Sonny Clark: Dial "S" For Sonny (Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series) [BLUE NOTE]

Why you'll love it

This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series edition is mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180g vinyl in mono. It's Sonny Clark's first session as a leader, a sextet date with a front line of Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller and Hank Mobley.

This edition

• Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series
• 180g vinyl
• Mastered from the original analog tapes by Kevin Gray
• Mono
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

The title borrows from Dial M for Murder, the Frederick Knott play that Alfred Hitchcock turned into a hit film in 1954, but the plot here is a very good hard bop session. Sonny Clark had arrived in New York from the West Coast, and Alfred Lion wasted no time getting the young pianist into Rudy Van Gelder's studio on July 21, 1957.

Lion gave him a strong band: Art Farmer on trumpet, Curtis Fuller on trombone, Hank Mobley on tenor, with Wilbur Ware on bass and Louis Hayes on drums. Clark wrote four of the six tunes, including the swaggering title track, the bluesy "Bootin' It" and the long, relaxed "Sonny's Mood." "It Could Happen To You" shows off his lyrical touch, and on Gershwin's "Love Walked In" the horns step out and leave the trio to it.

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "a terrific set of laidback bop," highlighted by Clark's liquid, swinging solos. With Reid Miles on design and Francis Wolff behind the camera, it's Blue Note house style from the sleeve to the runout, and nobody in it gets murdered, which for a Hitchcock reference is a pleasant surprise.

Also at Kops: more Sonny Clark on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Blue Note (cat# 4535210), a reissue of the 1957 album.