Sonny Stitt (1924-1982) was a master craftsman and a consistently inventive alto and tenor saxophonist throughout his entire career. His style developed from the musical language of Charlie Parker and Lester Young and he was a big influence on many saxophonists of the 50's and 60's. 

Stitt was still developing his style on these 1950-52 recordings. Soon after this period he found his distinctive voice on tenor which remained largely unchanged throughout his career. I believe there is more variety in his handling of ii-V-I progressions in this early period than in his later recordings. As he matured, he developed his "signature" voice which was distinctive and resulted in more reliance on a narrower range of basic patterns.

Notice how he uses quite a variety of approaches to enhance the basic progression. In analyzing solos from the greats we realize that the best improvisers are able to produce endless variations of their basic patterns. We should all aspire to have this many "tricks" up our sleeve.

The only modifications I've made to these patterns were adding resolution notes to the ends of some of the phrases.

Here are some examples of Sonny Stitt's variations on a basic ii-V-I pattern from the bebop era found in the tunes Sonny Side, I Want to be Happy, Blue Mambo, and All God's Chillun Got Rhythm. They are all available on the CD's Kaleidoscope (OJC-060) and Stitt/Powell/J.J.Johnson (OJC-009).

See the Stitt pdf. (Requires Acrobat Reader).

There are several books with transcribed Stitt solos from his later period available at Jamey Aebersold.
 
 

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