Sonny Criss / This is Criss

In 1966 producer Don Schlitten imported Sonny Criss to New York for a recording session with a rhythm section hand-picked for their ability to swing and for their understanding of the bebop methods that drove Criss. Determined to enhance the career of an alto saxophonist he considered an overlooked genius of the modern era, Schlitten thus provided the circumstance for one of Criss' great albums. To many listeners, This is Criss! Was a revelation; it presented a fully matured soloist who had overcome the uneven conception and time problems that many of them remembered from his brilliant but erratic earlier work.