- Barkan the Blues
- Indiana
- The shadow of Your Smile
- Lover Man
- Constellation
- You Are the Sunshine of my Life
- Stardust
- On a Clear day
- Loose Walk
- Sonny Introduces the Band
Sonny Stitt - Tenor & Alto Sax
Ed Kelly - Piano
Ray Drummond - Bass
"Smiley Winters" - Drums
Sonny Stitt was one of the
‘giants’ of the saxophone, who could play
any tune in any key and often did so, sometimes
at 100 MPH! Like Zoot Sims and many of his
contemporaries, he was happy to wander about
the USA and Europe playing with whichever
rhythm section was in residence at the ‘gig’
in question. This was OK for Sonny, but often
the rhythm section did not realise what an
immense task they had taken on and shied away
next time he was in town. He was not very
tolerant of musicians who were not up to something
nearing his standard!
Born in 1924 of a musical
family, his brother was a concert pianist,
his style is very reminiscent of Charlie Parker,
although Stitt maintained throughout his life
that he had developed independently from "Bird",
they were of course contemporaries. He worked
with JATP from 1957 to 1959 and no doubt this
experience gave him the ability to communicate
with any audience, both from a musical point
of view and in his presentation of his work.
He was a big favourite of Jazz Festival audiences
and can be seen in the film of the 1958 Newport
Jazz Festival.
These particular track were
recorded live in 1976 at the Keystone Corner,
in San Francisco and have never been previously
issued. We should be grateful therefore to
HighNote records for this release. It is archetypal
Sonny Stitt, the hard driving tone and phenomenal
technique are in evidence from the opening
blues to the closing one. It is quite interesting
that the last track is called Loose Walk and
is credited to Stitt as a composer, but most
jazz people will recognise it as Blues Walk!
The rhythm section for this
session are well up to the task Ed Kelly is
a sympathetic accompanist and an excellent
soloist, Ray Drummond is a fine Bass player
Smiley Winters a capable drummer. Sonny was
famous for his idiosyncratic tags on the end
of tunes, I am convinced that he did not always
know how they would finally be resolved, but
they are wonderfully exciting things to listen
to. Two good examples are to be heard on Indiana
and On a Clear Day.
The Shadow of Your Smile
is played a little faster than you might expect,
in fact it is medium tempo swinger, with Stitt
at his most creative, creating wonderful lines
on this Johnny Mandel composition. If only
some of today’s student musicians would listen
to this instead of all sounding like John
Coltrane clones! This track also has a fine
piano solo from Ed Kelly.
The next four numbers are
on Alto, although there is no mention of this
on the cover, Stitt was just as comfortable
and authoritive on either instrument. Charlie
Parker’s Constellation is also played breakneck
speed, which the rhythm section copes with
well. An interesting and exciting version
of Stevie Wonder’s, You Are the Sunshine follows,
it shows that even at this stage of his career
he was still looking for new material for
his repertoire
The reading of Stardust is
just about as good as I have heard, this tune
which is not particularly easy to play, comes
with a fascinating ending. Back to Tenor then
for a lovely mid-tempo On a Clear Day.
It is amazing that music
as good as this has laid on a shelf since
1976, but three cheers to HighNote for making
it available now. Highly Recommended!
Don Mather
CD Reviews
HighNote HCD 7130
