This article is about the 1959 album by Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. For the 1960 album by Sonny Stitt, see Sonny Side Up (Roost album).
1959 studio album by Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins
As Thomas Cunniffe has written, "The pairing of Rollins and Stitt was highly inspired. More important than their common nicknames (and the punning album title), tenor saxophonists Rollins and Stitt were both influenced by Charlie Parker, but each took a vastly different approach to improvisation. Stitt transferred Parker's white-hot intensity to the tenor after several fans and critics pointed out the tonal similarity of their alto sounds. Rollins was a more thoughtful player who expanded the vocabulary of bop improvisation by incorporating thematic elements into his solos and by experimenting with different melodic shapes and unusual phrase lengths."[4]
Pianist Ray Bryant, bassist Tommy Bryant, and drummer Charlie Persip form the rhythm section.[2] Stephen Cook of AllMusic described the album as "one of the most exciting 'jam session' records in the jazz catalog. ...both a highly enjoyable jazz set and something of an approximation of the music's once-revered live cutting session".[2]
