A Night at the Village Vanguard

The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow states: "This CD is often magical. Sonny Rollins, one of jazz's great tenors, is heard at his peak... Not only did Rollins have a very distinctive sound, but his use of time, his sly wit, and his boppish but unpredictable style were completely his own by 1957."[2] Music critic Robert Christgau highly praised the album, writing: "Rollins is charged with venturing far out from these tunes without severing the harmonic moorings normally secured by a piano. He does it again and again – but not without a certain cost in ebullience, texture, and fullness of breath. Impressive always, fun in passing, his improvisations are what avant-garde jazz is for."[3] The album was identified by Scott Yanow in his Allmusic essay "Hard Bop" as one of the 17 Essential Hard Bop Recordings.[4] The Penguin Guide to Jazz gave it a maximum four stars plus crown, concluding that "these are record[ing]s which demand a place in any collection".[5]

On September 14, 1999, the remastered album was reissued by Blue Note as part of its Rudy Van Gelder series. Expanded to two compact discs, it included all the available recordings from the November 3 date.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
Robert Christgau	A−[3]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz	(Crown)[5]
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide	[6]

All tracks from the evening sets except as indicated.

All tracks from the evening sets except as indicated; program in chronological order as presented originally.

• Sonny Rollins — tenor saxophone
• Wilbur Ware — double bass
• Donald Bailey — double bass on afternoon set
• Elvin Jones — drums
• Pete LaRoca — drums on afternoon set

Technical

• Rudy Van Gelder - recording
• Reid Miles - cover design
• Francis Wolff - cover photography