Billboard : 04/07/1956
Score of 76

Some facets of Rollins‘ work have never been brought out adequately until this issue. There are subtleties and depths in his hard swinging jazz tenor that needed ampler documentation on wax. The success of this date was enhanced by the presence of Max Roach, who is simply fantastic here. One selection alone is worth the price of the LP: There Are Such Things, a beautiful tribute to Coleman Hawkins, one of Rollins’ earlier influences and permanent inspirations. Rollins’ own influence is spreading fast and his market should broaden.

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San Francisco Chronicle
Ralph J. Gleason : 04/12/1956

Sonny Rollins, one of the most influential of modern tenor men, has a Prestige LP called Work Time in which all his faults and virtues are amply displayed. Rollins is a hard swinger, in fact too hard to take for a 12-inch album wherein his only accompaniment is piano and rhythm. Rollins is the leader of the opposite school to the Lester Young devotees and he lays it down loud and clear and it is very impressive.

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Down Beat Review
Nat Hentoff : 4 stars

With Max Roach, George Morrow, and Ray Bryant, Sonny Rollins has produced the best yet of his own albums, and some of his best playing on records with anyone. Roach is electric in section and solo. Morrow, like Rollins a regular member of the Roach-Clifford Brown unit, is steady. Young Philadelphia pianist Bryant swings hard and swiftly. I would wish, however, for more depth of conception in some of his work. Rollins is a large influence among young hornmen of the hard, post-bop school, and this recording sharply indicates why.

Rhythmically, no tenor today swings any more authoritatively than Sonny and few are as sustainedly driven as he. His ideas erupt from the horn with bullet-like propulsion. Melodically, his conception is angular, and his lines are heatedly jagged rather than softly flowing. His tone is also hard though not harsh. Rollins is close to nonpareil at the kind of playing he obviously prefers.

For my subjective taste, I would like a little more leavening of Sonny’s force with a degree more of lyricism. Ray Bryant’s solo, for example is such a welcome breeze in Things largely because of Sonny’s insistent hardness. This concentration on only one spectrum of the emotions leaves the softer feelings parched in partial atrophy.

There are many exciting passages here, however, and the record is recommended as both an elucidation of the Rollins’ influence and for its own relentless qualities.

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Liner Notes by Ira Gitler

Sonny Rollins has emerged from his “woodshed” in Chicago a vibrant and more complete musician with promise of still more to come. These recordings, made shortly after he came East as a member of the Max Roach–Clifford Brown group, are stimulating as no intoxicant or spirit, but only music can be. Max Roach is fantastic and masterful, as he is everywhere at once but never in the way.

This is not “pop” jazz, made possible for people with weak viscera or none at all. This is JAZZ, Jim! It runs deep emotionally. It gets down to hard swinging without sacrificing thinking.

Sonny’s power, emotionally, rhythmically, harmonically, evident throughout, is illuminated clearly in the in the second chorus of Show Business as he flexes his embouchure with just George Morrow‘s solid, steady beat walking behind him or in the way he leaps in on Billy Strayhorn‘s Raincheck off the springboard of Max’s cymbal pattern. His wonderful sense of time is demonstrated well in the bridge of the third chorus of It’s All Right With Me where he plays a slurring figure, repeats it suspending it against the rhythm and after a minute pause wherein you hear Max’s dancing cymbal pulse for a few strokes, he flashes up with an exhilarating double-time figure. This instance is only a small part of a great whole but it arrested me so that I had to replace the tone arm to that spot numerous times. But you don’t have to examine these sections. Just sit back and let them communicate with you. If you’ve got any genuine feelings, they will knock you on your ear.

There Are Such Things is alone worth the price of the LP. Sonny’s suspended ending is a composition all by itself, worthy of Hawk or Bird. There is an essence of Hawkins in this ballad without it sounding like him. Hawk is admittedly one of Sonny’s earlier influences and it is a tribute to Sonny that he has been able to learn from the masters like Hawk and Bird and emerge with a strong personality of his own. Perhaps he has not reached the “giants” category yet but he is certainly one of the few eligibles. The growing legion of Sonny’s followers among the younger reedmen are going to find it more difficult to follow after this set.

Max Roach is acknowledged to be one of the all time greats on his instrument. He is just that in these recordings both in the elasticity of his relentless beat and the intelligence and fire of his solos. He has always been a very “melodic” soloist and with Ray Bryant chording behind him here, another dimension is added. Ray is a Philadelphia boy (he heads his own trio there) who plays, at times, not unlike the Swedish pianist Bengt Hallberg. His stint on These Are Such Things is particularly eloquent.