Sonny Stitt

[Kingsleyhk]

Just put up a Sonny Stitt page on my website - www.kingsleyjazz.com.

Meant having a Stitt day selecting content and I realised again what a wonderful player he was. Underrated on alto - IMHO - because he was seen as simply a Bird clone, very nice on tenor, and, here's a surprise I stumbled across, PS I love you, on baritone:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlR0GfDCHuA

 

[Bobby G]

Didn't Stitt move to tenor to try and avoid the Bird clone accusations. I like him a lot and have a few of his CD's. Sonny Side up is a good one.

 

[Kingsleyhk]

Didn't Stitt move to tenor to try and avoid the Bird clone accusations. I like him a lot and have a few of his CD's. Sonny Side up is a good one.

I believe so - the criticism plus his association with Gene Ammons seems to have shifted him more to tenor - although of course he continued to play and record on alto. I do find him more distinctive on tenor but really enjoy his alto playing as well.

I am getting Sonny side up next week (I hope).

 

[AndyWhiteford]

Sonny was a major influence for me, for many years, on both tenor & alto, and I have a large collection of his recordings, maybe 50 albums. I also have a big folders full of his transcribed solos, including some PDFs I made myself. There's also 2 published books of solos and the 2 PDF-file collections of his solos out there on the web. He's a very "study-able" player ;-)

If you only buy *one* Stitt album, I'd say get "Constellation" (1972), he's at his peak, on alto & tenor, on a range of tempos & tunes.

"Stitt plays Bird" (1963) is certainly worth a listen, the uninitiated might think they sound alike, but Sonny's take on the Parker tunes is actually quite different/ distinctive.

 

[AndyWhiteford]

by the way - - Sonny Stitt is EASY, even a 12 year old can play his solos !:

 

[aldevis]

Sonny was a major influence for me, for many years, on both tenor & alto, and I have a large collection of his recordings, maybe 50 albums. I also have a big folders full of his transcribed solos, including some PDFs I made myself.

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