Sonny Stitt on Clarinet and Soprano?

[Justin V]

Did Stitt ever record on soprano or clarinet?

[jazztrain]

Not that I can recall or find.  

[Stonewall15]

Lord has 159 entries for Sonny Stitt, none playing soprano sax or clarinet. Many entries where he sings.

Edited November 29, 2020 by Stonewall15
Additional information.

[Justin V]

There is a live recording on Wolfgang's Vault where Stitt sings.  I can picture him grabbing any available reed on a gig, so maybe something is circulating.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Justin V

[Niko]

There's also singing Stitt on Prestige (Mama don't allow, on The Bossmen iirc) and of course there's alto tenor and baritone but I'm not aware of anything else

[JSngry]

5 hours ago, Justin V said:

There is a live recording on Wolfgang's Vault where Stitt sings.  I can picture him grabbing any available reed on a gig, so maybe something is circulating.

Clarinet doesn't work that way, different fingering system.

[jazzbo]

Or actually four or five different clarinet fingerings. . . .

[Justin V]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

Clarinet doesn't work that way, different fingering system.

He studied clarinet in his early years, which is partially why I asked (although I didn't think about the fingering system).  IIRC, the soprano can be hard to play in tune, so I can see where he may have been too busy with his other horns to focus on it.  Is intonation a problem with the clarinet, too?

6 hours ago, Niko said:

There's also singing Stitt on Prestige (Mama don't allow, on The Bossmen iirc) and of course there's alto tenor and baritone but I'm not aware of anything else

I'll check that out!  Stitt and Patterson were quite the pair.

[Niko]

only childhood memories, but the way I remember it: clarinet is one of the most benign instruments when it comes to intonation, probably better than any saxophone, definitely not comparable to soprano in this regard, you press the right buttons, you get your note... I'd say alto is the best designed instrument of all these by and large, baritone might be even better but it's kinda heavy to hold and carry around, soprano has those intonation problems, tenor has some problems when it comes to producing the lowest notes... clarinet and bass clarinet have a wider range (e.g. at the bottom alto and clarinet have almost the same range but clarinet can go much higher at the top without using any non-standard tricks) but the price you pay is that there are more different fingerings... but since saxophone fingerings are largely a subset of clarinet fingerings, someone who started out on clarinet will usually not have a problem playing saxophone (or flute for that matter) in that regard...I'd say that probably if Stitt never played clarinet, it's because he didn't want to.