The music employs a technique called "strolling", used here by Rollins for the first time, in which he would solo over only bass and drums with no pianist or guitarist playing chords.

According to the liner notes by producer Lester Koenig, recording began at 3:00 a.m. to fit the musicians' busy schedules, but "[a]t 7 a.m., after four hours of intense concentration, during which they recorded half the album, and should have been exhausted, Sonny said, 'I'm hot now.'

Rollins stands amid a stretch of desert vegetation, dressed in a Stetson hat, gun belt, and empty holster, and holds his saxophone at waist level as if it were a pistol.

[citation needed] In his AllMusic review, Scott Yanow wrote: "The timeless Way out West established Sonny Rollins as jazz's top tenor saxophonist (at least until John Coltrane surpassed him the following year).

Joined by bassist Ray Brown and drummer Shelly Manne, Rollins is heard at one of his peaks.