Sonny Clark - 1957 - Dial S For Sonny

Sonny Clark

1957

Dial S For Sonny

01. Dial "S" For Sonny
02. Bootin' It
03. It Could Happen To You
04. Sonny's Mood
05. Shoutin' On A Riff
06. Love Walked In

Bass – Wilbur Ware
Drums – Louis Hayes
Piano – Sonny Clark
Tenor Saxophone – Hank Mobley
Trombone – Curtis Fuller
Trumpet – Art Farmer

Recorded July 21, 1957.

A remarkable composer and pianist whose special touch and articulation makes him instantly recognizable at the piano, Sonny (Conrad Yeatis) Clark recorded so much on the Blue Note label that he was practically their in-house pianist. This hard-bop mainstay was particularly noteworthy for his virtuosic right hand lines.

Sonny was born in Herminie, PA, a small mining town 60 miles from Pittsburgh. He started piano at four, and at six was featured playing boogie-woogie on several amateur hour radio programs. He spent his teenage years in Pittsburgh, playing vibes and bass in high school as well as being featured on piano. He went to California in 1951 with his older brother, also a pianist, and worked in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, starting his recording career at age 22 in February, 1953, with Teddy Charles. He soon recorded with Art Pepper and Buddy DeFranco (traveling to Europe for a couple of months to start 1954), then returned to LA to work with Buddy, Cal Tjader, Sonny Criss, Frank Rosolino, Serge Chaloff, Lawrence Marable-James Clay quartet and Howard Rumsey's Lighthouse All-Stars. He decided to work his way back East by joining Dinah Washington, arriving in NYC in April of 1957. On June 11 and 12 he did his first NY recording sessions as part of the Sonny Rollins quartet for Riverside Records. June 23, 1957, marks his first Blue Note date as a member of a Hank Mobley sextet. Within the next month, on July 21, he recorded his own first leader date for Blue Note: "Dial S For Sonny." He continued to record many more sessions for Blue Note as both sideman (with Curtis Fuller, more Hank Mobley, Johnny Griffin, Clifford Jordan, Lee Morgan, Art Farmer, Lou Donaldson, Tina Brooks, Bennie Green, Jackie McLean, Grant Green, Ike Quebec, Dexter Gordon and others) and as a leader right up to his last recording session, a Stanley Turrentine sextet date (October 18, 1962). He recorded mostly for Blue Note but did find time to also record with Philly Joe Jones (Riverside), Coleman Hawkins (Colpix), more with Bennie Green (Enrica and Time), his own leader date and a date with Stanley Turrentine on Time. We are blessed that he left us with many great recordings from both his California and New York periods. Sonny, along with bassist Butch Warren and drummer Billy Higgins, created one of the truly classic rhythm sections of this period. He was hospitalized in late 1962 with a leg infection and was released only shortly before he passed away in January. Sonny was only 31 years old when he died.

With the exception of "Love Walked In," which features piano all the way, Clark generously shares equal solo time with Mobley, Farmer, and Fuller on the other six tunes. Still, he has enough space to make the most of what was his Blue Note debut, playing with greater fluency and technical aplomb than on the more celebrated "Cool Struttin'." In fact, based on the evidence of this recording, a listener might wonder if Clark was destined to be the next Bud Powell.

But unlike Bud, Sonny is clearly more of a "session player," contributing five of the seven tunes, each of them the kind musicians love to blow on. And unlike, say, a Horace Silver, Sonny seems happy to remain in the background, showcasing his inventive soloists. Mobley is in his prime (another reason I'd pick this one ahead of "Cool Struttin'"), his warm, musky sound never captured better. Farmer is brassier and more emotional than I've ever heard him. Fuller is crisp and incisive, though I could have done with one less soloist in favor of extended choruses by the other musicians. (Clark's single-note, horn-like approach to his own solos is another reason to go with a leaner ensemble, if only to reduce the duplication of textures).

The youthful Louis Hayes plays like a veteran, even at this early stage which pre-dates his tours of duty with the Adderley brothers and Oscar Peterson. Wilbur Ware supports the legendary status he had attained as a musician's musician, a bass player who could be counted on to make any session swing (though I haven't decided whether his penchant for repeating the same note is effective tension and release or harmonic insecurity). All in all, an impressive introduction to Sonny Clark as a leader, composer, and player.