Sonny Side Up

Sonny Side Up

ASIN: B00000E5JK

Track Listings

1. On the Sunny Side of the Street

2. Eternal Triangle

3. After Hours

4. I Know That You Know

Sonny Side Up,Sonny Stitt & Sonny Rollins Dizzy Gillespie,Polygram Records,Bop,Jazz,Jazz Music,Trumpet

Average customer rating:

beyond fantastic ! ! !

Sizzles with torrents of energy.

Quite possibly the best "blowing" album ever

jazz at its best

Quite short, but a piece of JAZZ Heaven and History

Sonny Side Up
Dizzy Gillespie , Sonny Stitt , and Sonny Rollins
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music
General | Jazz | Styles | Music
Modern Postbebop | Jazz | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Tenor Madness

Go!

Somethin' Else

Saxophone Colossus

Moanin'

ASIN: B0000047CZ
Release Date: 1997-07-29

Tracks:

On The Sunny Side Of The Street
The Eternal Triangle
After Hours
I Know That You Know

Amazon.com

Dizzy Gillespie's long, fruitful career is peppered with a number of high-profile summit meetings with a variety of jazz royals, and this 1957 date ranks with the best of them. Gillespie facilitated this battle between tenor titans Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins and even, according to legend, stoked their competitive fires with well-timed phone calls prior to the session. The good-natured opener "On the Sunny Side of the Street," complete with a lighthearted Dizzy vocal turn, doesn't even hint at the serious business to follow it. "The Eternal Triangle" is a quintessential bop fracas filled with inspired, white-hot improvisation. Rollins and Stitt exchange mighty blows, in solos and in trades, and Gillespie's trumpet work is no mere afterthought, bristling as it does with creativity and authority. The ensemble catches their collective breath with "After Hours," a tasty slow blues introduced by Ray Bryant's mood-setting piano, before they unleash a ripping reading of the chestnut "I Know That You Know." You get the sense that the more artful (and "jazz's new thing") Rollins was dragged into a real street fight by the fiery Stitt, who was unbeatable on his own blistering bop turf, but each man--Gillespie included--rises to the occasion in spirited fashion. --Marc Greilsamer

Customer Reviews:

beyond fantastic ! ! ! .......2006-11-27

Ahhhhhhh... the good old days... when players could play technically challenging material, yet NEVER lost their sense of swing - - To call this session swingin', boppin' and in the pocket is an understatement.

What makes it really fun to listen to is that even though Rollins and Stitt are clearly children of Bird, their sounds are different enough that you can tell who's up at the mike. (Stitt has a sharper more agressive intonation... Rollins is bit warmer - - seems to have a bit of Dexter Gordon in him (or is it just me?) - - Gillespie often stands off to the side enjoying the action, but once he's in on the game its a master in his own territory/god knows what's going to happen next type of intensity that's classic Gillespie. - - As for the album... The rhythm section is soooooooooo tasty you want to eat the notes (*tell me I'm lying !) - - Line up is Ray Bryant, Tommy Bryant and Charile Persip.

In addition to the fact that this is one of those "sit down and transcribe" type blowing sessions, what also makes it phenomenal is the variety... from the frensic bop of triangle, the 12 beat after hours blues of the aptly titles AFTER HOURS, the sprightly swinging SUNNY SIDE (which also features Dizzy on vocals) and alas the more hard boppish I KNOW THAT YOU KNOW.

All in all this is just one of those sessions which is in such a league of its own you almost want to shed a tear that few groups are really playing with this feel (not the solid high hat on the 2 and 4 - - modern day drummers don't like to do that any more but notice how toe tapping the music is... yet the Roach-like punches are still as there. - - Another fine point is that the clearly listening to and digging each other (At one point Rollins clearly flubs a tone in his solo, but it don't matter and clearly Dizzy digs it and you can hear him vocalizing sort of an encouraging Gotcha!/I dig it! that Jazz msicians of that era were prone to do.)

Conclusion: What a session - - must have study and listening ! A journey back to a time when Jazz was cool, fresh, vibrant, boppin', swinging and every word in between !

Sizzles with torrents of energy........2005-03-06

Sonny Side Up is a fine album. In particular, the piece called The Eternal Triangle sizzles with torrential energy. A more consistent album, in terms of style and instrumentation, is The Bop Sesson (reviewed below).

The following concerns The Eternal Triangle. The Eternal Triangle begins with a multi-instrument theme (30 seconds). Then there is a saxophone solo, apparently by Rollins (1 minute), then a short multi-instrument interlude, followed by another Rollins solo (1 min.). There follows then another sax solo, this time by Stitt. The Stitt solos are distinguished by the springiness of the connected notes, and because of Sonny Stitt's trademark "fly-away" fluorishes that he sometimes attaches to the end of a phrase. Rollins has a sharper, almost tearing, sound. Then comes a short multi-instrument interlude. There then follows an extended period (about 5 min.) of alternating sax solos, without any intervening interludes. Then comes a trumpet solo (1 min and 20 sec.), a multi-instrument interlude, another trumpet solo (1 min and 20 sec.), and lo and behold, a piano solo (50 seconds). After the piano solo is what might be construed as a drum solo, where the drum solo consists of eight alternating short exclamations by the trumpet and by the drums, in this order: trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums, trumpet drums. This followed by the multi-instrument theme (30 sec.). The piece is be-bop from beginning to end.

