Some other people have pretty much nailed my feeling about New York Jazz in paticular and Stitt in general.
Just a couple of additional comments. I find it frustrating to the point of being undecided if I want to keep the album or not when I hear Sonny Stitt play something inventive and exciting and then, shortly afterwards, fall into one of his series of well played but glib Bird-influenced phrases - all in the same solo. Almost like listening to some who's an entertaining b.s.er and after a while you can't tell what's the truth and what's not.
Sometimes listening to Sonny Stitt, I'm reminded of a Gene Quill story. When someone at a club said that he was imitating Charlie Parker, Quill offered him his alto and said. "Here, you imitate Charlie Parker." Quill had a certain point, but the other side of that is that if you have the facility to imitate Charlie Parker, why do it?
Reading the liner notes, I'm surprised that Verve left the following by Nat Hentoff in the liner notes:
" It is to Sonny's credit to say that at his best, he can play with a ferocity of passion and an into-the eye-of-the hurricane conception that can, as it once did at Basin Street in New York, freeze a table of musicians into a still life of open mouths and
re-awakened eyes. There are other times when he yields to the most irritating musical mannerism of his generation, the hard driving running of changes on his horn that underlines quickness of ear and firmness of chops, but is little less edifying to the spirit than RCA's electronic synthesizer. Both sides of Stitt are in evidence on this set."
Honesty in liner notes is a rare thing.
Finally, I agree with Lon and brownie that it sounds as if someone is tapping their feet during Ray Brown's solo on "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea."