Sonny Stitt

Jazz musician

• Born: February 2, 1924
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: July 22, 1982
• Place of death: Washington, D.C.

Stitt is one of the most overlooked masters of bebop and hard bop. Although his style was heavily influenced by Charlie Parker and Lester Young, Stitt created a distinctive sound on alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. He also was one of the few jazz musicians who experimented with the electric saxophone.

Early Life

Edward Stitt was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 2, 1924. He grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where his father was a music professor and his mother taught piano. He had a brother who was a classically trained pianist and a sister who was a singer. Stitt himself began playing the piano at the age of seven but soon switched to clarinet. He left home in his late teens to tour with Tiny Bradshaw’s big band as an alto saxophonist.

Stitt met and played with fellow alto saxophonist Charlie Parker in 1943, and the two discovered that their styles had a lot in common. Because Parker was the better-known performer, Stitt was accused of trying to copy Parker throughout his career and is generally regarded as a disciple of Parker. Stitt’s early playing reveals similarities in tone color, use of vibrato, and even some melodic phrasings.

Life’s Work

In 1945, Stitt joined Billy Eckstine’s band alongside tenor saxophonists Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons, trumpeter Fats Navarro, and drummer Art Blakey. He also made his first recordings with tenor saxophonist Stan Getz and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. He joined Gillespie’s big band and sextet the next year as a replacement for Parker.

In 1948, Stitt was arrested for selling narcotics and spent about a year at the U.S. Narcotic Farm, a prison and rehabilitation facility outside Lexington, Kentucky. In 1949, Stitt began to experiment with tenor and baritone saxophones in order to distance himself from the comparisons to Parker. Despite the differences in size, Stitt was able to maintain his basic technique on all three instruments. His tenor sound was perhaps the most distinctive and influenced the playing of such jazz notables as John Coltrane. While he was quite adept at up-tempo numbers on the larger saxophones, his ballad playing set him apart from his contemporaries.

Stitt was different from other marquee jazz musicians in that he did not have a set group with which he played. His recordings indicate that he worked with a number of temporary ensembles. He also spent a great deal of time working as a sideman in other musicians’ groups. He worked with Ammons through most of the 1950’s but spent a brief period playing with pianist Bud Powell and tenor saxophonist Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis. He also made some Afro-Cuban recordings with trumpeter Thad Jones and pianist Chick Corea during the late 1950’s. In 1960, he replaced Coltrane in the Miles Davis quintet but was fired because of his drinking.

After leaving Davis’s group, Stitt turned his attention away from bebop and toward the soul side of hard bop. Through the 1960’s, he recorded albums with Blakey; tenor saxophonists Booker Ervin, Ronnie Scott, and Paul Gonsalves; and vibraphonist Milt Jackson.

During the 1970’s, Stitt began experimenting with the Varitone, an electric saxophone consisting of a regular acoustic saxophone with a built-in microphone and control module with knobs and switches that could be used to alter the sound quality and volume of the instrument. In 1971 and 1972, Stitt played in a group called Giants of Jazz, which featured former collaborators Blakey and Gillespie along with pianist Thelonious Monk, trombonist Kai Winding, and bassist Al McKibbon. Much of the rest of Stitt’s career was spent performing in similar other “all-star” jazz groups. During the mid-1970’s, he spent a great deal of time in England, where he helped cultivate the growing funk-jazz movement at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.

In 1982, Stitt traveled to Japan to play in the Kool festival as a substitute for Art Pepper. Three weeks later, he suffered a heart attack. Stitt died on July 22 in Washington, D.C.

Significance

Although Stitt is not as well known as Parker, Coltrane, Lester Young, or Sonny Rollins, he occupies an important place in jazz history. Over the course of his career, he appeared on more than one hundred recordings. He also kept up a heavy touring and performing schedule, which led jazz critic Dan Morgenstern to nickname him “The Lone Wolf.” His influence on later generations of performers, including saxophonists Branford Marsalis, Kenny Garrett, Joshua Redman, and Courtney Pine, laid the foundation for the modern jazz saxophone sound.

Bibliography

Gelly, David, ed. Masters of Jazz Saxophone: The Story of the Players and Their Music. London: Balafon Books, 2000. Chronicles the role of the saxophone in jazz since the 1920’s and profiles many of the great performers, including Stitt.

Giddins, Gary. “Sonny Stitt, 1924-1982.” In Rhythm-a-ning: Jazz Tradition and Innovation. New York: Da Capo Press, 2000. Profile of Stitt that places his work in the context of jazz history and development.

Gitler, Ira. The Masters of Bebop: A Listener’s Guide. New York: Da Capo Press, 2001. An overview of the leading performers of the bebop era, including Stitt. Features anecdotes and biography.