Sonny Stitt - 1946-1950

Born in Boston, raised in Saginaw, and initiated into the life of a professional jazz musician in Detroit, Sonny Stitt liked to tell the story of meeting up with Charlie Parker inside of the Gypsy Tea Room at 18th and Vine in Kansas City. Backed only by a pianist, the two men jousted for a while with their saxophones before Bird stopped and said, "You sound too much like me." "Well," replied Stitt, "you sound too much like me!" Listening through the first 16 tracks of this fine early bop collection, one can hear why Stitt took a lot of flack for appearing to imitate Parker, although in a larger sense the new musical ideas were in the air for all to access and enlarge upon. Read More