Though compared with Charlie Parker more frequently than he liked, Sonny Stitt nevertheless acknowledged their similarities, as testified by his famous anecdote about their first meeting in a Kansas City hotel, where they jammed awhile before Parker reportedly commented: “You sure sound like me.” So the first of these two albums has to be viewed as Stitt’s answer to the classic Bird with Strings album by his great rival. Stitt rarely exhibited Parker’s intensity and doesn’t attempt to do so here, content instead to ride Ralph Burns’ strings gracefully and embellish 10 solid standards with rare sensitivity and relaxation. The results are particularly satisfying on lesser-known items like ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ and ‘They Say that Falling in Love is Wonderful’. In contrast, the with-brass album is much more in-your-face, with Stitt swinging harder, still on alto, and the six horns producing the requisite big band punch. The trumpet solos, probably by Blue Mitchell, aren’t bad either. And for good measure there’s a fine bonus track that finds Stitt on tenor, duelling with Dexter Gordon on ‘Lady Be Good’, goosed along by organist Don Patterson’s funky combo. The tenormen’s turnarounds are terrific.