Cannonball Adderley - One of the great alto saxophonists, Cannonball Adderley had an exuberant and happy sound that communicated immediately to listeners. His intelligent presentation of his music (often explaining what he and his musicians were going to play) helped make him one of the most popular of all jazzmen.
Adderley already had an established career as a high school band director in Florida when, during a 1955 visit to New York, he was persuaded to sit in with Oscar Pettiford's group at the Cafe Bohemia. His playing created such a sensation that he was soon signed to Savoy and persuaded to play jazz full-time in New York.
One of the great alto saxophonists, Cannonball Adderley had an exuberant and happy sound that communicated immediately to listeners. His intelligent presentation of his music (often explaining what he and his musicians were going to play) helped make him one of the most popular of all jazzmen.
The ’60s would continue to be Cannonball Adderley’s most fruitful period, recording no fewer than 28 albums under his own name by the end of the decade…
One of the defining players of the 1950s and 1960s hard bop era, Julian Edwin Cannonball Adderley remains one of the most respected and fondly-remembered saxophonists in all of jazz. With a sound that was uniquely his own and a repertoire that saw him support - and in turn be supported by - some of the greatest musicians and groups to emerge during the period, Adderley is the stuff of legend. A huge fan of the playing of Charlie Parker and a fierce defender of the entire genre, Adderley s talents rank highly alongside the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and his catalogue of work as a bandleader is still today among the finest of any jazz master. This collection contains the first eight albums released by Cannonball Adderley as bandleader…
Fantastic work from the massive electric years of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet – one of the group's last records to feature the keyboards of Joe Zawinul – and also one of the heaviest from the time! The set's a double-length gem that presents the group in an open live setting – one that really displays the full charm of their approach at the time, and that wonderfully crowd-winning mode that made Cannon a key act at this time for rock and soul audiences too! Adderley raps a bit at key points, and brings some righteous energy to the concert – while the rest of the group follow up with performances that really send the whole thing home – Nat Adderley on cornet, Zawinul on Fender Rhodes and piano, Walter Booker on bass, and Roy McCurdy on drums. Cannon plays some soprano sax, in addition to his familiar alto. Produced by David Axelrod too!
Compiled by pianist Joe Zawinul, this Capitol collection features 10 songs composed by Zawinul himself and performed by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Both one-time members of Miles Davis's groups, Adderley and Zawinul began their association in the early 1960s when Zawinul joined the sax man's ensemble. In addition to writing some of Adderley's most memorable and popular material, Zawinul proved instrumental in pushing the quintet toward a more soulful, commercially viable sound.
Cannonball Adderley's Mercury albums (most of which, like this LP, are long out-of-print) find the youthful altoist trying to unsuccessfully keep his quintet with brother Nat together. Despite the powerful bop-oriented music they consistently recorded, the band would break up in a year, only to regroup with great success in 1959…