DOWNLOAD THE BOOKLET

Sonny Criss:
The Volcano and the Candle (1947-1958)

By Alain Gerber

“He took his own life,” I read from Thomas Owen and Ted Gioia. William Sonny Criss (1927-1977) ended his life on November 20, 1977, less than a month after his 50^th birthday. It is assumed he grew weary of “agonizing while alive,” exhausted by seeing people push him out of his own existence every time he thought he was close to embracing it. Loving life, music, and the Earth’s beauty is not enough to be loved in return.

A professional musician from age fifteen, Criss got his start with the help of mentors like Howard McGhee, Wardell Gray, and Billy Eckstine. Figures like Gene Norman (founder of GNP Crescendo) and Norman Granz championed him, with Granz inviting him to join Jazz At The Philharmonic in 1949 and arranging his first recording session as a leader that same year. In 1955, Buddy Rich offered him a spot in a dream quintet, an opportunity Criss tried desperately, and ultimately in vain, to prove himself worthy of.

Opportunity often smiled upon him in those years, but it was an unreliable tease. It never fulfilled its promises, except perhaps during a long European sojourn between 1962 and 1965. In Paris, particularly, Criss could finally believe that the person he saw in the mirror wasn’t a hallucination. For a brief moment, success brushed against him. In six months, the man who had struggled in Hollywood—a city where he was Black and subject to discrimination “more hypocritical than in the South,” and who had “never seen the inside of a movie studio” in fifteen years—found himself “on the Riviera, acting and playing music in a big-budget film.”

The deeper truth behind his struggles, beyond race, was his unyielding artistic integrity. He was unwilling to compromise his art for projects where mediocrity was key to success. “Pure junk” (his quote) wasn’t his style; he declared, “I can neither play nor want to play such shit.” His wish was granted beyond all hope—he was never asked to.

Criss felt an undeniable, almost “visceral and phantasmic” need to succeed in Los Angeles, the city he considered his “hometown” (though born in Memphis). He yearned for revenge against those who saw him as disposable.

His skills were universally acknowledged. Bud Shank called him “the best in the area for pure jazz,” and historian Bob Porter ranked him “immediately behind Bird” as an alto player. Yet, this irrefutable brilliance failed to connect with the wider audience. Criss was “undesirable,” excluded from others’ desire, a verdict that felt transcendentally final. He was never granted the consolation of being “rediscovered.”

One night, Charlie Parker told him: “You think too much.” Bird believed Criss’s talent surpassed his own self-criticism, urging him to “let it speak for you.” Criss, the ultimate self-corrector, absorbed this warning. He fought against the very spirit of Parkerism that possessed him, sometimes triumphing over Bird in jam-session duels when the master was struggling. Criss sought to push the limits, becoming “eruptive,” and “the volcano fed on its own lava.”

Around age thirty-five, he began to reconcile, partially shedding the Parkerian shadow to embrace other great influences like Benny Carter, Johnny Hodges, and Willie Smith. Yet, this new wisdom risked making room for the most troublesome ghost of all: the ghost of Sonny Criss himself.

Love stories usually end badly. On November 20, 1977, the hero was extinguished with a gunshot, “like blowing out a candle.” Charlie Parker should have warned him: it is not enough to love yourself to be loved in return.

Alain Gerber (summary)

© Frémeaux & Associés 2026

1947-1958

Sonny Criss

Le volcan
et la bougie

CD 1 (1947-1955)

1. HOT HOUSE Pt. 1 & 2 (Tadd Dameron) Modern 20-694
2. SONNY’S BOP (SEMI-QUIET) (Sonny Criss) AFSR Jubilee 242
3. OUT OF NOWHERE (Johnny Green - Edward Heyman) AFSR Jubilee 242
4. FLIP’S IDEA (Flip Phillips) Clef 8911
5. PUT THAT BACK (Flip Phillips) Clef 8911
6. THE FIRST ONE (Sonny Criss) Clef 8910
7. CALIDAD (Sonny Criss) Clef 8910
8. BLUES FOR BOPPERS (Sonny Criss) Clef 8915
9. TORNADO (Sonny Criss) Clef 8915
10. IRRESISTIBLE YOU (Gene DePaul - Don Raye) Showcase 5007
11. THE SQUIRREL (Tadd Dameron) Showcase 5007
12. BROADWAY (Wilbur H. Bird - Teddy McRae - Henry Wood) Norgran MGN 1078
13. A SMOOTH ONE (Benny Goodman) Norgran MGN 1078

(1) Gene Norman Just Jazz : Howard McGhee (tp), Sonny Criss (as), Wardell Gray (ts), Dodo Marmarosa (p), Charlie Drayton (b), Jackie Mills (dm). Concert, Civic Auditorium, Pasadena (CA). 29/04/1947.

