Situated 23 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, Herminie may appear to be a small, unassuming Pennsylvanian coal mining group, however it gave the world Sonny Clark, a bona fide large of jazz piano. Born on Friday, July 31, 1931, he was baptized Conrad Yeatis Clark and, for a couple of fleeting years, between 1955 and 1961, he was a prolific recording artist for Blue Word Information in New York, laying down traditional albums like Sonny’s Crib, Cool Struttin’, and My Conception. However his time within the highlight was painfully transient; the pianist died from a heroin overdose on Sunday, January 13, 1963. He was 31 years previous.
Drawn to the piano as a boy and possessing a pure facility for the instrument, Clark, who was the youngest in a household of eight kids, started taking part in in an area lodge whereas nonetheless in elementary college. He began his skilled music profession in 1951 after visiting an aunt in California, the place he joined the band of saxophonist Wardell Grey. He later performed with famous bassist Oscar Pettiford and likewise labored as a sideman for bebop clarinetist Buddy DeFranco (with whom he recorded 5 LPs and toured Europe) in addition to becoming a member of the ranks of bassist Howard Rumsey’s West Coast group, Lighthouse All-Stars.
After six years in California, Clark returned to the East Coast in early 1957, and was quickly in demand as a sideman, initially as an accompanist for singer Dinah Washington, after which on a recording session for Sonny Rollins. Distilling the improvements of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk to create his personal bebop-influenced fashion, Clark attracted the eye of Blue Word’s boss, Alfred Lion, after impressing on a June ’57 session for saxophonist Hank Mobley. Lion then gave the pianist his first shot at main a recording session beneath his personal identify a couple of weeks later, in July of that yr, when he recorded his debut album, Dial “S” For Sonny, which instantly established Clark as a tough bop pianist of the primary order.
By the point that Clark went again into Rudy Van Gelder’s Hackensack studio to document his second album for Blue Word – on September 1, 1957, when he laid down the tracks for what grew to become Sonny’s Crib – the pianist had racked up a number of different sideman classes for the label, together with one other one for Hank Mobley.
The recording of the album
On Sonny’s Crib, Clark opted to make use of the sextet format that had labored so effectively on his debut album, although solely trombonist Curtis Fuller remained from that session’s line-up. In got here Donald Byrd on trumpet, John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Paul Chambers on bass, and Artwork Taylor on drums. With a reborn, revitalized Coltrane on board, it was a powerful line-up (earlier within the yr, Trane had been fired from the Miles Davis Quintet for unreliability on account of drug habit, however, by September, had stop heroin for good; in late ’57, nonetheless, he was re-establishing himself as a significant pressure in jazz).
Three of the album’s 5 tracks are requirements. The opener is a swinging tackle Rodgers & Hart’s “With A Song In My Heart,” whereas a jaunty studying of Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low” is propelled by an infectious Latin groove, with Coltrane taking the primary solo and displaying his absolute mastery of the tenor saxophone. A wistful tackle Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s mournful ballad “Come Rain Or Come Shine” exhibits the sextet in a reflective temper, with Fuller’s resonant trombone notably efficient.
For aspect two of Sonny’s Crib, Clark reserved two lengthy self-penned tunes. The primary is the title track, a traditional piece of unadulterated exhausting bop the place the “head” theme attracts on “amen” cadences from African-American church music. It then eases right into a midtempo swing groove which permits the soloists to stretch out. First in line is Coltrane, who delivers a usually strong however fluid “sheets of sound”-style solo.
Closing the LP is “News For Lulu,” one other uptempo piece with Latin inflections that’s distinguished by adroit ensemble work and stellar solos. Fittingly, Clark leads the primary solo on this remaining monitor, which reveals his lean melodic fashion and right-hand melodies which are virtually horn-like of their phrasing.
The album’s reception and legacy
After Sonny’s Crib, Sonny Clark recorded six extra classes as a frontrunner for Blue Word, together with, a yr later, what many critics understand as his definitive album: Cool Struttin’. All the time in demand, Clark additionally performed as a sideman on a slew of classes for the label, together with albums by Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean, Stanley Turrentine, Grant Inexperienced, and Dexter Gordon.
Although diminutive by way of his peak (he stood solely 5 foot, 5 inches), Sonny Clark was undoubtedly a person of considerable stature within the jazz world. He might need achieved even better issues had he lived longer, however as it’s, Sonny’s Crib is a traditional album that ensures that each his music and expertise may be appreciated by future generations.
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