DIZZY GILLESPIE - SONNY ROLLINS - SONNY STITT: SONNY SIDE UP (SERIE VERVE VAULT)

Performer: Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophones; Ray Bryant, piano; Tommy Bryant, double bass; Charlie (Charli) Persip, drums.
Composer: Dizzy Gillespie – Sonny Rollins – Sonny Stitt
Number of discs: 1
Barcode: 0602478179860
Label: Verve Vault
Format: LP
Genre: Jazz
Year: 2025

Verve Label Group and UMe, the global catalog division of Universal Music Group, are proud to announce Verve Vault, a new series of audiophile vinyl reissues highlighting both iconic jazz albums and overlooked gems from Verve’s vast catalog. The series will feature definitive 180-gram all-analog vinyl pressings, remastered from the original analog master tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at Optimal in Germany. Each release will combine outstanding audio fidelity with meticulous attention to detail, from mastering to jacket reproduction. The LPs will be housed in high-quality gatefold sleeves faithfully replicating the original packaging.

Verve Vault will offer two releases per month from the prestigious roster of Verve Label Group imprints, including Verve, Impulse!, Mercury, Decca, and others. The series will launch on October 10 with two of the most in-demand titles from the Verve catalog: Dizzy Gillespie’s 1959 album Sonny Side Up—which finds the jazz legend joining forces with fellow titans Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins for a triple tour de force—and Antonio Carlos Jobim’s 1963 debut The Composer of Desafinado Plays, a timeless bossa nova instrumental classic.

180-gram LP
A new title in the prestigious Verve Vault Series
Remastered from the original analog tapes
Pressed at Optimal

Originally released by Verve in 1959, Sonny Side Up is the masterful result of a studio encounter between trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and tenor saxophonists Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt. Recorded in December 1957 by producer Norman Granz, the album brings together three of the most emblematic figures of modern jazz in a lineup that’s anything but ordinary. Already regarded as one of bebop’s leading exponents, Gillespie engages in inspired dialogue with two tenor titans whose contrasting styles are on full display: Rollins with his imaginative thematic development and remarkable rhythmic flexibility, and Stitt with his dazzling bebop fluency. It’s said that before the session, Gillespie jokingly pitted Rollins and Stitt against each other—a challenge that pushed both to raise their game and deliver an album for the ages. Make no mistake: throughout the record, the two spar musically, leaving no doubt that both are heavyweight champions.

All titles in the outstanding Verve Vault Series are remastered from the original analog master tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal.

Personnel:
Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet; Sonny Stitt, tenor saxophone; Sonny Rollins, tenor saxophone; Ray Bryant, piano; Tommy Bryant, double bass; Charlie Persip, drums

Side A

On The Sunny Side Of The Street
The Eternal Triangle

Side B

After Hours
I Know That You Know