Don’t Call Me Bird!

Sonny Stitt Quartet

Ten years before he made these recordings, during a brief 1959 sojourn in Los Angeles, Sonny Stitt, already weighed down by constant comparison with Charlie “Bird” Parker, turned partly away from alto, which he loved, to the tenor saxophone. And, though from then on he customarily used both instruments, the alto remained his prime horn of choice, as is abundantly clear here. Cushioned by a solidly swinging West Coast rhythm section led by the sensitive piano of Lou Levy, he is a powerful, melodic, superlatively thoughtful and intense performer. This is Stitt at the top of his form, playing with slashing authority and a piledriver beat.


Tracklisting:

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)


Personnel:
Sonny Stitt (as), Lou Levy (p), Leroy Vinnegar (b) and Mel Lewis (d). Recorded at Radio Recorder Studio, Hollywood, on December 21, 22 & 23, 1959.

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