Cory Weeds What is There to Say

What a perfect time for Cory to give us this album, What is There To Say?, his 18th record as a leader. It's his most ambitious project to date and, in my opinion, his most impressive. Ever since Charlie Parker recorded his iconic Bird with Strings album, the saxophone-with-strings format has become a sort of Mount Everest for those saxophonists brave enough to take on the challenge.

Reel to Real Recordings is proud to announce the label's co- inaugural release, Swingin' in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse (1966-1967), a scintillating set of previously unissued live recordings of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet featuring Cannonball's brother and cornetist Nat Adderley, pianist Joe Zawinul, bassist Victor Gaskin and drummer Roy McCurdy recorded over the course of 4 nights between 1966 and 1967 at the legendary Penthouse jazz club in Seattle, Washington. This is the very same band that recorded the classic Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at "The Club" album on Capitol Records on October 20, 1966, and it captures the quintet in rare form at the height of their most powerful swingin'.

When my dear friend Cory Weeds asked me what I wanted to do for my sophomore recording, I had no clue what I wanted to do. We started tossing around a couple of ideas and I can't remember who said it first, but somehow the idea of doing a piano trio recording with Kenny Washington and Peter Washington came up. To me, it was almost a joke - the idea of recording with my favorite rhythm section of all time since I was 19 years old wasn't realistic in my mind.