Eleven CDs dropped through the mailbox this morning - three of them, like this one, double albums. Spoilt for choice? Not really, this one stood out from the rest and there were some big names in there. Maybe, after I've I listened to the others, I could be proved wrong but I doubt it.
Way back in the day, I heard Stitt at Newcastle's City Hall as part of the first JATP UK tour. Some years later, at the same venue, I heard him with Miles then further down the line, a couple of times at the Corner House. This previously unreleased live session recorded in 1973 at Baltimore's Left Bank Ballroom is perhaps closest to the Corner House gigs where Stitt stretches out with just a rhythm section.
Just a rhythm section is undoubtedly a mega understatement regarding that night in Baltimore. Barron, Jones and Hayes were about as good as you could get and Stitt soars like a bird (not the Bird - at this point in his career he was very much his own man) above them.
Alto or tenor he was bebop personified with a technique to match any other sax player on the planet before or since.
The 19 minute long opener, Baltimore Blues, has an extended tenor solo before Barron takes over then Stitt returns, this time on alto. As Johnny Griffin is quoted as saying in the very readable booklet, "If Sonny Stitt was in town, saxophone players tended to go into hiding."
It doesn't get any better than this - maybe it never will. Lance
A 2 LP set will be available on Record Store Day (April 22) as well as well as a limited edition deluxe 2 CD set.
Released by Elemental Music/ Jazz Detective.
Baltimore Blues; Star Eyes; Lover Man; They Can't Take That Away From me; A Different Blues; Stella by Starlight; Deuces Wild; The Theme.
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