Now this concerns The Bop Session, another album similar to (but less raw, if you don't mind the term "raw") than Sonny Side Up. "The Bop Session," was recorded on May 19-20, 1975. The album is on Sonet records, and is distributed by VOGUE. The musicians are Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Percy Heath, Hank Jones, and Max Roach. The album is basically a shared Stitt/Gillespie album. All the pieces are in the "be bop" style. There are no Cuban congas, Brazilian harmonies, pleasant Broadway melodies, or sprited blues wailings. These chamber music pieces are unadorned with singing, chanting, electric guitars, or vibraphones. The piano and drums only have relatively short periods for soloing. On the other hand, the album could be called "The Percy Heath Bass Album," since bass notes spew continuously throughout, without pause, where the bass lines are always clearly defined and right out in front.

In all the pieces the saxophone comes from the left speaker, the trumpet from the right, and the bass, drums, and piano from the center. For best appreciation of the album, the volume should be turned up, to enable hearing Max Roach's clicking cymbol rhythms.

1. Blue'n'Boogie. This piece is unusual, in this set, because after the intro there is a piano solo (rather than a sax or trumpet solo). Next comes a sax solo which, at one point, appears to quote from a fragment of When the Saints Go Marching In. At another point, Mr.Stitt plays one note repeatedly, but with two different fingers, providing an interesting effect. Then there's a trumpet solo. Next a bass solo. There is a drum solo, which concludes with an alternating interlude. Overall, the alternating interlude could be construed as a drum solo, and it consists of the instruments taking turns like this: trumpet, sax, drums, trumpet, drums, sax, drums, trumpet, drums, and sax.

2. Confirmation. Confirmation and Groovin' High are tunes for all Americans to learn by heart. First comes a saxophone solo. The sax solo contains many notes, as one might expect. They are strung together in a way that invokes oozing honey, melting butter, or a cube of vibrating jelly. At one point in the solo, Mr.Stitt plays one note repeatedly, but with two different fingerings, providing a special effect (see above). There's a trumpet solo. Then a piano solo. Then come multiple bass solos, each bracketed by an ascending fluttering motif on trumpet/sax. There are six such ascending fluttering motifs.

3. Groovin' High. The sax solo consists of many notes, as one might expect, but one of them is distorted (intended or not). The single distorted note provides a more powerful effect than repeatedly playing distorted notes, here and there throughout the piece. (Thirty years ago, in the mid 70s, I heard Dave Holland and Sam Rivers at Keystone Korner in San Francisco. In the middle of one of the pieces, Sam Rivers stopped playing saxophone for a moment, and screamed into the microphone, then resumed playing. He didn't do that again, during that particular evening. Doing odd things once can have a bigger effect than doing them a plurality of times.) Then comes a trumpet solo. Then a piano solo. Groovin' High is unique among these pieces in that it concludes with a dramatic fanfare.

4. Lover Man. This piece is slow, though the lenghthy muted trumpet solo contains a few spurting arpeggios that are as quick as those found elsewhere in this set. Lover Man begins with a long sax solo. Then there's a muted trumpet solo. Then a short piano solo. Then a sax solo.

5. All the Things You Are. Begins with a sax and muted trumpet duet. Then a muted trumpet solo. Then sax solo. In this piece, the sax has a somewhat sharper tone, rather than the more honey-toned saxophone tone found in the other pieces. Then a piano solo. Then a non-muted trumpet interlude, DRUM SOLO, sax solo, DRUM SOLO, trumpet solo, DRUM SOLO, sax solo, DRUM SOLO, trumpet solo, DRUM SOLO, sax solo, DRUM SOLO, finally a duet with muted trumpet and sax.

6. Lady Bird. Lady Bird begins with a sax solo. The saxophone solo contains Sonny Stitt's trademark ascending fluttering arpeggios. Muted trumpet solo. Piano solo (the longest on this album). Bass solo. Drum solo. The ending comprises Sonny Stitt playin the tune (theme) while Gillespie improvides on this tume.

In my opinion, every American high school student should be issued a copy of "The Bop Session," prior to graduation, as part of their acculturation process.

Quite possibly the best "blowing" album ever.......2004-07-07

This is not an important album in the sense that something like Kind of Blue, or Birth of the Cool, or Giant Steps or Moanin' was. It is, however, a showcase of what modern jazz was originally all about: the jam session. This album is nothing more than a glorified jam session, but what a jam it is! All musicians, especially the Sonnys are in the finest of form, contributing burning soloes on the Eternal Triangle, hard swinging ones on Sunny Side of the Street, and finger-poppin' ones on After Hours. The playing is infectious: this cd will always put you in a good mood. I've debated with my friends many times over who wins in the fast Eternal Triangle: Stitt, with his bebop lines? Or Rollins, who somehow manages to be melodic even in this rapid atmosphere? But then Dizzy enters in with his trumpet way up high, and the "winner" question becomes impossible to answer. That's the way it is throughout the entire album, and that should be all the info one could ever need. A perfect 5 stars.

jazz at its best.......2004-06-01

wow this is the best jazz album i ever heard. giant steps comes close but wow this album is amazing. both sonny's sound great as usualy but its almost as tho they raised their game some. diz sounds great everyone sounds good this is a must buy get this album NOW!

