Edward Hammond Boatner Jr. was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and grew up in
Saginaw, Michigan. He had a musical background: his father,
Edward Boatner, was a baritone singer, composer, and college music professor; his brother was a classically trained pianist, and his mother was a piano teacher. He later began calling himself "Sonny". While in high school in Saginaw, he played in the Len Francke Band, a local popular swing band. In 1943, Stitt met
Charlie Parker. As he often recalled, the two men had similar styles. Parker is alleged to have remarked, "Well, I'll be damned, you sound just like me", to which Stitt responded, "Well, I can't help the way I sound. It's the only way I know how to play."
Kenny Clarke said of Stitt, "Even if there had not been a Bird, there would have been a Sonny Stitt." During the 1940s, he played alto saxophone as a member of
Tiny Bradshaw's big band,
Billy Eckstine's big band with
Gene Ammons and
Dexter Gordon, and
Dizzy Gillespie's big band. Stitt was a leader of Bebop Boys and Galaxy in 1946 and 1948, respectively. When playing tenor saxophone Stitt seemed to break free from some of the criticism that he was imitating Parker's style, and began to develop a far more distinctive sound.
Bud Powell, and
Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, a fellow tenor with a distinctly tough tone in comparison to Stitt, in the 1950s, and recorded a number of sides for
Prestige Records as well as albums for
Argo,
Verve, and
Roost. Stitt experimented with Afro-Cuban jazz in the late 1950s, and the results can be heard on his recordings for Roost and Verve, on which he teamed up with
Thad Jones and
Chick Corea for Latin versions of such standards as "
Autumn Leaves". In 1952, Stitt played with pianist
Jimmy Jones, and the next year performed orchestral music with
Johnny Richards. Under
Quincy Jones's guidance in 1955, he played
uptempos and
ballads such as "My Funny Valentine" and "Star Dust" and the same year performed "Afterwards" and "There Will Never Be Another You" with
Hank Jones. Stitt joined
Dolo Coker in 1957 to perform "Blues for Yard" and "Blue Moon" before returning to Hank to perform "Cherokee". Concerts in Manchester and Paris are available commercially and also a number of concerts (which include sets by the earlier quintet with John Coltrane) on the record
Live at Stockholm (
Dragon), all of which featured
Wynton Kelly,
Jimmy Cobb, and
Paul Chambers. However, Miles fired Stitt due to the excessive drinking habit he had developed, and replaced him with
Hank Mobley. Later in the 1960s, Stitt paid homage to Parker on the album
Stitt Plays Bird, which features
Jim Hall on guitar. Stitt recorded several times with his friend
Gene Ammons in sessions that were interrupted by Ammons's own imprisonment for narcotics possession. The records recorded by these two saxophonists are regarded by many as some of both Ammons’s and Stitt's best work. The Ammons/Stitt partnership went down in posterity as one of the best dueling partnerships in jazz, alongside
Zoot Sims and
Al Cohn, and
Johnny Griffin with Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Stitt ventured into soul jazz and recorded with fellow tenor saxophonist
Booker Ervin in 1964 on the
Soul People album. Stitt also recorded with
Duke Ellington alumnus
Paul Gonsalves in 1963 for
Impulse! on the
Salt and Pepper album in 1964. Around that time, he appeared regularly at
Ronnie Scott's in London, and a live 1964 encounter with
Ronnie Scott,
The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, eventually surfaced. Stitt recorded at Ronnie Scott's again in 1966 with resident guitarist
Ernest Ranglin and British tenor saxophonist
Dick Morrissey. Stitt was one of the first jazz musicians to experiment with the Selmer
Varitone amplification system, as heard on the albums ''
What's New!!! in 1966 and Parallel-a-Stitt'' in 1967. ==Later life==