard bop album recorded and released on the West Coast,” but for some unknown reason Free For All remained “undocumented” until nearly a decade after Rosolino’s death.

Perhaps the trombonist had already heard the new direction of jazz, beyond hard bop, and he decided to shelve the finished album. Earlier that same year, Miles Davis broke new ground in jazz lyricism with his modal improvisations on Cannonball Adderly’s album, Somethin’ Else, which also included a version of “Love For Sale” that explored the tonal ambiguity of Cole Porter’s 1930 tune from the show, The New Yorkers.

Still, Rosolino’s version of “Love For Sale” was ahead of the West Coast trend, which had yet to be mastered by Dave Brubeck on his 1959 album, Time Out. By utilizing global dance rhythms in jazz, such as the 6/8 swing pattern that evokes African syncopation underneath its melody, Rosolino’s charismatic brand of hard bop provided the Hollywood lot with some much-needed depth and perspective.

Recommended reading: Fond Memories of Frank Rosolino by Conrad Herwig. Published by Double-Time Records.