SIDE I
1. Waltz for
Debby (5:07) (Bill Evans) (BMI) Solo transcription
2. Goodbye (6:12) (Gordon
Jenkins) (ASCAP)
3. Who Cares ? (5:53) (George
& Ira Gershwin) (ASCAP)
4. Venice (2:51) (John Lewis) (BMI)
SIDE 2
5. Toy (5:05) (Clifford Jordan)
(BMI)
6. Elsa (5:51) (Earl Zindars)
(BMI)
7. Nancy (with
the Laughing Face)(4:04) (Van Heusen-silvers)(ASCAP)
8. Know What I Mean? (4:51) (Bill
Evans) (BMI)
on CD Reissue
* 9. Know What I Mean? (7:02)
*10.Who Cares ? (5:57)
Cd Essential jazz Classic 55548 Ⓒ 2012
this release presents the complete original session , come with one bonus track previously unissued
Toy (5:07) (Clifford Jordan)
(BMI)
Original liner notes
Depending on the nature of the
person involved, success either dictates more and more compulsive
activity, or else it permits relaxation. With Cannonball Adderley,
the latter certainly appears to be the case; and this album can,
among other things, serve as a testimonial to the truth of this
impression.
Adderley is undeniably a
successful, widely-acclaimed artist, and it may seem to some that
his success came quickly. But it is more in the nature of what
one night-club comic once referred to bitterly as "my
overnight success after fifteen years." To recap briefly,
Cannonball came up to New York in the mid-'5Os with a thorough
background as a player and teacher in Florida, and soon found
himself lauded, recorded, and a working bandleader. Being an altoist. he also found himself burdened with the tag "the
new Bird" jazz writers being second only to sportswriters in
attaching to players designations that might not do them any good).
Subsequently and, he now feels, inevitably) his band foundered;
thereafter he joined Miles Davis, and people really began to sit
up and take notice. He left Miles to re-form his own group, which
of course did establish Adderley as a full-fledged success. And
that brings us to the present. For, once established, Cannon has
remained that way, and has continued to pick up poll awards and
capacity crowds almost as regularly as Willie Mays picks off long
fly balls.
In a peculiar way, the present
album is a result of that success. For it is something that
Adderley might well not have dared attempt in the past, and that
he might not have been able to convince a record company to do.
It happens that I find this his most satisfying LP, but that is a
purely subjective evaluation and might not even be acceptable as
proof that musicians should be allowed to make the kind of
records they really want to.
The nature of this album should be
immediately apparent from Adderley's choice of associates.
Cannonball feels, and many agree, that pianist Bill Evans is
unexcelled when moody delicacy is called for; Miles Davis, who
once had both men in his band, agreed to such an extent that his
repertoire changed appreciably during Evans' tenure. And the
presence of Evans need not limit moods or tempos, for as
Cannonball is well aware, the pianist tends to display more
pulsing strength behind a horn than with his own trio.
Cannonball's own group evidences
the importance he places on rhythm, and he has been equally
astute in his choices for this date. Of course these two men have
long played together constantly, but that is far from the only
reason, or even the main one, for the inclusion of bassist Percy
Heath and drummer Connie Kay. With the Modern Jazz Quartet, they
are regularly called upon to play the most subtle and difficult
music. As one consequence of this, they can provide the most
powerful rhythm pulses at an often infinitesimal level of volume.
Add to all this the element of spontaneity that inevitably comes
with their playing unfamiliar music In a fresh setting and you
have an almost perfect situation
The union exposes unexpected
facets of all four men, but primarily it reveals a different and
possibly unfamiliar side of Julian Adderley.It would be unkind to
affix a new label to him after he has finally rid himself of That
old Parker-linked one, but it is difficult to resist calling him
"the new Benny Carter": there is a basically Carter-esque
approach to ballads, but one that is fully cognizant of all that
has taken place since Carter first made his great reputation. It
sings, it is light, it is airy - and it is still very much
Cannonball.
Then, of course, there is the
material. Two pieces, chosen by Evans, are selections he is
especially familiar with and fond of playing. One is his own Waltz
for Debby, which first appeared some years ago in a brief
solo version on Bill's initial Riverside album, "New
Jazz Conceptions," and most recently re-appeared as the
title tune of an LP recorded by his trio at the Village Vanguard.
Here it undergoes further alteration with the addition of
Cannonball's summery horn. The other piece, Elsa, by Evans'
friend Earl Zindars, is surely one of the most pensively lovely
of all jazz waltzes. It was also previously recorded by Bill (in
the album "Explorations") and here, by the
absence of one note, Evans shows how his feeling about the number
has now changed.
Clifford Jordan's Toy is a
by-product of Adderley's sometime capacity as an A&R man,
having appeared on an album by Jordan that he produced for Riverside.
Cannon plays it with one astonishing nod in the direction of
Ornette Coleman, as well as a brief reference to John Lewis' Golden
Striker. The latter was part of the score for the film "No
Sun in Venice," which also included Venice, a number
that is atypical of Lewis in that it is very close to the popular
song form. Adderley plays it here with an unusual and affecting soto
voce dancing quality.
Possibly the poignant sadness of
Gordon Jenkins' Goodbye (originally Benny Goodman's sign-off
theme) has led most jazzmen to shy away from it, but that same
quality serves quite well in an album such as this one, where
emotion is clearly not something to be feared. Jazz versions of Nancy
(for a long time almost the exclusive property of Frank Sinatra) are similarly rare, but its pensiveness is perfectly
suited to the talents of Adderley and Evans, as they eloquently
demonstrate.
Who Cares? is the most
overt rocker of the set, and on Evans' solo evokes a startling
reminiscence of the light, dancing quality that was one of the
chief delights of the Miles Davis band in its Garland-Chambers-Philly
Joe period. Know What I Mean? was created in the recording
studio by Evans, at Adderley's special request Its modal style suggests the days when he and Bill were with Miles, and its title
derives from a phrase Cannon is fond of using. The question is
one for which you should have an affirmative answer long before
reaching its closing spot on the LP.
Not all of these selections are
ballads, by any means, but the whole album is filled with the
aura of relaxation we began by mentioning. Ordinarily, this would
get to be referred to rather tritely as an "after-hours"
mood, but in this instance it can be recognized as simply a
matter of four highly skilled artists away from their usual tasks
and delighting in one another's musical company. Nothing more
really need be said about the results of their meeting than that
the feeling of delight come: through.
JOE GOLDBERG
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