Search - Sonny Stitt :: Quadromania

Screaming bargain. Essential jazz.

Samuel Chell | Kenosha,, WI United States | 06/24/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The world's most perfect saxophonist, Sonny Stitt, recorded some 150 sessions under his own name, but these four discs will nicely take you from late 1946 to early 1954--close to four hours of music with Stitt in the company of Bud Powell, Kenny Dorham, J. J. Johnson, Kenny Drew, Duke Jordan, Art Blakey, Gene Ammons, Junior Mance, Shadow Wilson, and Dean Earl (my piano teacher at Berklee).



The transference, mastering, and documentation are all top-quality (no biographical/historical text, but few will miss it). The audio fidelity of the first disc is understandably lacking, with none of the tracks running over three minutes due to the 78 rpm format. But certainly Stitt's playing on the 1946 dates raises serious questions about his putative indebtedness to Charlie Parker, especially since Sonny was in the recording studio practically at the same time as Bird.



Until the 4th disc, all of the tracks were recorded before early 1952, accounting for the 3-minute time lengths of the performances. But the fidelity of discs 2-3 is close to present-day standards, and the playing frequently sublime. Listen to what Stitt and Powell accomplish both on their solos and exchanges in a mere 2 and one-half minutes on "Bud's Blues," in itself of an artistic order that all but relegates over 90% of the CD releases of the present millenium to the status of second-rate expendable ephemera. Listen to the pair go after each other again on an equally short but head-turning "Fine and Dandy."



Stitt is a slightly more accessible--rhythmically and harmonically--version (or extension) of Charlie Parker on alto and a more fluent and assured version of Lester Young on tenor; Bud Powell, arguably the most important, seminal pianist between Art Tatum and Bill Evans, is simply masterful throughout the first two discs.



The 4th disc includes some live dates and several tracks running between 6 and 12 minutes. The audio, again, is somewhat wanting (as it is on the original releases) but not sufficiently so to disguise as pure, clear, embodied, forward and present, soulful and "black" a sound as has ever been attained on either the alto or tenor saxophone.



This is history in the making, a cultural landmark, an American treasure which every human being with ears and a thirst for knowledge and beauty deserves to know and experience.



[Anyone who thinks the above is a misrepresentation of Stitt--one of the few American musical geniuses--needs a hearing aid. For the opportunity to be the matchmaker in a marriage guaranteed to last a lifetime, I'll even finance the cost of the device.]"