Dizzy Gillespie/Sonny Stitt/Sonny Rollins: Sonny Side Up

"On the Sunny Side of the Street" (from the CD) - 

"Wheatleigh Hall" (Dizzy and Sonny together in 1987, 30 years after this album) -  

I've made it all the way to week 7 of ATJ without featuring a Sonny Rollins album because I couldn't decide which one to write about.  But after the "Body and Soul" post in ATJ#5, OJ commented that he really liked a version by Sonny Stitt that he had found on YouTube.  Well, that solved my problem.

Norman Granz was a jazz promoter and label owner (Norgran, Verve and Pablo) who was known for bringing together groups of jazz all-stars for live and recorded jam sessions, including his famous "Jazz at the Philharmonic" concerts.  In December 1957, he brought into the studio one of his most inspired groupings of musicians, the great trumpeter and co-creator of bebop, Dizzy Gillespie, along with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt, two of the titans of the tenor sax.  Although both Sonnys were disciples of Charlie Parker, there were significant differences in their playing.  Stitt, who first gained fame on alto and moved to tenor in part because he was perceived as sounding too much like Parker, was a player of astounding technique and improvisational skill.  But, he rarely moved outside the template for improvisation laid down by Bird...his playing was fiery, but he blazed no new paths.  Rollins was also an absolute virtuoso, but he was a searcher who stretched the boundaries of bop and reinvented himself multiple times over the course of a career that still continues into his mid-80's.  Among Rollins' contributions was an emphasis on thematic development within his improvisations; his solos weren't just a string of notes (no matter how fast or beautiful)...they told a story, and that story was often infused with a romance, humor, yearning or swagger that seemed almost tangible.

Sonny Side Up starts with the pop tune "On the Sunny Side of the Street."  Besides being a pun on the name of two of the participants, this track provides a jaunty, moderately paced warm up.   Stitt leads off the soloing, followed by Dizzy and Rollins before Dizzy offers a lighthearted hipster vocal.  (Although bop is often described as a protest against some of the pop/entertainment elements of earlier forms of jazz, when it came to clowning, mugging and generally having fun while making great music, Dizzy had a lot of Louis Armstrong in him. When listening to the YouTube version of "Sunny Side," try to hear the differences in the tone, attack and phrasing of the two Sonnys.

Legend has it that a few days before this session Dizzy called Rollins and Stitt and told each that the other planned to "cut" him in the studio (meaning that he would outplay him...jam sessions were often somewhat less bloody forms of Old West shootouts).  Whether this is true or not, both tenors came to the next song, "The Eternal Triangle" well armed and well prepared. The level of playing throughout this 14-minute romp over the chord changes of "I've Got Rhythm" (a favorite harmonic framework for beboppers) is simply astounding.  Played at a rapid tempo, first Rollins and then Stitt fly over the changes without a misstep.  After they each solo (if you're testing your ability to tell them apart, Rollins ends and Stitt begins at around the 2:55 mark), they "trade 4's" (that is, alternate 4-bar phrases) before Dizzy comes in and reminds everyone that he invented this bebop stuff.

"After Hours" is a slow blues that starts with a wonderful and soulful statement from pianist Ray Bryant (whose brother, Tommy is the bass player) and again has great solos from the three horns.  The set closes with "I Know That You Know," the kind of old pop standard that Rollins loved to resurrect and modernize.  The highlight is Rollins leading off with a stop-time solo, meaning the rhythm section only hits on the first beat of each measure, leaving the rest of the bar open for Sonny to explore without the usual rhythmic and harmonic guideposts provided by the piano, bass and drums.  (Within a few years, Rollins would take this to its logical extreme and perform completely alone, as in the version of "Body & Soul" covered a few weeks back.)  

I'm sure there will be more Dizzy, Rollins and Stitt in future ATJ posts.  But this is a "desert island"-worthy introduction to three of the true giants of jazz