Great Sonny Stitt

[king ubu]

Or they were backed by other expats who were neglected in the US...

(post-rectum?)

[Chuck Nessa]

Saw Stitt over a dozen times. My favorite memory of him was his arriving late a a gig with Von. Von played the first part of the first set and Stitt ran in the door. Sonny pulled his tenor out of the case and Von introduced him and said "Sonny will now play a favorite - The Shadow of Your Smile" and counted off a medium bounce tempo. This combo brought out the worst possible version of Sonny Stitt.

[johnlitweiler]

Sonny Stitt mostly played tenor when I heard him at the Jazz Showcase (mostly 70s), very melodic music. UnBirdlike, more of a post-Lester Young spirit. When he was swinging and intensely into his solos, he'd acccent by kicking back his left leg. He'd pick up the alto for one song a night, a ballad - he favored "I Can't Get Started" and "Stardust," unfortunately, both those harmonic structures thwart improvisers.

In early Art Pepper the music's emotion came from qualities inherent in his songs, I think. Or more accurately, the way he felt the inherent emotion of those songs. In a lot of later Art Pepper he started with a melodramatic attitude. Not that melodrama is necessarily bad, but for instance compare the power of his simple, heartbreaking original "Winter Moon" chorus, ca. late 1950s, to his painful remake of "Winter Moon" during his comeback.

[AllenLowe]

melodramatic is a good word - I'll tell you, I spent a very long and interesting day with Pepper in Boston, drove him around, talked a lot - nicest guy in the world, but, on an emotional level, almost adolescent-like. Very self-pitying as well. And still a slave to certain dependencies.

btw, someone handed him a clarinet that night at the club and he played one tune with it, the most amazing clarinet playing I ever heard,

[Peter Friedman]

Perhaps Donald Brown, the gentleman who was at the Massey Hall Concert?

I believe my friend Don Brown is older than me, and I will be 75 in about 3 weeks.

[Niko]

Chris A will be 80 tomorrow so he might very well be the winner!