Cannonball Adderley Live In Cologne

This is Cannonball's little big band with three horns out front performing compositions of Oscar Pettiford, Ernie Wilkins, and Quincy Jones, among others. Multi-instrumentalist and superbly talented Yusef Lateef is featured throughout these concert performances along with the band's brass section - to quote Cannonball Adderley - , cornetist Nat Adderely. The classic and most highly celebrated Cannonball Adderley rhythm section of bassist Sam Jones, drummer Louis Hayes, and pre-Weather Report pianist Joe Zawinul is on full display throughout these performances.

One of the great alto saxophonists to emerge from the hard bop era, Julian "Cannonball" Adderley possessed an exuberant, bright tone that communicated directly and emotionally. With live audiences, his intelligent banter about the music's presentation, combined with wry humor, made him popular.

This excellent live date from the Village Vanguard was the recording debut of the Adderley sextet, with Cannonball waxing eloquently and swingingly on alto, brother Nat charging ahead on cornet, and the versatile Yusef Lateef (who had joined the band only three weeks earlier) adding a bit of an edge on tenor, flute, and unusually for a jazz wind player, oboe on the odd, dirge-like "Syn-Anthesia." Also, this was the first recorded appearance of pianist Joe Zawinul – a little over three years since his arrival in America – in Cannonball's band. This group would be Zawinul's springboard to prominence in the jazz world, and readily apparent is how his compulsively funky mastery of bop and the blues had fused tightly with the Sam Jones/Louis Hayes rhythm section. Included is one of the earliest recordings of a Zawinul composition, "Scotch and Water," a happy, swinging blues

Swingin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966-1967) is a collection of previously un-issued recordings by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet captured live at the height of his powers over 4 nights at the famous Penthouse Jazz Club in Seattle, WA between 1966 and 1967. Just one week later, Adderley would record his classic Mercy, Mercy, Mercy: Live at ''The Club'' album at the Capitol Records studio in Hollywood, California.

First Complete, Authorized Release of alto sax giant’s 1972 Olympia performance transferred from the original tape reels recorded by the ORTF and housed in the INA (the Institut national de l'audiovisuel). Released by Elemental Music in cooperation with the Cannonball Adderley Estate and INA France. Includes an extensive booklet with rare photos; essays by acclaimed jazz author and historian BOB BLUMENTHAL and producer ZEV FELDMAN, plus testimonies by TIA FULLER, LOU DONALDSON & VINCENT HERRING, and a never before published 1983 NAT ADDERLEY interview.