Articles

The Early Years of Sonny Stitt in Saginaw, Michigan

By Dustin Mallory

As one of most recorded saxophonists of his generation, Sonny Stitt made more than 100 albums under his own name. He also performed as a sideman with the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Blakey. Despite the breadth of recorded work he left behind, Sonny Stitt's upbringing in Saginaw, Michigan is less well-documented. The basic facts of his birth have been widely circulated: Edward “Sonny" Stitt was born Edward Boatner Jr., the son of a Massachusetts concert singer/composer ...

Sonny Stitt: Don't Call Me Bird!

By Samuel Chell

Absolute Distribution, a Spanish consortium of labels, has done it again, following up last year's welcome single-disc reissue (at least outside the U.S.) of Stitt's 1970s Cobblestone sessions, Tune-Up! + Constellation, with two 1959 West Coast dates for Verve featuring Stitt on alto with a crack California rhythm section. Even though a first-time reissue, the disc is scarce domestically, but the musical content and production values make it well worth the search. A listener familiar with Stitt's tenor duel with ...

The Prodigious and Prolific Sonny Stitt: 16 New Releases for 2007 (and still counting!)

By Samuel Chell

“You can't do no more than has already been done. Remember a man named Art Tatum; now, who can play any more than that? ...You ain't supposed to play over people's heads. You're trying to give a message to people, and make it as simple as possible for the average man."

The quote is by a paradoxical reactionary who, like Tatum, could improvise on a tune and make you think you'd heard it. Only after 20-30 ...

Sonny Stitt: Quadromania/One O'Clock Jump

By Samuel Chell

Sonny Stitt Quadromania: One O'Clock Jump Membran Records 2006

Regarded by many musicians as the prototypal, or “most perfect," saxophonist, Sonny Stitt recorded some 150 sessions under his own name. These four discs in German company Membran's Quadromania series will, with the possible exception of some recorded tenor battles 1950-52 under Gene Ammons' name, take care of most listeners' needs from late 1946 to early 1954. There are close to four hours of music ...

Sonny Stitt: Stitt

By George Kanzler

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

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

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 ...