Cannonball

Today I enjoyed a jazz collector's experience.  A colleague of mine is giving up a bundle of jazz cds, and I got to pick through it.  I got a lot of fine recordings that were on my list, including Miles Davis Live at the Plaza.  I also got the Max Roach/Clifford Brown collection Alone Together, and some basic J.J. Johnson trombone brilliance.  There was some fine Art Farmer stuff there, some Kenny Garrett, Michael Brecker, Zoot Sims, and Oliver Nelson's More Blues and the Abstract Truth.  I also got the Complete Atomic Basie.  There's more, but I won't bore you further.  

Mostly what I got was a big boomin' lot of Cannonball Adderley.  It's hard not to admire Julian Adderley.  He was taught music in high schools in Florida before moving to New York.  What happened there, I will trust Wikipedia to tell.

Adderley visited the Cafe Bohemia (Oscar Pettiford's group was playing that night) where he brought his saxophone into the club with him, primarily because he feared that it would be stolen. He was asked to sit in as the saxophone player was late, and in true Cannonball style, he soared through the changes, and became a sensation in the following weeks.

Good story.  Maybe better is the story of how he got his nickname.  Miles Davis called him Cannibal because of his appetite.  He was a big guy.   Some reporter misheard, and wrote down "Cannonball".  That was better. 

Maybe the prize today was the live Lighthouse Recording.  Adderley is backed by his brother Nat on coronet.  Victor Feldman steps in on piano.  Sam Jones plays bass, and Louis Hayes drums.  Wrap this one up and send it by subspace radio to the Klingons.  Tell 'em this is hard bop.  It'll bring 'em around. Here is about half of the first cut.  You're gonna want the rest when it suddenly stops. 

Cannonball Adderley Quintet/Sack O' Woe/Cannonball Adderley Quintet Live at the Lighthouse Excerpt

I've got a lot of Adderley to listen to this weekend.