A Tale of Two Sonnys
I’m proud of myself. I’m up in the country and I have some time and it’s relaxing and I put a couple of records on. First I put on Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’, which is a great record that I hadn’t listed to for years. Then for some reason I put on Sonny Criss Plays Cole Porter on Imperial (both reissues, unfortunately). And I was listening and it was right after Cool Struttin’ and I was thinking, hmm, the pianist on the Sonny Criss record sounds like Sonny Clark. So I looked on the liner notes and, zip, nothing. Oh I hate it when liner notes don’t list the musicians. Thank goodness for the Internet. I googled the record and within seconds I found out, indeed, it is Sonny Clark on piano. For those of you keeping score, the other sidemen are Larry Bunker on vibes, Buddy Woodson on bass and Lawrence Marable on drums. Nice record and I can’t tell if it’s my pressing, but the recording is very tinny. Any of you out there with the original?
no comments in 3 days?
rare record: I’ve got the other one on Imperial, Jazz U.S.A.but never had Plays Cole Porter.
Dottor — I was wondering the same thing. Unusual to go so long with so few comments.
Sonny also plays on Go! Man. He did three sessions with Criss on Imperial. I have an original Play’s Cole Porter but I payed a pretty penny for it. $350 or so if I remember right. I have Classic Records re-issues for the other 2. The re-issues sound good.
It’s amazing to me, how much Sonny’s style solidified between 56′ and 58′. Does anyone else think so? I can listen to these sessions and know it’s Sonny, but by Cool Struttin’ you know that THIS IS SONNY! I actually love some of the 56, 57 albums as much or more than Cool Struttin’ although I don’t exactly know why.