Jazz Articles about Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt: Stitt

by George Kanzler
December 22, 2006

Are ideas floating out there to be had by anyone? Or do they emanate exclusively from specific individuals? And how do they apply to the creation and development of bebop? Sonny Stitt is at the heart of this conundrum. As an alto saxophonist, he always fell under the shadow of Charlie Parker and was often accused of being a Bird- clone. Yet evidence suggests he was developing his own early bebop style concurrent with Parker, before he ever heard Bird. ...

Stitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952

by Jim Santella
September 20, 2006

Sonny Stitt Stitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952 Prestige 2006

Presented in chronological order, saxophonist Sonny Stitt's Prestige recordings, packaged here as a three-CD box set, reveal the pure tenor tone and fluid technique that Stitt always brought to a session. Most of the selections are from 1950, and many feature fellow saxophonist Gene Ammons as Stitt's musical partner.

The set comes with an informative essay by Harvey Pekar that ...

Stitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
September 15, 2006

Sonny StittStitt's Bits: The Bebop Recordings, 1949-1952Prestige2006 There are two stories detractors tell about saxophonist Sonny Stitt (1924-82). Actually, his detractors tell many stories, but these two are chiefly musical. The first says that Stitt's musical inventiveness amounted to no more than being a reasonably good Charlie Parker clone when he began playing alto in the mid-1940s. The second says that Stitt frittered away his talent over the subsequent decades, taking ...

Sonny Stitt: New York Jazz

by Samuel Chell
May 29, 2006

"Genius" is a misunderstood, overused term. In music there have been only a few geniuses--visionaries who have tapped into the original, vital stream that we might consider musical consciousness and changed it--Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Armstrong, Parker, Coltrane. Sonny Stitt was not one of the geniuses, nor one of the innovators. Rather, he took the complex language of Charlie Parker and created a syntax and rhetoric that the rest of us could understand and even employ. The 2003 reissue of New ...

Sonny Stitt: Work Done

by Samuel Chell
April 6, 2006

Few musicians have sustained as many physical and mental shocks throughout the course of a nomadic, non-stop and frequently solitary career as Sonny Stitt. More often than not, the peripatetic saxophonist would arrive in town, call up the best local rhythm section and try to keep his spirits up for a five-night stand, finding time during the day to cut a couple of quick sides at a nearby recording studio before heading for the next town or overseas flight.

The ...

Sonny Stitt: It's Magic

by Samuel Chell
March 14, 2006

This 2005 release of a shelved 1969 recording should hold the greatest interest for Sonny Stitt completists. The saxophonist is estimated to have led 150 recording sessions, of which I've now managed to collect 70--but given the current scarcity of some of his best recordings, including the out-of-print date with Oscar Peterson on Verve and the supreme Endgame Brilliance on the defunct 32 Jazz label, a collector can't afford to be too choosy.As an instrumentalist, Stitt bears somewhat ...

Sonny Stitt: Work Done

by George Harris
September 9, 2005

Sonny Stitt is sure playing like he means it on Work Done. Recorded live at the Keystone Korner in 1976, Stitt is in excellent form as he swings the living daylights out of a searing collection of standards, blues, and contemporary songs. On tenor, he is absolutely presidential, wailing through “Indiana" and “Loose Walk" (also known as “Blues Walk" for you Clifford Brown fans). Stitt spews out more ideas in one solo than any Berklee student could dream of in ...