Jazz Collector’s Essential Cannonball Adderley

Blipp asks on an earlier post if we can make any recommendations on Cannonball Adderley’s earlier material, in particular the Mercury records. We can certainly do that, and we’re sure others in the audience will be happy to weigh in as well. First, we will give our own Jazz Collector version of our top five Cannonball LPs altogether. Blipp has been listening mostly to the Capitol stuff, he says, and we don’t think any of those records is going to make our list. Here goes:
1. Cannonball Adderley, Know What I Mean with Bill Evans, Riverside 433. Evans and Adderley obviously had a great rapport from their days with Miles and the addition of Percy Heath and Connie Kay made for a more lyrical setting that suited both Evans and Adderley quite well. And, as one might expect, within that lyrical setting they both swing like crazy.
2.  Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco, Recorded at the Jazz Workshop, Riverside 311. The ground-breaking early quintet with Bobby Timmons and the great tracks of “This Here” (with Cannonball’s engaging introduction) and “Hi-Fly,” plus a very swinging “Spontaneous Combustion.” This LP captured the energy of the group

and the excitement and really launched them into great prominence.

3. The Cannonball Adderley Quinet at the Lighthouse, Riverside 344. This one was recorded a year after the San Francisco LP and the group is in top form, with Vic Feldman taking over the piano from Bobby Timmons and doing a great job, particularly on the opening “Sack o’ Woe.”

4. Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago, Mercury 20449. Actually, we could still choose a couple more of the Riverside’s particularly Them Dirty Blues, which basically captured the energy of the live band in a studio recording, but we will diversify instead. To answer Blipp’s question, of the Mercury’s the ones we would recommend first would be En Route, Cannonball’s Sharpshooters and this one. The biggest difference among the three is the presence of John Coltrane on this, plus the Miles rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb.

5. Cannonball Adderley, Somethin’ Else, Blue Note 1595. This is really a Miles date, but an interesting one without the usual tenor player and with a mishmash rhythm section of Hank Jones, Sam Jones and Art Blakey. But it works quite well, doesn’t it? “Autumn Leaves” is a classic and Cannon does a great version of “Dancing in the Dark” as a ballad. Also, the Blue Note packaging and recording by Rudy Van Gelder are quite nice as well.

So what do you think? What would you put on your list?