garthsj Posted February 9, 2008 Report Posted February 9, 2008 My Friends (courtesy of John McLain ..) .. I put this in the "recommendation" section rather than "reissues" ... There is a great recent reissue by Sonny Stitt from Fresh Sound that should be in every collection of modern jazz ... this is "Don't Call Me Bird" (FSR-CD 467). This CD brings together two Verve albums ("Saxophone Supremacy," and " Sonny Stitt Swings The Most") that I have loved ever since their original release in 1960, and features Stitt (playing mainly alto sax) with Lou Levy, Leroy Vinnegar, and Mel Lewis. If you enjoy straight ahead masterful bop saxophone, with a stellar rhythm section then this album is a MUST for you ... Stitt never played better! Quote
king ubu Posted October 2, 2011 Report Posted October 2, 2011 My Friends (courtesy of John McLain ..) .. I put this in the "recommendation" section rather than "reissues" ... There is a great recent reissue by Sonny Stitt from Fresh Sound that should be in every collection of modern jazz ... this is "Don't Call Me Bird" (FSR-CD 467). This CD brings together two Verve albums ("Saxophone Supremacy," and " Sonny Stitt Swings The Most") that I have loved ever since their original release in 1960, and features Stitt (playing mainly alto sax) with Lou Levy, Leroy Vinnegar, and Mel Lewis. If you enjoy straight ahead masterful bop saxophone, with a stellar rhythm section then this album is a MUST for you ... Stitt never played better! ...and that CD makes a discographical mess... also, there was a third album recorded over the same three days (and a later one with Levy, Chambers and Levey). This should really have been a Mosaic Select! Levy is funky as gets, Vinnegar always delivers, and Lewis, too... these guys got some of the best out of Getz around that time, too! And for those who care, I think the following corrects the lousy discographical info given on the Fresh Sound CD: Don’t Call Me Bird! - Sonny Stitt Quartet Sonny Stitt (as), Lou Levy (p), Leroy Vinnegar (b), Mel Lewis (d) 01. I Cover The Waterfront (Green-Heyman) (3:17) 02. Lazy Bones (Mercer-Carmichael) (7:41) 03. Sunday (Styne-Conn-Miller-Krueger) (3:54) 04. Just Friends (Lewis-Klenner) (3:48) 05. All Of Me (Simmons-Mark) (3:02) 06. Two Bad Days Blues (Stitt) (4:43) 07. It’s You Or No One (Styne-Cahn) (4:31) 08. Blue Smile (Stitt) (4:00) 09. Lonesome Road (Shildkret-Austin) (4:04) 10. The Gipsy (Reid) (4:03) 11. That’s The Way To Be (Stitt) (2:08) 12. There Is No Greater Love (Jones-Symes) (5:02) 13. Jaunty (Stitt) (5:11) 14. Blue Sunday (Stitt) (3:24) 15. The Way You Look Tonight (Kern-Fields) (5:02) #6, 8, 14: LA, Dec. 21, 1959 (two more titles - BLUE DEVIL BLUES, A BLUES OFFERING - were recorded that day, they were releaed on "Sonny Stitt Blows the Blues") #1-5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13: LA, Dec. 23, 1959 (note: the same band recorded the rest - 6 more tracks in addition to two from Dec. 21 - of "Sonny Stitt Blows the Blues" on Dec. 22) #11, 15: NYC, Feb. 9, 1959 personnel: Amos Trice (p), George Morrow (b), Lennie McBrowne (d) (rest of this session released as "The Hard Swing", #15 included on both "The Hard Swing" and "Sonny Stitt Swings the Most"!) Fresh Sound has that one on a twofer with "The Hard Swing" (which I find somewhat... underwhelming) Quote
MomsMobley Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 I used to pay lip service to Sonny but you know what THE TRUTH is? He was an effin' blowhard, all muscle and not mind enough. When he even thinks about Bird, it's just embarrassing. Keep flapping them fingers, Sonny! At best Stitt is a 'functional' player, good for a gin mill or strip club but otherwise unnecessary and usually annoying. I'd almost say as annoying as Joe Lovano except Sonny made at least a few listenable sessions, whereas Lovano (Ken Vandermark) (David S. Ware*), for all his jive jazz hats, has made NONE, zero. Raise your standards, jazz people, you have nothing to lose lousy records. * no not even "Dark To Themselves." Quote
crisp Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Mosaic should do the complete Sonny Stitt on Verve -- long overdue IMHO. Quote
Larry Kart Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Moms -- why must you come on so often like a two-bit iconoclast? Everyone knows that Stitt takes a lot of sorting out, but to deny that there are gems to be found? I suggest "Sonny Stitt" on Chess-MCA (originally Argo 629, rec. 1958) and "Tune Up!" on 32 Jazz, and the date with Dizzy and John Lewis for Clef that produced "Mean To Me" and "Blues for Bird." Quote
MomsMobley Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) I'll tell you Larry because I heard Sonny's session w/ Papa Jo again recently (during WKCR Jo Jones Fest) and was like... what a joke. And then I realized, too, I very rarely really liked ** any ** Sonny, with an exception to be noted. But you know, his legendary "combativeness" (or whatever) is obviously musical impotence. Now I, as many of us do, put Charlie Parker at the absolute peak of 20th c. musical creativity, all genres, so there's nowhere to go but down... Sonny's endless, too-many-notes flailing in those shadows gets us where, or what precisely? A faster Jack McVea? Gene Sedric on sterno? Illinois Jaquet w/ a personality crisis? etc. That Sonny failed to assimilate either Lester Young architecture (and, at his peak, rhythmic "souplesse" (as the Frogs say) or the patience of Ben Webster or Theodore Dreiser (you've read "The Titan" right?)) is indeed a failure not a "choice". I know because I was there. Sonny Stitt is just filling space, over and over and over and over and over again w/ no greater point than merely doing so, making the next record or gig-- a living, fine, but not our LIFE. All the "missed opportunities" and "failure to gel" etc are symptoms of a greater rot. The ** one ** partial exception is Sonny's electric Varitone sessions, where the weirdness of technology compensates for the ultimately futile dullness of his conception. Thank you. Edited October 7, 2011 by MomsMobley Quote
