Early life
Edward Boatner was born in Boston, Massachusetts[1] and grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. He had a musical background; his father, Edward Boatner, was a baritone singer, composer and college music professor, his brother was a classically trained pianist, and his mother was a piano teacher.[1] Boatner was soon adopted by another family, the Stitts, who gave him his new surname. He later began calling himself "Sonny".
In 1943, Stitt first met Charlie Parker, and as he often later recalled, the two men found that their styles had an extraordinary similarity that was partly coincidental and not merely due to Stitt's emulation. Stitt's improvisations were more melodic/less dissonant than those of Parker. Stitt's earliest recordings were made in 1945 with Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. He had also played in some swing bands, though he mainly played in bop bands. Stitt was featured in Tiny Bradshaw's big band in the early forties. Stitt replaced Charlie Parker in Dizzy Gillespie's band in 1945.[2]
Stitt played alto saxophone in Billy Eckstine's big band alongside future bop pioneers Dexter Gordon and Gene Ammons from 1945 until 1956, when he started to play tenor saxophone more frequently, in order to avoid being referred to as a Charlie Parker imitator. Later on, he played with Gene Ammons and Bud Powell. Stitt spent time in a Lexington prison between 1948–49 for selling narcotics.
Stitt, when playing tenor saxophone, seemed to break free from some of the criticism that he was imitating Charlie Parker's style, although it appears in the instance with Ammons above that the availability of the larger instrument was a factor. Indeed, Stitt began to develop a far more distinctive sound on tenor.[1] He played with other bop musicians Bud Powell and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, a fellow tenor with a distinctly tough tone in comparison to Stitt, in the 1950s and recorded a number of sides for Prestige Records label as well as albums for Argo, Verve and Roost. Stitt experimented with Afro-Cuban jazz in the late 1950s, and the results can be heard on his recordings for Roost and Verve, on which he teamed up with Thad Jones and Chick Corea for Latin versions of such standards as "Autumn Leaves."
Stitt joined Miles Davis briefly in 1960, and recordings with Davis' quintet can be found only in live settings on the tour of 1960. Concerts in Manchester and Paris are available commercially and also a number of concerts (which include sets by the earlier quintet with John Coltrane) on the record Live at Stockholm (Dragon), all of which featured Wynton Kelly, Jimmy Cobb and Paul Chambers. However, Miles fired Stitt due to the excessive drinking habit he had developed, and replaced him with fellow tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley. Stitt, later in the 1960s, paid homage to one of his main influences, Charlie Parker, on the album Stitt Plays Bird, which features Jim Hall on guitar and at Newport in 1964 with other bebop players including J.J. Johnson.
He recorded a number of memorable records with his friend and fellow saxophonist Gene Ammons, interrupted by Ammons' own imprisonment for narcotics possession. The records recorded by these two saxophonists are regarded by many as some of both Ammons and Stitt's best work, thus the Ammons/Stitt partnership went down in posterity as one of the best duelling partnerships in jazz, alongside Zoot Sims and Al Cohn, and Johnny Griffin with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Stitt would venture into soul jazz, and he recorded with fellow tenor saxophonist Booker Ervin in 1964 on the Soul People album. Stitt also recorded with Duke Ellington alumnus Paul Gonsalves in 1963 for Impulse! on the Salt And Pepper album in 1963. Around that time he also appeared regularly at Ronnie Scott's in London, a live 1964 encounter with Ronnie Scott, The Night Has A Thousand Eyes, eventually surfaced, and another in 1966 with resident guitarist Ernest Ranglin and British tenor saxophonist Dick Morrissey. Stitt was one of the first jazz musicians to experiment with an electric saxophone (the instrument was called a Varitone), as heard on the albums What's New in 1966 and Parallel-A-Stitt in 1967.
Later life
In the 1970s, Stitt slowed his recording output slightly, and in 1972, he produced another classic, Tune Up, which was and still is regarded by many jazz critics, such as Scott Yanow, as his definitive record. Indeed, his fiery and ebullient soloing was quite reminiscent of his earlier playing. He also recorded another album with Varitone, Just The Way It Was - Live At The Left Bank in 1971 which was released in 2000.
