Sonny Stitt / Bud Powell / J.J. Johnson (1976 Japanese Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series LP)

Vinyl: NM
Sleeve: EX
Obi: None

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Sonny Stitt / Bud Powell / J.J. Johnson Vinyl LP - 1976 Japanese Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series Mono Reissue

• Stitt's first recordings on tenor saxophone, three New York bop sessions from October 1949 through January 1950 compiled onto a single LP
• Two entirely different bands: Bud Powell, Curly Russell and Max Roach on Side A; J.J. Johnson, John Lewis, Nelson Boyd and Max Roach on Side B
• 1976 Japanese Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series mono pressing, No. 8 in the series, manufactured by Victor Musical Industries, Inc.

This album compiles three separate New York bop sessions recorded between October 1949 and January 1950 and originally issued by Prestige across several 10" releases before being compiled onto a 12" LP as PRLP 7024 in 1956. The two sides represent entirely different bands. Side A draws from the December 11, 1949 and January 26, 1950 dates, with Stitt on tenor, Bud Powell on piano, Curly Russell on bass and Max Roach on drums, a quartet working through standards and Stitt originals at the breakneck tempos and harmonically sophisticated vocabulary of the nascent bebop style. Side B draws from the slightly earlier October 17, 1949 session, where Stitt and Roach are joined by J.J. Johnson on trombone, John Lewis on piano and Nelson Boyd on bass, the quintet working through four compositions including two takes each of "Blue Mode" and Johnson's "Teapot", as well as Lewis's own "Afternoon in Paris". Significantly, these were Stitt's earliest recordings on tenor saxophone. He had established himself as an alto player of exceptional ability but the persistent comparisons to Charlie Parker, whose harmonic language and phrasing he closely shared, led him to take up the larger horn as a means of carving his own identity, and these sessions document that transition at the very start.

The musicians gathered across both sessions were among the defining figures of bebop at precisely the moment the style was consolidating. Powell at the piano is at the peak of his powers, his left hand providing sparse but perfectly placed comping while his right builds lines of ferocious velocity and harmonic precision. Johnson, whose work on these dates helped establish the trombone as a viable bebop instrument after years of the horn being considered ill-suited to the style's demands, brings his characteristically clean articulation to the quintet tracks. Roach underpins both sessions, his drumming already demonstrating the melodic intelligence and rhythmic sophistication that would make him one of jazz's most important percussionists. Released in Japan in 1976 on Prestige (SMJ-6508M) as No. 8 in the Prestige Jazz Masterpiece Series and manufactured by Victor Musical Industries, Inc.