(2-3) Al Killian Sextet : Al Killian (tp), Sonny Criss (as), Wardell Gray (ts), Fletcher Smith (p), Ernie Shepard (b), Ken Kennedy (dm). Club, Portland (Oregon), 17/10/1947.

(4-5)  Flip Phillips & His Orchestra : John D’Agostino, Buddy Morrow, Tommy Turk, Kai Winding (tb), Sonny Criss (as), Flip Phillips (ts), Mickey Crane (p), Ray Brown (b), Shelly Manne (dm). Los Angeles, 20/09/1949.

(6-7-8-9) Sonny Criss Quartet : Sonny Criss (as), Hampton Hawes (p), Iggy Shevack (b), Chuck Thompson (dm). Los Angeles (CA), 22/09/1949..

(10-11) Harry Babasin All Stars : Chet Baker (tp), Charlie Parker, Sonny Criss (as), Al Haig or Donn Trenner (p), Harry Babasin (b), Lawrence Marable (dm). Trade Winds Club, Inglewood (CA), 16/06/1952.

(12-13) Buddy Rich Quintet : Harry Edison (tp), Sonny Criss (as), Jimmy Rowles (p), John Simmons (b), Buddy Rich (dm). Los Angeles, 26/08/1955.

Note : Tornado (N°9) est un démarquage de Wee (composition : Denzil Best).

CD 2 (1955-1958)

1. THE TWO MOTHERS (Harry Edison - Buddy Rich) Norgran MGN 1052
2. SONNY AND SWEETS (Sonny Criss - Harry Edison) Norgran MGN 1052
3. ALABAMY BOUND (Ray Henderson - Buddy DeSylva - Bud Green) Imperial LP 9006
4. WEST COAST BLUES (Sonny Criss) Imperial LP 9006
5. SWEET GEORGIA BROWN (Maceo Pinkard - Ken Casey - Ben Bernie) Imperial LP 9006
6. THE MAN I LOVE (George & Ira Gershwin) Imperial LP 9020
7. AFTER YOU’VE GONE (Turner Layton - Harry Creamer) Imperial LP 9020
8. HOW HIGH THE MOON (ORNITHOLOGY)
   (Morgan Lewis - Nancy Hamilton) Imperial LP 9020
9. NIGHT AND DAY (Cole Porter) Imperial LP 9024
10. WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED LOVE (Cole Porter) Imperial LP 9024
11. IN THE STILL OF THE NIGHT (Cole Porter) Imperial LP 9024
12. EASY LIVING (Ralph Rainer - Leo Robin) Caliope CAL 3024
13. WILLOW WEEP FOR ME (Ann Ronell) Caliope CAL 3024
14. WAILIN’ FOR JOE (Sonny Criss) Caliope CAL 3024
15. I GOT IT BAD (Duke Ellington - Paul Francis Webster) Peacock LP 91
16. SYLVIA (Sonny Criss) Peacock LP 91
17. BUTTS DELIGHT (Sonny Criss) Peacock LP 91 

(1-2) Buddy Rich Quintet : Harry Edison (tp), Sonny Criss (as), Jimmy Rowles (p), John Simmons (b), Buddy Rich (dm). Los Angeles, 26/08/1955.

(3) Sonny Criss : Sonny Criss (as), Kenny Drew (p), Barney Kessel (g), Bill Woodson (b), Chuck Thompson (dm). Los Angeles, 26/01/1956.

(4) Same, but Kessel out. 24/02/1956.

(5) Same, but Kessel out. 23/03/1956.

(6) Sonny Criss : Sonny Criss (as), Sonny Clark (p), Leroy Vinnegar (b), Lawrence Marable (dm). Los Angeles, 10/07//1956.

(7-8) Same. 31/07/1956.

(9-10) Sonny Criss : Sonny Criss (as), Larry Bunker (vib), Sonny Clark (p), Buddy Clark (b), Lawrence Marable (dm). Los Angeles, 21/08//1956.

(11) Same. 03/10/1956.

(12-13-14) Sonny Criss Quartet : Sonny Criss (as), Hampton Hawes (p), Iggy Shevack (b), Buddy Woodson (dm). TV-cast Stars of Jazz, Los Angeles, 25/11/1957.

(15-16-17) Sonny Criss : Ole Hansen (tb on 16-17), Sonny Criss (as), Wynton Kelly (p), Bob Cranshaw (b), Walter Perkins (dm). Chicago (IL), 03/1958.

Disques originaux : collection Jean-Paul Ricard