LP-683

Sonny Stitt - At The D.J. Lounge

Released 1961

Recording and Session Information

Sonny Stitt, alto, tenor saxophone; Johnny Board, tenor saxophone; Eddie Buster, organ; Joe Shelton, drums
"D.J. Lounge", Chicago June 1961

U11018 McKie's
U11019 It all depends on you
U11020 Blue moon
U11021 Jay Tee
U11022 I'm in the mood for love
U11023 Free chicken

Track Listing

McKie's	Sonny Stitt	June 1961
It All Depends On You	DeSylva, Brown, Henderson	June 1961
Blue Moon	Rodgers & Hart	June 1961
Jay Tee	Sonny Stitt	June 1961
I'm In The Mood For Love	Fields, McHugh	June 1961
Free Chicken	Sonny Stitt	June 1961

Liner Notes

BY THE middle of 1961, a club on Chicago's south side lying directly adjacent to the Tivoli theater and right across the street from the well-known Pershing Lounge had developed into what many considered the city's hippest jazz room.

Called McKie's Disc Jockey Lounge, it had for some months been steadily presenting the sort of talent and atmosphere that one used to be able to find in large quantity on the south side — Gene Ammons, Shirley Scott, Eddie (Lockjaw) Davis, and many perhaps lesser-known but hard-swinging musicians.

On this Saturday night in early June, Sonny Stitt was the featured attraction, and Sonny has a lot of followers in Chicago. With him on-stand was another in a long line of tough, big-toned tenor players that Chicago has developed — players like Ammons and Johnny Griffin — Johnny Board.

Board served a long apprenticeship with the Lionel Hampton orchestra, and from that affiliation alone it is obvious that not only is he a capable musician but is also well-schooled in devices designed to get a crowd to patting its collective foot. He has a good-sized trick bag. as they say.

It would seem unnecessary to mention Sonny's qualifications as an audience-waker-upper, in that he has completed nearly two decades of a most prominent jazz career.

The set recorded here starts out in fine warm-up fashion as Sonny and Johnny work over a medium-paced blues, with Sonny soloing first, then Board, then a long exchange of choruses, much in the manner of a couple of boxers staying pretty much with left jabs and hooks and an occasional exploratory right hand in the first round of a fight.

Sonny picks up the alto for It All Depends On You, stating the melody on the first chorus, then giving way to Board for the first solo. They then exchange eights for a chorus before Stitt comes back on the melody to begin what develops into a long, sinuous solo.

Blue Moon finds Stitt spelling out the melody on the first chorus with Board taking the first solo again. Sonny's entrance is coolly Getz-like, then warms up.

The tempo goes upstairs on Jay Tee, as both men begin to get their shoulders into the matter at hand. Board solos first, excellently, after which Sonny coasts in, then opens up his sound and begins to cook. A furious battle of eights between the two horn brings the performance to a climax.

I'm In The Mood For Love follows, with Sonny back on alto for a lovely solo performance that weaves beautifully through a splendid ballad.

The set-capper, Free Chicken, develops into a furiously Stormy get-together, as Board's solo triggers a bristling bunch of exchanges and hard rights that leaves the audience limp.

It is the finishing touch to an album that almost physically drags you into an old-fashioned blowing session between two tenor saxists who know what it's all about and who do not hesitate to jump into some deep musical waters to prove it.

You'll dig it.

Jack Tracy