What Cannonball Adderley should I get?

Any suggestions for me on what Cannonball Adderley cd I should get? If you could only pick one, what would it be?

 

You could start with Uncle Steve's delicious mastering of KNOW WHAT I MEAN?

 

"Somethin' Else" is a popular one and is a MFSL disc, too.

 

Is Know What I Mean a DCC? I saw a AP sacd but I wasnt sure who mastered it.

 

DCC gold, yes.

 

I see from the discography that Steve only did the AP vinyl. This pisses me off! Why is it that Steve seems to master lots of vinyl releases but somebody else tends to do the cd/sacd release of the same title? *grumble*

 

You don't own "Somethin' Else"?

 

Something Else is the automatic choice.

 

Miles Davis is on this one, too, and Adderly (with Coltrane) is on Davis' "Milestones" and "Kind Of Blue" (both are SACDs)

Which is the best CD version of "Somethin' Else"? Or, I should ask, how does the origianl CD and the "remastered" (link) CD compare with the MFSL?

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...002-8671985-7080043?v=glance&s=music&n=507846

 

You would think I would, huh? Just one of those artists that I havent gotten around to yet. I think I have a live disc though.

 

Wait, I just went and checked, I do have Somethin' Else! Man, sometimes I forget what I have. I am losing what is left of my mind. Maybe I will pick up Know What I Mean now. Is the regular release decent?

 

The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco.
I have many Cannonball albums (including Somethin' Else) and this is my favorite.

 

Somethin' Else is great, but I like Bill Evans more than I do Miles, so Know What I Mean? is the choice for me.

 

I heard that album's basically a Miles Davis album, but Miles let Cannonball put his name as bandleader to satisfy a contractual obligation. Considering the personnel involved, it's not that far a stretch. Then again, does it really matter?? The music is great. I have the Van Gelder remaster and it sounds good to me. You can get it cheap.

 

It seems funny, sometimes, who gets top billing. They all seem to play together on different records, record in the same studios with the same engineers/producers and do many standards. Occasionally one of the musicians may bring a great original song to the session and not get top billing. I suppose it was decided before the sessions began (or was "SE" too uptempo for a Miles album? )

 

Did Cannonball Adderley's "Black Messiah" ever make it on CD? That's what I'd recommend.

Great live recording he did for Capitol in the early 70's. (Thanks Mark)!

 

As good as Somethin' Else is I agree that in San Francisco is my favorite Cannonball disc. I've got the SACD and really like it.

If you have DVD-Audio capability try to find the Classic Records HDAD of Somethin' Else.

 

"On this one too?" LMAO!!

"Somethin' Else" IS a Miles Davis album! It's NOTHING like anything Cannonball would have produced as a "leader."

 

I love this album too!! "Jazz Workshop Revisited" is a great live album too." There's another live album Cannonball Adderley put out on Capitol in the mid 60's that had Nancy Wilson and Lou Rawls guesting on it that is still MIA on CD. I'd love to see that reissued someday.

 

There's tons of good Cannonball. In addition to the wonderful stuff already mentioned, mostly mid- to later-career Cannon, I like his early dates with brother Nat on trumpet, recorded not all that long after they had moved from Florida to NYC. Man I can only imagine all the alto players and trumpeters shaking in their boots when these 2 dudes from the South swept into town seemingly out of the blue!

For the earliest of this stuff, there's THE ADDERLEY BROTHERS: SUMMER OF '55 on Savoy Jazz, with the famous session with Kenny Clarke on drums originally issued as BOHEMIA AFTER DARK, a timeless bop classic. Here you get the roots of much of the "hard bop" era that would follow, as Cannonball and Nat morph the sometimes byzantine and insular bebop language into a funkier, blusier, and easier to assimilate (yet no less ambitious) idiom.

But even better than this, there's a very nice 2 CD set on Verve (this was part of an excellent series of 2 CD sets that collected multiple neglected albums by various jazz artists) called SOPHISTICATED SWING: THE EMARCY SMALL GROUP SESSIONS that is dynamite. This is the younger Cannonball still emerging from his influences (Parker's fire and harmonic sophistication on one hand, Benny Carter's elegance and full tone on the other). But even though he still hadn't hit full maturity, the sheer energy and enthusiasm of someone hitting the "big time" really jumps right out of the speakers and grabs you...and I think the remastering quality on this Verve series was really excellent.

 

1. Somethin Else
2. Things Are Getting Better
3. In San Franscico
4. Money in the Pocket

 

The AP SACD of "Know What I Mean" sounds great--mastered by Doug Sax, and has a fantastic version of Waltz for Debby with Bill Evans on piano.

 

These are all great recommendations. But personally, if I had to keep just one Cannonball album (thank goodness that's not the case!), it would be his final album, Phenix. An unorthodox choice, I know, but this was the album that introduced me to Cannonball as a kid. It's a double-LP re-recording of his greatest hits with a mix of folks from his classic bands with newer folks like Geroge Duke that all fits on a single CD. If you're allergic to any presence of synthesizers in 70's jazz, stay away, but otherwise check it out! It gets you all his most famous tunes with more cohesion than the greatest hits compilations.

- Joe

 

Cannonball & Coltrane in Chicago, on Mercury...reissued by Verve on a VME. It SMOKES!!!