26 Sonny Stitt Licks (Bb)

A collection of some of my favourite Major ii-V-I Licks by Sonny Stitt, all played in concert Bb at a relaxed medium-swing tempo. The transcription is transposed for Bb instruments.
I've never been much of a 'lick' player, but have started this series to increase my jazz vocabulary, and hope that it will be of some use to others too. Please let me know if you find if you find this at all useful! I've got lots of other licks I could post...
Disclaimer: The purpose of this video is to give intermediate jazz students some ideas for creating a jazz language of their own, so I'm not even really attemting to play Stitt's amazing articulations etc.... you should buy and listen to his albums on repeat if you really want to master his phrasing and style. You can find the backing track here: • Bb Major ii V I VI7
My setup: Antigua Pro One Tenor, Dukoff 8* mouthpiece

[@lokir]

Thank you for your generosity.

[@michaeldawson8487]

Great! Just what i needed. I´m a guitar player and Sonny Stitt is one my favourite jazz saxo player. Thanks.

[@matthewcincotta7131]

This is such a big help! Thanks!

[@marcinchmielewski6403]

Thanks for the exercises. I was looking for something like that. Greetings.

[@joshuamarks1129]

👍👍Nice presentation! As a very big Stitt fan, I really appreciate this project of yours and love that you shared it, so many beautiful gems in there and I hope you'll tackle 26 of his great Minor Melodies!
But this one could benefit from a little more editing because I'm fairly certain that several of those 4th bar "turnarounds" have Harmonic problems: Letters O, Q, S, V, and Z have trouble spots at the end, especially the phrases that are clearly written as E7 melodies, but they ought to be A7 melodies to return to Dm7.

[@mattdavis9801]

Thanks for your comment Joshua - yes Sonny Stitt is amazing :) I've got a series of minor ii-V-Is coming; and a series from Bird, Cannonball, Dexter Gordan and Trane still to post...I've tried to stay true to what I heard on the albums (although my ears are far from perfect) so these licks aren't always resolving back to the ii (or even the I). Unfortunately, the play-along is just a standard ii-V-I playalong, so it doesn't always follow the chord progression that the band is playing on the recording. 'O' has a I VI7 ii V7 turnaround at the end, to resolve to a I chord in the following bar. At the end of 'Q' (and S) he's superimposing a V13b9 (the diminished sound) over the I chord, again to create a stronger push to a I chord in the following bar, but you're correct in saying that it sounds like an E7 chord, It could just as easily resolve to a vi chord. I hear the last bar of 'Z' as being a super-imposed V13b9 chord as well (it seems to have been a favourite device of Sonny's), again with a strong push back to a I chord. Hope that helps!

[@knowpitbull]

Thanks bro!

[@Brian4hand]

Starting iq = 100
Final iq after playing along = infinity +

[@janymikeptz1156]

Very nice, thanks for sharing. Can you also share the full PDF too?

[@mattdavis9801]

Hi, yes I'll get one uploaded soon :) Cheers.

[@maxdouglas7769]

Obg boa noite