Customer Reviews

Sonny Stitt Bud Powell & Jj Johnson

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cut during two seperate sessions in 1949, this cd is classic bop top to bottom. The first half of the cd features Stitt's tenor Backed by the genius of Bud Powell, Curly Russell on bass, and Max Roach on drums. The set kicks of with a high energy performance of Powell's "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" and the bird flavored "Sonny Side", on which both Stitt and Powell cook. The second half teams Stitt up with trombone heavyweight J.J. Johnson, pianist John Lewis, Nelson Boyd on bass, and Max Roach returning on drums. Johnson's "Teapot" is a highlight. While the sound quality suffers on a couple of tracks, the performances are consistantly superior. Stitt, Powell, Johnson and company are all in top shape and do not fail to impress. This cd is a must for bop fans, and contains some of Stitt's best playing.

Bud played some of his best music here that's for sure and I say this thing too just to clarify that I agree with other reviewers who tribute the genius of Bud Powell on this particular recording. But the other guys' review lack words about Sonny who was the main actor of this music. Here he was in his tenor period so his playing is somewhat different from what we are used to hear from him. Personally I prefer his alto playing simply because with the alto Sonny was almost unreachable. With the alto he had an incredibly shining sound and he was able to blow chorus after chorus with tons of ideas. The tenor slowed him a little bit, he was forced to play differently, still in the bop idiom but with lesser "turns" and "curves" .. still he remained the boppest tenorman out there! In my opinion a lot better than a lot of celebated tenorman of the sixties .. Some, probably non-parker aficionados like him most with the tenor, I don't agree because I'm a parkerian, but Sonny Stitt remains Sonny Stitt even if you left him only his whistle .. It is true that what matters here are the first nine tracks and that the J.J.Johnson session are less important, altought still splendid recordings too. But the titans encounter between Stitt and Bud is something that every jazzcat should own in his collection! Just in case you forgot how bad those two were!!!

This essential-to-own recording captures every one of the players at the top of their form. Powell and Stitt at their very best, wonderfully complementing each other. Speed, articulation, creativity, soul, tight group, bebop at its very best. Don't even ask, just own it.

Unquestionably tracks 1 to 9 contain the best uptempo modern jazz piano playing on record. The piano must have been still smoking after he finished this assault!

Great playing from Sonny Stitt, but even he's left looking a bit flat-footed by the dazzingly incisive work of Bud Powell. I first heard this when I was quite young and unfortunately everything else I've heard since then by him or by anyone else for that matter was bound to seem a little second-rate by comparison. It's amazing music!

It's really the Powell-Stitt tracks that matter, and they contain some of the most inventive and articulate piano playing in the entire history of jazz. On "All God's Children," Bud's choruses build on each other with dizzying creativity; the flow of ideas at such an astonishing tempo is almost too much to grasp, and the interplay with Stitt's inventive tenor playing is incredibly tight.

Bud's solo on "Strike Up the Band" begins as if he had already been playing silently for a chorus (of course, he'd been comping for Stitt to good effect): you have to catch up with the ideas, and when you do, he doesn't disappoint; the musical narrative is both moving and surprising. Moreover, the way he backs Stitt, with highly syncopated chord punctuations, brings out the best in Sonny, whose tenor playing foreshadows his fine later work with Gillespie, Rollins and Ray Bryant. Bud was much more relaxed playing with Stitt than he was with Parker, as was clear in their earlier recordings, with Sonny on alto, such as "Serenade to a Square."

Often overlooked is the incredible subtlety in Bud's playing, in addition to the searing tempos, and this sets him apart from other jazz pianists. His incisive yet elegant touch is classically inspired, and he forces the listener to concentrate on how he shapes musical ideas and on the ways he manipulates notes with distinctive "trills" and arpeggios. It is not merely throwing out notes at high velocity. I can never hear these tracks enough, and each time I listen I hear something new. This is pure Bud, pure genius. Bud is boss!

I have a fairly extensive collection of cd reissues, and it's not short on either Stitt or Powell. And I stipulate that the Powell-Stitt material on this disc is everything that earlier reviewers say. But the implied relegation of the JJ sides to an afterthought strikes me as a disservice to the acknowledged master of Diz's "ill wind that nobody blows good."

Granted the pairing of John Lewis and Bud Powell-led sections is not an intuitive one, and the fact that the JJ set consists of 2 takes each of four songs might detract some. But the tunes in question are all beauties-especially Lewis's evocative "Afternoon in Paris" and JJ's light-as-a-feather "Elora". "Teapot " gives Sonny a chance to blow and "Blue Mode" lives up to its title quite nicely.

JJ's playing is impeccable throughout and Sonny responds in kind, albeit in a more restrained than usual manner. Well, what would one expect when the grouping's rhthym section is led by the pianist who would go on to form the MJQ?

OK, perhaps JJ and Sonny's material is not a mesh,stylistically, with what comes before, but listened to in its own context, it's (imo) more than worth the time invested.

Listeners new to these players should know that these sessions are primarily from 1940s sessions, with solo time limited by the 78 rpm format (usually several minutes per track). These are truly "classic" sessions, not in the least "dated" in terms of musical values. But if you prefer to hear extended examples of any member of the threesome, both J. J. and Sonny recorded prolifically into the long-playing 33 rpm era of the 1950s, Sonny going until 1982 and J. J. into the present millennium (you may have to be a bit careful about which Powell recordings you select because of his highly variable health; the Massey Hall Concert with Diz and Bird can heartily be recommended as can "The Amazing Bud Powell" with "Un Poco Loco" and "Parisian Thoroughfare."

Of the mentioned players, Sonny Stitt is the only one who, year after year, is snubbed by an ever-younger generation of jazz "critics" in the Down Beat polls and even denied "Hall of Fame" consideration. "He was a Bird clone" is representative of the rap against him, which is utter nonsense. Sonny appeared on the scene only slightly after Bird; he maintained that Bird was no influence whatsoever (Tatum, he insisted, was); he acknowledged the similarity in Bird's and his styles on alto but insisted they were merely coincidental; he was as vibrant a force on tenor (and, if he chose, on baritone) as on alto; he was one of the most prolific players in the history of the music (I'm still finding LPs by him that aren't listed in the All Music Guide), listed as leader of as many as 150 sessions. Much of what he played was judged overly "commercial," even though by "smooth jazz" standards it's comparable to Bartok or Stravinsky. For example, listen to him play "Don't Worry About Me" ("The Sonny Side of Stitt," Roost). He takes the tune through twice--64 bars of music. It would be impossible to alter or substitute for a single note. Absolute perfection--just like Tatum's miniature masterpieces.

Nevertheless, the evidence on these classic sides should alone be sufficient reason to see to the canonization of this music's "most perfect" saxophonist.

If you are at all familiar with bebop jazz in the mid to late forties, then you will be quite familiar with all of these artists. When you add them together, how could they not make great, timeless music? The many other reviews covered all of the bases as far as the music is concerned, but I will add for the sake of collectors that if you have the 3-disc box "Stitt's Bits" then you already have all of this material.

This CD records a moment in history when Sunny switched saxes. To his cedit he gives us his own unique sound on the tenor which is nothing like he sounded on alto, perhaps because he lost the " he has only copied Parker " shackles thus becoming mor original. You sax players another must for your list of must haves.

What can anyone say? Powell's playing is PERFECT. Not only no bad notes whatsoever, but not even any remotely QUESTIONABLE notes. The rest of the gang are amazing, but Bud is PERFECT. I don't even listen to the non-Bud tracks.

I can't wait to get my live in NY 1944-49 CD.