Quite short, but a piece of JAZZ Heaven and History.......2003-09-09

There is no doubt that this session served to push both Stitt and Rollins to some of their best ("The Eternal Triangle" for Stitt and Rollins...and "..Sunny Side.." finding Rollins compact and captivating in his solo). "After Hours" is one of my favorite tunes (called 'the Black National Anthem' by one of my 80+ year old best friends), and while it is played for quite a while - it is literally more than a fourth of the recording - I could listen to Ray Bryant with brother Tommy all night long. This is a great recording, and I wouldn't 'pass it around' without keeping a close eye on it!

Average customer rating:

Sonny Side Up
Dizzy Gillespie , Sonny Stitt , and Sonny Rollins
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Study in Brown
The Sidewinder
Idle Moments

ASIN: B00000E5JK
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

On the Sunny Side of the Street
Eternal Triangle
After Hours
I Know That You Know

Average customer rating:

Great singer, less than great album
A little disappointing, but anything Sonny is great!
Sonny has always been the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN
NOT ONE OF HIS BEST
Great for people who long for more music from Sonny.

Sunny Side Up
Sonny James
Manufacturer: Sony Special Product
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music

Nashville Sound | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Pledge Of Love
Spend Another Night In Houston
Kid Cisco
Hold What You've Got
If I Ever Wanted You
The Letter
Lorelei
Too Many Rivers
Looking Back
Oh Baby Mine (I Get So Lonely)

Customer Reviews:

Great singer, less than great album.......2001-06-10

This album, first released by Monument Records in 1979, is not Sonny's best work. The songs on it are not the best, and even Sonny's vocals are not in his usually excellent style. Just a disappointing album. The only reason I give it 3 stars is because it's a Sonny James album; if it were most other singers, I would only give it 2.

Most of the songs on it do not deal with Sonny's usual themes of the joys of love or the sadness of heartbreak. Those are represented by such songs as "Pledge of Love," and "Looking Back." There is a bit of a Mexican theme with "Spend Another Night In Houston" and "Kid Cisco." There are also two old-time songs covered by Sonny on the album: "Lorelei" and "Oh Baby Mine."

However, nothing really defines this album. Some of the songs are confusing; none of them really stand out as excellent with the possible exception of "Hold What You've Got." The album has a 70's sound, but it doesn't have a Sonny James sound to it, a lot of the reason this album is disappointing. Only true Sonny fans would appreciate this album. . .maybe.

A little disappointing, but anything Sonny is great!.......1999-07-08

I guess I was expecting the Sonny James of the 1950s, but was sadly disappointed, but I still enjoyed listening to Sonny. I'm trying to find the following albums by SJ, "HONEY", "SOUTHERN GENTLEMAN", AND "SONNY" and I would appreciate hearing from any fans of Sonny James, Faron Young, Carl Smith, Hank Snow, and George Morgan.

Sonny has always been the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN.......1999-04-21

I was fortunate to know Sonny when he was living in Dallas in the 1950's. He was recording for CAPITOL and doing a weekly show on the WFAA Shindig. He could sing and play with the best in country music, and I am pleased to hear in this album some of the same style and musicianship that made him famous. His fans always thought of him as the COUNTRY GENTLEMAN because he was just as gracious onstage as offstage.

NOT ONE OF HIS BEST.......1999-04-19

Great but not one of his best .It dones not compare with SNOW IS ON THE ROSES .Had tape but wore it out .Had try to fine it but can not .I would be so happy if I could a copy . IT would make my day

Great for people who long for more music from Sonny........1998-08-11

As a Sonny James fan I was ecastatic to find Sony music had put this out. It's a collection of songs recorded in 1979 for the Monument label, but was never released because Monument went belly-up. Although the great James voice of the 60's and early 70's is gone, you still have some new music to enjoy. Several have a latin beat and I think are the best..including "Pledge of Love" which has the famous Sonny James "lilt," and "Kid Cisco," a nice peppy song. Every Sonny James fan was probably disappointed by "Lorelei" which was so pretty and had some unique voice twists...then it breaks into the marching band sound! I'd like to hear from other Sonny James fans.

Average customer rating:

Sonny Side Up
Dizzy Gillespie , Sonny Stitt , and Sonny Rollins
Manufacturer: Universal
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000CD7Z8
Release Date: 2003-12-01

Tracks:

On the Sunny Side of the Street
Eternal Triangle
After Hours
I Know That You Know

Average customer rating:

Sonny Side Up
Little Sonny
Manufacturer: Sequel Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Blues | Styles | Music

Electric Blues Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music

Harmonica Blues | Blues | Styles | Music

General | R&B | Styles | Music

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

Jazz Music