Featured In
ALBUMThe Ultimate Jazz Archive, Vol. III [Audiophile Edition]Sonny Stitt
Albums by Sonny Stitt
ALBUMThe Bubba’s Sessions (Deluxe Remastered Anniversary Edition)Sonny Stitt
ALBUMSonny Stitt Meets Sadik Hakim (feat. Sadik Hakim)Sonny Stitt
ALBUMPlays Duke EllingtonSonny Stitt
ALBUMLegends of the SaxophoneRed Holloway & Sonny Stitt
ALBUMIt's MagicSonny Stitt
ALBUMBack to My Own Home Town (The Definitive Black & Blue Sessions (Paris, France 1979))Sonny Stitt
ALBUMNo Greater LoveSonny Stitt
ALBUMThe Boss MenDon Patterson & Sonny Stitt
ALBUMGod Bless Jug and SonnyGene Ammons & Sonny Stitt
ALBUMSonny's BluesSonny Stitt
Artist Playlists
Sonny Stitt Essentials
A stalwart exponent of bebop.
Sonny Stitt: Deep Cuts
He loved to battle with other jazz heavies.
Artist Biography
One of jazz’s great stage duelists, high-speed bop saxophonist Sonny Stitt swung hard in Charlie Parker’s style as an alto player before developing on tenor a warmer identity all his own. Born Edward Hammond Boatner Jr. in Boston in 1924, he was adopted by the Stitt family of Saginaw, MI, a year later. He played in a local swing band while attending high school and by age 17 hit the road professionally, rarely leaving it his entire life. Hired as a Parker substitute by Dizzy Gillespie in 1949, he teamed up with Gene Ammons the following year in a group famed for thrilling tenor-sax battles. Stitt recorded more than 100 albums as bandleader, beginning with Stitt’s Bits in 1950. Other highlights include 1957’s Sonny Side Up (with Gillespie and Sonny Rollins), 1966’s Soul People (with Booker Ervin), and the soaring, swooping 1972 career peak Tune-Up! He recorded his final sessions only weeks before his death in 1982.
Hometown
Boston, MA, United States
Genre
Jazz