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Title: Two Sides Of Sonny
Review: This album plus the "Soul Classics" compilation on Prestige provide half the picture of what Stitt was up to in the late '60s and early '70s. For much of the time, he went where the money was (and there wasn't very much money at all in anything but fusion in the early '70s): with an organ trio or quartet. Don Patterson is the organist on "Low Flame." He also appears on "Soul Classics" along with Jack McDuff and others. This is jazz with a lot of funky soul in it, not funky soul with a lot of jazz in it. And Stitt is in great form. The other half of the picture, the one without the grits and gravy, can be found on the "Endgame Brilliance" compilation on 32Jazz, with Sonny in a straight-ahead setting with Barry Harris on piano. Both halves have their distinct pleasures, and both have a premier bebop altoist/tenorist at the top of his mature form.
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