Forecast: Sonny & Red (Remastered) Sonny Stitt & Red Holloway

• 1 The Way You Look Tonight (Remastered) 05:19
• 2 Forecast: Sonny & Red (Remastered) 04:48
• 3 You Don't Know What Love Is / I'm Getting Sentimental Over You (Remastered) 10:48
• 4 Lester Leaps In (Remastered) 06:37
• 5 Just Friends (Remastered) 06:18
• 6 All God's Chillun Got Rhythm (Remastered) 04:56
• Total Runtime 38:46

Info for Forecast: Sonny & Red (Remastered)

Experience a musical dialogue between two of the most virtuosic tenor sax players to grace the stage. As bandleaders, composers, innovators and musicians, these two jazzmen are celebrated alongside the likes of Coltrane and Charlie Parker. Jazz historian Scott Yanow stated “Sonny Stitt and Red Holloway make a perfect team on this exciting jam session record... Holloway was able to keep up with the combative Stitt and the fireworks are well worth savoring.”

A great session of 70s bop revival from the team of Sonny Stitt and Red Holloway -- working here in the warm and sunny style of the great Catalyst label! The album Forecast has the two hornmen blowing to acoustic accompaniment from a trio that includes Art Hillary on piano, Larry Gales on bass, and Clarence Johnston on drums -- jamming in boppish formation on tunes that include "Lester Leaps In", "The Way You Look Tonight", "Forecast: Sonny & Red", and "All God's Chillun". Even better is the second album on the set -- Partners -- which has the pair working with a bit of electric keyboards from Frank Strazzeri, and an expanded rhythm section that includes some conga -- all of which makes for a sound that's rounder, warmer, and overall more in the mellow modal mode of the best Catalyst sides of the 70s.

"Stitt sticks here to tenor while Holloway alternates between tenor and alto. With fine backup by pianist Art Hillery, bassist Larry Gales and drummer Clarence Johnston, Sonny and Red share a ballad medley and battle it out on the title cut, "The Way You Look Tonight," "Lester Leaps In," "Just Friends" and "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm." Holloway was able to keep up with the combative Stitt and the fireworks are well worth savoring." (Scott Yanow, AMG

Sonny Stitt, tenor saxophone
Red Holloway, tenor saxophone, alto saxophone
Art Hillery, piano
Larry Gales, bass
Clarence Johnston, drums

Recorded 1976 at Sage & Sound Studios, Hollywood, CA
Produced by Pat Britt

Digitally remastered

Sonny Stitt
was one of the most influential bebop saxophonists. Admired for his technique, his swing, his inventiveness and his efficiency on fiery solos as well as on ballads, the one nicknamed the "Lone Wolf" recorded more than a hundred albums.

Edward "Sonny" Stitt was born in 1924 in Boston, Massachusetts and grew up in Michigan. His parents taught music, his brother was a pianist, and he himself first studied piano before taking up singing, clarinet and then alto saxophone.

He began his career in Tiny Bradshaw's band in the early 1940s, then joined Billy Eckstine's band where he played with the future bopers Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons. He quickly meets Charlie Parker with whom he plays in Kansas City, then other bebop pioneers: Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Bud Powell... He replaces Charlie Parker in Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1945 and makes his first recordings. It was during this period that Sonny Stitt began to play tenor saxophone regularly and developed a very distinctive style.

He began recording as a leader in 1946 and spent a large part of his career leading small groups. In the 1950s, he recorded several memorable records with his friend Gene Ammons, tenor saxophonist, but also with Bud Powell, Eddie Lockjaw, and the Quincy Jone's Orchestra. He was also invited to participate in Norman Granz's JATP concerts in the late 1950s.

He then experimented with Afro-Cuban jazz with Thad Jones and Chick Corea, notably by interpreting the standard Autumn Leaves. A few years later, he explored soul jazz with Booker Ervin in the album Soul people (1964).

Red Holloway
An exuberant player with attractive tones on both tenor and alto, Red Holloway was also a humorous blues singer. Whether it be bop, blues, or R&B, Holloway held his own with anyone. Holloway played in Chicago with Gene Wright's big band (1943-1946), served in the Army, and then played with Roosevelt Sykes (1948) and Nat Towles (1949-1950), before leading his own quartet (1952-1961) during an era when he also recorded with many blues and R&B acts. Holloway rose to fame in 1963 while touring with Jack McDuff, making his first dates as a leader for Prestige (1963-1965). Although he cut many records in R&B settings, Red Holloway was a strong bop soloist at heart, as he proved in the '70s when he battled Sonny Stitt to a tie on their recorded collaboration. He went on to work mostly as a leader, but also guested with Juggernaut and the Cheathams, and played with Clark Terry on an occasional basis. He continued being active as a player into the 21st century, releasing Standing Room Only on Chiaroscuro Records in 2000; Keep That Groove Going, with Plas Johnson, on Milestone Records in 2001; Coast to Coast, also on Milestone Records, in 2003; and Go Red Go! in 2009 on Delmark Records. Holloway died on February 25, 2012 of kidney failure and stroke. He was 84 years old. (Scott Yanow, AMG)

This album contains no booklet.