Please note this is an old page and Fly Global Music has now moved. Please follow this link and search for the entry in the new site.

As a producer at Riverside, Milestone and Landmark, Orrin Keepnews’ back catalogue puts him the same company as Rudy Van Gelder and Creed Taylor in terms of setting the benchmark in the ‘golden’ age of jazz. Keepnews has selected some of his favourite albums for this re-issue series that keeps all the elements of the originals with the benefit of 24-bit re-mastering and a few bonus tracks.

This live album by the Connonball Adderley Quintet (Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley (as), Nat Adderley (Cornet), Bobby Timmons (p), Sam Jones (b), Louis Hayes (d)) was recorded in 1959 at a four-week long engagement at The Jazz Workshop during which, get this, Shostakovich (1906-1975) went to hear his first authentic American jazz. Makes you wonder the influence the Quintet had on the Russian and the re-influence on Graham Collier?

Back to the album, Keepnews’ notes recall that he first met the Adderley brothers in New York in 1957 and by the time Cannonball had left Miles Davis’ group and Keepnews had got him out of a contract with Mercury, he signed with Riverside.

This was after his 1958 Blue Note classic album, Somethin’ Else (as favoured by Mr. Peterson) and with the Quintet, the David Axelrod produced Accent On Africa album. 1960 saw the Quintet record ‘Jeannine’ (another Peterson ‘find’ with the Eddie Jefferson vocal version, check Peterson’s compilation Jazz Juice series) but this was all set up by the phenomenal commercial success of the In San Francisco recording.

And what a band it was with brother Nat, and the brothers’ “Florida buddy” Jones, Louis Hayes was poached from Horace Silver and topped off with Bobby Timmons (a mere 23 at the time but he’d just recorded Moanin’ with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers!)

The set opens with Cannonball’s “rap” where he introduces ‘This Here’ as Timmons’ “church” jazz waltz. Unheard of at the time to open an album with an eleven-minute track, it was a bold move that paid off.

And then there’s Adderley’s own ‘Spontaneous Combustion’ and Randy Weston’s ‘Hi-Fly’ both over the eleven minutes mark but they flow so smoothly, you’d never guess. Addley’s alto and Nat’s cornet interplay so easily with each other and the support of the trio is superb all the way through.

The break neck ‘Bohemia After Dark’ closed the original album but on the CD, there’s a previously released bonus version of ‘Straight, No Chaser’ plus alternative versions of ‘This Here’ (perhaps a few more background “Yeah!”s) and a slightly less manic, ‘You Got It!’.

What with the superb cover, shot in New York with “wall paper that looks like it’s in San Francisco”, this is an essential piece of jazz history. Keepnews admits that they don’t claim to have invented “soul jazz” but this album set the scene and heralded countless other live jazz albums with excited audiences adding to the vibe. Keepnews is 85 next year but, those four weeks in San Francisco in October 1959 were/are a highlight in a career of highlights and its well worth getting your hands on this CD.

The other albums in the series are Power To The People by the always impressive Joe Henderson (the only Milestone release in the Keepnews Collection), Kenny Dorham’s Jazz Contrasts (features tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Max Roach) Thelonious Monk Plays Duke Ellington (Monk plays some of Ellington’s best-known tunes such as ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)’, ‘Mood Indigo’ and ‘Caravan’) and Wes Montgomery’s Full House (Cannonball Adderley gave Keepnews a tip which led to Montgomery getting his first recording contract).

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Bohemia After Dark’, ‘You Got It!’

Reviewed: The Cannonball Adderley Quintet - In San Francisco (Keepnews Collection) (Riverside) Cat. No. 0888072301313 Recorded live at The Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, October 18 and 20, 1959. Producer Orrin Keepnews
1. (A Few Words by Cannonball… And) This Here (12:28)
2. Spontaneous Combustion (11:49)
3. Hi-Fly (11:03)
4. You Got It! (5:05)
5. Bohemia After Dark (aka Birdland After Dark) (8:01)
6. Straight, No Chaser (11:38)
7. This Here (Alt. Take) (11:30)
8. You Got It! (Alt. Take) (6:11)

Links:
Julian Edwin Adderley aka Julian “Cannonball” Adderley
www.cannonball-adderley.com
www.straightnochaser.co.uk
www.classicsandjazz.co.uk