Sonny Stitt

Sonny Stitt – Sonny Stitt & The Top Brass (1962/2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 35:10 minutes | 427 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © jjjedizionimusicali

Sonny Stitt & the Top Brass is an album by saxophonist Sonny Stitt recorded in 1962 and released on the Atlantic label.

In his review for Allmusic, Scott Yanow stated “The charts give this Stitt album more variety than usual, and the superior material challenges the saxophonist to play at his best”.

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Sonny Stitt – Blows The Blues (1960/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 36:48 minutes | 1,52 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Verve Reissues

This album came out of a series of three recording sessions by Sonny Stitt toward the end of 1959, and sees the jazz saxophonist delve into the world of blues.The album blends powerful original songs written by Stitt with a couple of standards that get new life breathed into them. Stitt plays alto sax exclusively on this release, which led to unfair comparisons at the time to Charlie Parker. This album has been out-of-print and almost impossible to find for many years, until now.

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Sonny Stitt – Remastered Hits Vol. 5 (2023)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 51:44 minutes | 578 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © jjjedizionimusicali

Stitt’s parents were both music teachers, so he grew up in a musical environment. Stitt spent his childhood in Saginaw (Michigan) and had piano lessons from the age of seven, but later switched to the clarinet. At fifteen, he played alto saxophone after hearing Charlie Parker on a recording by bandleader Jay McShann.

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Sonny Stitt – Saxophone Supremacy (1959/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:23:13 minutes | 1,35 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RevOla

Saxophone Supremacy is an album by saxophonist Sonny Stitt recorded in 1959 and released on the Verve label.

Ken Dryden for AllMusic stated, “Sonny Stitt had a difficult time coming out from under the shadow of Charlie Parker, even though Stitt’s approach to playing the alto sax was only partially similar to the late giant”.

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Sonny Stitt – Satan (Remastered) (1974/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 33:42 minutes | 614 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Janus Records

Sonny Stitt made more records as a leader than any other jazz instrumentalist. Although eclipsed in his era by the extraordinary attention focused on Charlie Parker, Stitt was highly admired by both fans and musicians. Equipped with magnificent technique and iron chops, and gifted with an innate ability swing, he could turn on the music seemingly at will.

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Sonny Stitt – Stitt Meets Brother Jack (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 38:06 minutes | 357 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Manager

Sonny Stitt (who sticks reissue to tenor here) meets up with organist Brother Jack McDuff (along with guitarist Eddie Diehl, drummer Art Taylor, and Ray Barretto on congas) for a spirited outing. Two standards – “All of Me” and “Time After Time”) – are performed with a variety of blues-based originals and the music always swings in a soulful, boppish way. Worth picking up although not essential.

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Sonny Stitt – Feelin’s (1962/2022)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/48 kHz | Time – 38:33 minutes | 304 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Music Manager

Charlie Parker has had many admirers and his influence can be detected in numerous styles, but few have been as avid a disciple as Sonny Sitt. There was almost note-for-note imitation in several early Stitt solos, and the closeness remained until Stitt began de-emphasizing the alto in favor of the tenor, on which he artfully combined the influences of Parker and Lester Young. Stitt gradually developed his own sound and style, though he was never far from Parker on any alto solo. A wonderful blues and ballad player whose approach influenced John Coltrane, Stitt could rip through an up-tempo bebop stanza, then turn around and play a shivering, captivating ballad.

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Sonny Stitt – Blows The Blues (1960/2011)
DSF Stereo DSD64/2.82MHz | Time – 00:36:49 minutes | 1,45 GB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Master, Official Digital Download  | Source: acousticsounds.com  | Artwork: Front cover | © Verve Records
Recorded: Los Angeles, California on December 21 & 22, 1959.

Mastered by George Marino at Sterling Sound from the original analog master tapes to vinyl and PCM. The DSD was sourced from the PCM. George listened to all of the different A/D converters he had before he chose which to use, and he felt the George Massenburg GML 20 bit A/D produced the best and most synergistic sound for the project.
Sonny Stitt led a number of excellent record dates in 1959, especially at the end of the year when he produced three LPs for Verve over a span of three sessions with pianist Lou Levy, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Mel Lewis. Playing alto sax throughout this album, Stitt hardly sounds like a Charlie Parker clone, something that unfortunately was a frequent claim by tin-eared critics throughout a fair portion of his career. The music includes several potent originals, especially “Hymnal Blues” and the slow, powerful “Morning After Blues.”

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