Dial "S" for Sonny

Last updated
Dial "S" for Sonny
Dial S for Sonny.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 1957 (1957-11) [1]
RecordedJuly 21, 1957
Studio Van Gelder Studio
Hackensack, NJ
Genre Bop
Length40:55
Label Blue Note
BLP 1570
Producer Alfred Lion
Sonny Clark chronology
Dial "S" for Sonny
(1957)
Sonny's Crib
(1958)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [2]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [3]

Dial "S" for Sonny is the debut studio album by the American jazz pianist Sonny Clark. It was released in November 1957 through Blue Note Records. [1] The recording was made on July 21, 1957 and the septet assembled for the session consists of horn section Art Farmer, Curtis Fuller, and Hank Mobley and rhythm section Wilbur Ware and Louis Hayes. [4]

Contents

Background

Title

The album title is an allusion to Frederick Knott's play Dial M for Murder , which was first produced in 1952 and then made into a successful film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954.

Reception

Critic John S. Wilson, in a contemporaneous review, remarked "Art Farmer contributes some crackling solos to Dial S for Sonny, ... but he has to fight a chomp-chomp rhythm section." [5]

The AllMusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine states, "Dial 'S' for Sonny, Sonny Clark's first session for Blue Note Records and his first session as a leader, is a terrific set of laidback bop, highlighted by Clark's liquid, swinging solos... Clark steals the show in this set of fine, straight-ahead bop." [6]

Track listing

All compositions by Sonny Clark, except as indicated
  1. "Dial "S" for Sonny" – 7:26
  2. "Bootin' It" – 5:17
  3. "It Could Happen to You" (Johnny Burke, Jimmy Van Heusen) – 6:59
  4. "Sonny's Mood" – 8:38
  5. "Shoutin' on a Riff" – 6:45
  6. "Love Walked In" (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin) – 5:50
  7. "Bootin' It" [Alternate Take] – 5:15 (CD bonus track)

Personnel

Musicians

Technical personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Dial "S" for Sonny
Chart (2022)Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [7] 147

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References

  1. 1 2 Parnes, Sid, ed. (November 9, 1957). "November Album Releases" (PDF). The Cash Box . New York: The Cash Box Publishing Co. p. 33. Archived (PDF) from the original on July 9, 2021.
  2. Allmusic Review
  3. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 254. ISBN   978-0-141-03401-0.
  4. Sonny Clark discography accessed December 21, 2009.
  5. Wilson, John S. (1959) The Collector's Jazz: Modern, p. 68. J. B. Lippincott.
  6. Earlewine, S. T. Allmusic Review accessed December 21, 2009.
  7. "Ultratop.be – Sonny Clark – Dial %22S%22 for Sonny" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved August 7, 2022.