Peter Friedman Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 It is kind of funny, but not actually unexpected. Moms selected as his exception the Varitone Stitt sessions that are, for my ears, almost unlistenable. Different strokes... Quote
JSngry Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Bolded emphasis added At best Stitt is a 'functional' player, good for a gin mill or strip club but otherwise unnecessary and usually annoying. Sonny Stitt is just filling space, over and over and over and over and over again w/ no greater point than merely doing so, making the next record or gig-- a living, fine, but not our LIFE. If I can take the liberty of reconpurposing "gin mill or strip club" into " blue collar Black social venues" (which I think I fairly can), then...there you have it. Condemnation for not meeting expectations which were never relevant - or in place - in the first place. I'm not a "big" Stitt fan, far from it, but to condemn him for not being something he was probably constitutionally (or shall I play clever hit-and-run-record-date-producer and say Con-Stitt-Tutionally) unable to be, much less desirous of, that seems to me to be just a little...silly. Stitt was a drifter, a gunslinger, a wayfaring stranger, etc etc etc., not a self-aware "artist". That's probably why a lot of people find him annoying, and also why quite a lot of people dig him so much. I think you should evaluate his work in the arena at least as much in terms of the arena as you do the work. It's an arena that is "relevant" to a lot of lives, actually, even if they are not "ours" in experience, aim, and/or outcome. Was his life a waste? Depends on what you consider life, and what you consider wasting it. Quote
Larry Kart Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Moms -- I was there, too. Wish you could have heard Stitt at a Chicago gig at the Jazz Showcase in the late 1970s with Mal Waldron comping behind him and Stitt paying close attention. Quote
Larry Kart Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 For those with Spotify, check out Stitt's "Propapagoon" from the 1958 Argo album "Sonny Stitt," backed by (have mercy) the Ramsey Lewis Trio. If you like that, the whole album is there. Quote
Larry Kart Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Now if you'd said that Stitt on tenor is no Wardell Gray or on alto is no Art Pepper -- yes on both counts. But less doesn't necessarily mean "futility" or "rot." Quote
jazzbo Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Why give this variatoned version of Clem the attention he so desires? Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Why give this variatoned version of Clem the attention he so desires? Because he expresses 'strong opinions'. Nothing matters more than expressing 'strong opinions'. I really enjoy Sonny Stitt. Agree entirely with Jim's point earlier about 'arena' (I call it context). If that doesn't fit the view from Olympus, well... Quote
jazzbo Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Ah, the Barbara Waters of the Organissimo View! Quote
A Lark Ascending Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Ah, the Barbara Waters of the Organissimo View! You'll have to explain that, Lon. No idea who Barbara Walters is! Quote
jazzbo Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 As a friend, I'd rather it remained that way for you. Quote
Mark Stryker Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) Well, I'm not going to rehash all the Stitt pros and cons, except to note that Jim and Larry's points are relevant and that the angels will weep for any soul that is constitutionally incapable of responding positively to the elation, exuberance, chin-first strut and the soulful and sweeping bebop authority of Stitt at his most inventive, which would certainly include, among other records, "Constellation," "Tune Up," "Personal Appearance," a nice chunk of Roost recordings, the early quartets with Bud Powell, the "Previously Unreleased Recordings" LP on Verve pictured above that's an Ellington program. You gotta dig it to dig it, dig? Coda: Favorite Stitt solo on record: "Ray's Idea" from "Constellation" Discographical question: The personnel is not listed on the Verve LP "Previously Unreleased Recordings" is not on the LP. An online discography says Lou Levy, Paul Chambers, Stan Levey. 6/20/60. Sounds right. Any contradictory evidence? Edited October 7, 2011 by Mark Stryker Quote
AllenLowe Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 (edited) I like Moms points - because, while I disagree with them, they make sense. Makes me question my own opinions (as does Larry on those occasions that we disagree,) I even feel this way about Phillip Larkin, who sees the flaws in music I love. Larry, is that Stitt session the one that has been described as with Barry Harris? Edited October 7, 2011 by AllenLowe Quote
king ubu Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Ah well, if "to assimilate either Lester Young architecture" is the point - everybody failed, except for (on good nights), Lester. So why give a poop? Quote
king ubu Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Total truth partially may make sense, too. Quote
paul secor Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Moms' modus operandi is to use a scattergun approach. Turns some folks off, gets others to think and perhaps listen. Either way, it gets attention. Quote
J.A.W. Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 Ah, the Barbara Waters of the Organissimo View! You'll have to explain that, Lon. No idea who Barbara Walters is! Barbara Walters Quote
AllenLowe Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 maybe the only possible truth is partial. Quote
J.A.W. Posted October 7, 2011 Report Posted October 7, 2011 "The dissection of Mr Boatner". Could be the title of a film noir. Quote
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