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“What’s it all about, Alfie?” the opening line from the Hal David and Burt Bacharach song inspired by the 1966 film Alfie sums up some of the confusion and misinformation that surrounds the song, the soundtrack, and the subsequent album released by Sonny Rollins on the Impulse! label in October 1966. The British movie starring Michael Caine, Millicent Martin, Jane Asher, and Julia Foster premiered in the UK in late March 1966 and was an immediate hit. Director Lewis Gilbert commissioned the eccentric Sonny Rollins to score the movie. There are some 11 minutes of music in the film that were recorded in London over three or four days in late October 1965. Recorded at Twickenham Film Studios, the soundtrack features saxophonist Sonny Rollins along with some of Britain’s finest jazz musicians, Keith Christie on trombone, Tubby Hayes and Ronnie Scott on tenor sax, pianist and arranger Stan Tracey, Dave Goldberg plays guitar and Phil Seaman on drums. There is some confusion as to who plays bass, with various sources saying it’s either Kenny Napper, Rick Laird, or Johnny Hawksworth. Produced by Bob Thiele, the Alfie ‘soundtrack’ album was arranged by the supremely talented Oliver Nelson and features some fine performances Rollins, Phil Woods on Alto Saxophone, Bob Ashton on Tenor Saxophone, Danny Bank, Baritone Saxophone, with trombonists, J.J. Johnson and Jimmy Cleveland, Walter Booker on bass, Frankie Dunlop on drums, pianist, Roger Kellaway and the great Kenny Burrell on guitar – his playing on the opening cut “Alfie’s Theme” is sublime. The album has now been transferred to ultra-high resolution DSD formats for modern digital clarity!