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Cannonball Adderley: Somethin' Else – 1958
by Marc Davis
Is there anything new to say about a jazz classic that features one of the greatest two-horn tandems ever to lay down a blue note? How about this: You must own this record. Period. I suspect that everyone with even a passing interest in jazz owns Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, the best-selling jazz record of all time. Well, Somethin' Else is Kind of Blue one year earlier. Same two horns--Davis on trumpet, Cannonball Adderley on alto--supported by ...
Continue ReadingCannonball Adderley & Milt Jackson: Things Are Getting Better
by C. Michael Bailey
Cannonball Adderley & Milt JacksonThings Are Getting BetterOJC1959/2013 Alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's 1959 Things Are Getting Better joins guitarist Wes Montgomery's So Much Guitar!, trumpeter Chet Baker's Chet Baker Plays The Best Of Lerner & Loewe (OJC/Riverside, 1959/2013) and Gerry Mulligan's Mulligan Meets Monk (OJC/Riverside, 1957/2013) in re-issue celebrating the 60th anniversary of Riverside Records. Adderley was in much demand in the late 1950s, being part of Miles ...
Continue ReadingJazz Icons Series 3: Cannonball Adderley Live in '63
by C. Michael Bailey
Cannonball AdderleyCannonball Adderley Live in '63Jazz Icons2008
What is the greatest hard bop jazz standard? Some might argue for Bobby Timmons' “Moanin'" as performed by the composer and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Others may hold out for Joe Zawinul's “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" or Richard Carpenter's “Walkin'" as perfomed by Miles Davis. Still others are attached to Horace Silver's “The Preacher" while yet another group is equally adamant in its devotion ... Continue ReadingCannonball Adderley: The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York
by Samuel Chell
Jazz musicians are antisocial when measured by the public's standards. Tell someone you're a musician, and the response is: “What's the name of your group?" Truth of the matter is that, the MJQ and Art Blakey notwithstanding, group identity seems an ill fit with the music's emphasis on individual expression. For this reason, it's all too easy to dismiss the dates featuring the Adderley Brothers' Group as grooving and highly communicative, but lacking in substance compared to the sessions exclusively ...
Continue ReadingJohn Taylor's Jazz Caricatures: Cannonball Adderley
by John Taylor
Cannonball Adderley About John Taylor For me, art and music flow into a creative confluence. Encouraged by my family to draw and play the drums at an early age, I continue to find expression in these art forms.Motivation for a career in art and music developed in the 1960's as I observed theme park caricaturists at work and listened to recordings of the inimitable Buddy Rich. Gifted editorial caricaturist, David Levine, ...
Continue ReadingCannonball Adderley: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet In San Francisco
by Samuel Chell
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley enjoyed his greatest popularity as measured by the commercial success of Riverside releases featuring his own group with his brother Nathaniel on cornet. The sessions were frequently recorded live, including spoken introductions by the ebullient leader, presenting some “accessible" tunes, and spotlighting at least one real crowd-pleaser ("This Here," “Sack O' Woe," “Jive Samba," “Mercy Mercy, Mercy"), each later appearing as a hit single.
These sessions are ...
Continue ReadingCannonball Adderley Quintet: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco
by David Rickert
You'd be hard pressed to find a more soulful and swinging group in 1959 than the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Apparently lots of others thought so too, for the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, where this live set was recorded, was standing room only, with people who couldn't get into the club lined up outside just to even faintly hear the group. Even Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich came for one night, and was as appreciative as anyone else.
What ...
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