The correct answer is: Sonny Stitt
“Stitt’s early recorded solos show clearly that he was a disciple of Charlie Parker; he used Parker’s favorite melodic formulas and imitated his tone quality and vibrato. Only small details of phrasing and articulation–an occasional slight hesitation in connecting notes in a Parkeresque phrase, or a subtly different way of tonguing–betray the imitator. Over the years he gradually added a number of individual melodic formulas to his vocabulary, but Parker’s influence always dominated his solos on the alto saxophone, even when he used the Varitone, an electronic sound-modifying attachment which he adopted soon after its appearance on the market in 1966. He probably turned initially to the tenor and baritone saxophones in an effort to escape his image as Parker’s follower; the baritone instrument proved to be but a temporary diversion, but the tenor opened up new lines of musical thought for him. He made his most distinctive statements on this instrument, which he played frequently from 1950.”
–THOMAS OWENS, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz
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A tribute to Charlie Parker, featuring Sonny Stitt