Stitt joined the all-star group Giants of Jazz, which also featured Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, Kai Winding and bassist Al McKibbon) and made albums for Atlantic Records, Concord Records and Emarcy Records. His last recordings were made in Japan. In 1982, Stitt suffered a heart attack, and he died on July 22 in Washington, D.C..[2]
Can't We Be Friends
Sonny Stitt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
I can't excuse it on the grounds of youth,
I was no babe in the wild, wild wood.
She didn't mean it,
I should have seen it,
But now it's too late.
I thought I'd found the girl of my dreams,
This is how the story ends:
She's gonna turn me down and say,
"Can't we be friends?"
I thought for once it couldn't go wrong,
Not for long,
I can see the way this ends:
She's gonna turn me down and say,
"Can't we be friends?"
Why should I care though she gave me the air,
Why should I cry,
Heave a sigh,
And wonder why,
And wonder why?
I thought I found the gal I could trust,
What a bust, this is how the story ends:
She's gonna turn me down and say,
"Can't we be just friends?"
In the opening lines of Sonny Stitt's song "Can't We Be Friends," the singer describes himself as someone who was naive and took everything his partner said as the absolute truth. He admits that he cannot excuse this behavior on the grounds of youth because he was not a child. However, he also notes that his partner did not mean what she said, and he failed to realize this. He acknowledges that it is now too late to make amends.
The song continues as the singer describes how he believed he had found the woman of his dreams, but things did not turn out as he had hoped. She is going to reject him and then ask to be friends, leaving him feeling disappointed and hurt. The singer questions why he should care or wonder about the situation since he was the one who was rejected. He finishes by expressing his disappointment at how things turned out, and he adds that he thought he had found someone he could trust, but it turned out to be a failure.
Overall, "Can't We Be Friends" is a song about unrequited love, disappointment, and the hope that people can remain amicable and decent with each other, even in the face of rejection.
Line by Line Meaning
Took each word she said as gospel truth the way a silly little child would.
I believed every word she said like a naive child.
I can't excuse it on the grounds of youth,
I can't blame my gullibility on being young.
I was no babe in the wild, wild wood.
I wasn't completely clueless and inexperienced.
She didn't mean it,
She didn't intend to hurt me.
I should have seen it,
I should have realized what was really going on.
But now it's too late.
But now it's too late to do anything about it.
I thought I'd found the girl of my dreams,
I believed I had met my perfect match.
Now it seems,
But now it appears that wasn't the case.
This is how the story ends:
This is how things turned out in the end.
She's gonna turn me down and say,
She's going to reject me and suggest we just be friends instead.
Can't we be friends?
Can't we remain friends despite the romantic disappointment?
I thought for once it couldn't go wrong,
I thought this time everything would go smoothly.
Not for long,
But unfortunately that wasn't the case for very long.
I can see the way this ends:
I can already see how things are going to turn out.
Why should I care though she gave me the air,
Why should I be upset even though she rejected me?
Why should I cry,
Why should I shed tears?
Heave a sigh,
Or let out a heavy sigh of disappointment.
And wonder why,
And question why things turned out this way.
I thought I found the gal I could trust,
I believed I had found someone I could confide in.
What a bust, this is how the story ends:
But what a letdown, this is how things ultimately turned out.
She's gonna turn me down and say,
She's going to let me down and propose we just be friends.
Can't we be just friends?
Can't we just have a platonic relationship?
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Kay Swift, Paul James
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
lastknowngood0
Sonny was a lucky Cat. A hot shot meant for Sonny was passed to trumpet artist Freddie Webster,
Purportedly unknown by Mr. Stitt, in 1947. It killed Freddie instead of Sonny who had pissed off the wrong people. Smack kills in more ways than one. R.I.P. FREDDIE WEBSTER one of Miles best friends and an awesome jazz trumpeter! <<<3
tetsuo kuroiwa
Thank you.