Includes extensive booklet with recording details, notes and rare photos.
Sonny Stitt arrived on the New York City scene as an unmistakably Parker-inspired alto man. For over ten years, though, he earned a second identification as a driving and well-equipped tenor soloist who had other influences in his make-up, most notably Lester Young. And from the late Fifties until the early Sixties, while recording several quartet albums, Stitt was blowing as much alto and tenor as ever.
He would wander into a recording studio with a pickup rhythm section and just play, as he did on these four consecutive albums with pianist Jimmy Jones. Because he was a through-going professional, a nimble improviser, and because he played with amazing consistency, they convey the fine feeling of easy rapport between Stitt and his rhythm section.
He sails through a handful of standards and a few blues tunes with polished, swinging authority and an unparalleled, incendiary, gutsy drive. He had a simple credo. Dont play too fast, and dont play too long. Play three chorusesif you cant make it in three, man, you cant make it at all.
His credo is stamped all over these magnificent sessions.
Tracklist
Total time: 149:35 min.
CD 1
01. When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin Along) (Woods) 2:48
02. For All We Know (Lewis-Coots) 3:06
03. Im Confessin That I Love You (Daugherty-Reynolds-Neiberg) 3:19
04. Cocktails for Two (Johnston-Coslow) 3:38
05. Star Eyes (Raye-DePaul) 3:39
06. On a Slow Boat to China (Loesser) 3:21
07. Laura (Raskin-DePaul) 3:39
08. J.B. Blues (Stitt) 3:56
09. Dont Take Your Love from Me (Nemo) 2:55
10. After the Late, Late Show (Stitt) 3:56
11. Skylark (Carmichael-Mercer) 2:46
12. Dont Worry 'Bout Me (Bloom-Koehler) 2:50
13. Ill Remember April (Raye-DePaul-Johnson) 3:42
14. Day by Day (Kahn-Stordahl-Weston) 3:29
15. Red Top (Kynard-Hampton) 3:50
16. Moonray (Shaw-Madison-Quinser) 2:57
17. Old Fashioned Blues (Stitt) 4:42
18. I Never Knew (Carroll) 4:26
19. Hitsburg (Stitt) 4:22
20. Angel Eyes (Dennis-Brent) 3:08
21. It All Depends on You (DeSylva-Brown-Henderson) 2:47
Total time: 74:00 min. aprox.
CD 2
01. Stormy Thursday (Stitt) 3:22
02. Embraceable You (Gershwin-Gershwin) 2:35
03. It Could Happen to You (Burke-Van Heusen) 3:23
04. But Not for Me (Gershwin-Gershwin) 3:07
05. Memories of You (Blake-Razaf) 5:09
06. I Cried for You (Now It's Your Turn to Cry Over Me) (Arnhein-Lyman-Freed) 3:15
07. Bright as Snow (Stitt) 2:44
08. Spinning (Stitt) 2:26
09. Sonny Side Up (Stitt) 2:31
10. On Green Dolphin Street (Kaper-Washington) 3:53
11. The More I See You (Warren-Gordon) 3:38
12. Dont Take Your Love from Me (Nemo) 4:41
13. My Blue Heaven (Donaldson-Whiting) 2:37
14. My Mothers Eyes (Baer-Gilbert) 3:44
15. When I Grow Too Old to Dream (S.Romberg-O.Hammerstein) 3:00
16. Bye Bye Blues (Lown-Gray-Bennett-Hamm) 5:00
17. Ive Got the World on a String (Arlen-Koehler) 5:07
18. Beware Rocks Comin Down (Stitt) 6:52 (*) Bonus Track
19. Six-O-Seven Blue (Stitt) 6:07 (*) Bonus Track
Album details
All Roost recordings
Sources CD 1:
Tracks #1-10, originally issued as a 12" LP "A Little Bit of Stitt" (SLP 2235)
Tracks #11-19, originally issued as a 12" LP "The Sonny Side of Stitt" (SLP 2240)
Tracks #20-21, originally issued as a 12" LP "Stittsville" (SLP 2244)
Sources CD 2:
Tracks #1-8, originally issued as a 12" LP "Stittsville" (SLP 2244)
Tracks #9-17, originally issued as a 12" LP "Sonny Side Up" (SLP 2245)
Tracks #18-19, taken from the 12" LP "Stitt in Orbit" (SLP 2252)
Personnel:
Sonny Stitt (alto & tenor sax), Jimmy Jones (piano), Aaron Bell (bass on CD1 #1-10 & CD2 #9-19), uncredited bass & drums players on CD1 #11-21 & CD2 #1-8, Charles Persip (drums on CD1 #1-10), Roy Haynes (drums on CD1 #11-21 & CD2).
All sessions recorded in New York City:
CD 1, tracks #1-10 Nola Studios, April 10, 1959
CD 1, tracks #11-19 recorded on September 21, 1959
CD 1, tracks #20-21 & CD 2, #1-8 same location as #11-19, but June or July, 1960
CD 2, tracks #9-19 recorded at Bell Sound Studios, on August 8, 1960
Original recordings produced by Teddy Reig
Cover photography: Arnold Meyers
Reissue produced by Jordi Pujol and "Beethoven" Jean-Michel Reisser
Stereo · 24-Bit Digitally Remastered
