This came out in 2002 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Maybe it’s because most of the big-name pop and rock acts are hibernating. Maybe it’s because I spent the last month swinging to the Rat Pack Christmas album. Or maybe it’s just because they both start with the letters J and A. Whatever. All I know is I always seem to listen to a lot of jazz in January. Looks like this year is no exception — thanks mainly to a cornucopia of cool titles that landed in stores before the holidays. At least four respected labels — Blue Note, ECM, Impulse and Verve — have impressive and affordable new retrospectives or reissues on the racks right now. Even if you don’t know be-bop from doo-wop, I suggest you give one or two a try. Here’s a little primer to help you get into the swing on Julian (Cannonball) Adderley:
WHO: Julian Adderley, a former teacher and alto-sax giant whose spherical stage name could just as easily have come from his explosive, powerful style as from his rotund figure.
WHEN: Adderley gained fame by playing with trumpet legend and jazz innovator Miles Davis in the late ’50s, then led his own groups (sometimes with his cornetist brother Nat) until his untimely death in 1975 at age 46.
WHAT YOU GET: A solid hour of aggressively swinging hard bop and blues, fuelled by the exuberant yet gracefully fluid solos of the big man himself. Miles, brother Nat, tenor sax king John Coltrane and drummer Art Blakey sit in on some of these 10 cuts, which go from the bluesy balladry of 1957’s Lover Man to the funky African grooves of 1971’s Chocolate Nuisance.
WHERE HE FITS IN: Somewhere between the be-bop genius of Charlie Parker and the free-form innovation of Coltrane.
