Listening Room – “Inside Straight”

Cannonball Adderley Quintet – “Inside Straight”

Cannonball Adderley Quintet – “Inner Journey”

Cannonball Adderley Quintet – “Snakin’ The Grass”

From “Inside Straight” : 1973 : Fantasy F9435

This 1973 quintet session (actually a sextet with King Errison on percussion) from Cannonball Adderley features a stellar group of talented players who all fall easily into the groove of the funky soul jazz that was Adderley’s sound in this last phase of his career.  Hal Galper in particular contributes heavily to the album with three compositions (Inner Journey, Snakin’ The Grass, Second Son) not to mention his outstanding electric piano playing throughout.  The album was recorded live at Fantasy Studios, where Studio A was converted into a makeshift “nightclub”.  This was a somewhat new concept for jazz recording at the time, but the resulting album is great, as the players are clearly feeding off the energy of the small crowd in attendance.

Players:
Cannonball Adderley – Alto Sax
Nat Adderley – Cornet
Hal Galper – Electric Piano
Walter Booker – Bass
Roy McCurdy – Drums
King Errison – Percussion

Listening Room – “Dizzy’s Business”

Cannonball Adderley – “Dizzy’s Business”

Cannonball Adderley – “Jive Samba”

From “Dizzy’s Business” : 1990 (Recorded 1963) : Milestone Records

These tracks by the Cannonball Adderley Sextet were recorded in Tokyo and San Francisco in 1963, but were not released until 1990.  This was a great group playing at top form, with Joe Zawinul on piano (before he revolutionized the synthesizer playing with Miles Davis just a few years later) and Yusef Lateef on flute, oboe and tenor sax.

Players:
Cannonball Adderley – Alto Sax
Yusef Lateef – Tenor Sax, Flute, Oboe
Nat Adderley – Cornet
Sam Jones – Bass
Louis Hayes – Drums