Sonny Stitt - Tune-Up! (1972 Japanese Cobblestone Vinyl LP)

Sonny Stitt - Tune-Up! | Vinyl LP - 1972 Japanese Cobblestone (YS-2741-CO, Nippon Columbia)

Stitt recorded over 100 albums as a leader across his career, and the critical consensus is that this is the best of them. The reason is partly the rhythm section. Barry Harris was one of the great bebop pianists, a direct link to the Bud Powell tradition and later a revered teacher. Sam Jones was among the most in-demand bassists of the era, and Alan Dawson was a drummer of extraordinary precision who taught at Berklee. Behind a band this strong, Stitt plays with a ferocity and freshness that recalls his late-1950s peak. "Tune-Up," the Miles Davis-associated opener, is taken on alto at a tempo that lets Stitt fly through the changes with jaw-dropping clarity. "I Can't Get Started" is the ballad, richly soulful, Stitt filling every bit of space with long, spring-loaded lines. "Idaho" and "Just Friends" keep the energy high, and "Groovin' High" pays tribute to the Gillespie/Parker bebop tradition that Stitt came out of.

Stitt was born in Boston in 1924 and grew up in a musical family in Saginaw, Michigan. He played alto in Billy Eckstine's band in the mid-1940s alongside Gene Ammons and Dexter Gordon, then joined Dizzy Gillespie's group. The comparison to Charlie Parker followed him his whole career, and he moved increasingly to tenor and baritone to establish his own voice, though his command of the alto never diminished. "Blues for Prez and Bird" on side B is his tribute to Lester Young and Charlie Parker, the two saxophonists who defined the tradition he worked in. The album closes with "I Got Rhythm," the Gershwin standard that became the harmonic foundation for countless bebop compositions, and Stitt's two-horn performance (alto solo, then overdubbed tenor solo) is a summary of everything he could do. There are no wasted notes and no throwaway tracks.

This is the 1972 Japanese pressing on Cobblestone YS-2741-CO, manufactured by Nippon Columbia Co., Ltd., with Japanese liner notes.