RIO RANCHO, N.M.
(AP) — A rare collection of previously unissued recordings by legendary
jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley is becoming more accessible thanks
to two small jazz labels seeking to keep jazz history alive. Vancouver,
Canada-based Cellar Music Group’s imprint Reel to Real and New York
distributor la reserve records are scheduled Friday to release a digital
version of Adderley performing at Seattle’s Penthouse jazz club.
https://orcd.co/swingininseattle" rel="nofollow - “Cannonball Adderley’s Swingin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse”
features the jazz great’s quintet captured live on radio in 1966 and
1967 over four performances. For decades, the recordings sat largely
unheard in archives until Canadian saxophonist and Cellar Music Group
founder Cory Weeds found out about them. Weeds told The
Associated Press in an interview this week that producers wanted the
public to hear the performances and sought to include as much of the
recording as possible since it showed Adderley’s essence at the height
of his career. “It
caught Cannonball and the band on fire,” said Weeds, who served as the
collection’s executive producer. “The sound quality is incredible. And
you hear the banter, the humor, and the emotion.” Weeds said producers also wanted to add the stories Adderley told between sets. A
previous version of the collection was released in 2018 on a limited
vinyl edition, but the digital release will contain more material, Weeds
said. Born in
Tampa, Florida, in 1928, Julian Edwin “Cannonball” Adderley earned the
name Cannonball from his high school nickname “cannibal,”which allegedly
described his appetite. He moved to New York City in 1955, where he
joined the hard bop jazz movement — a subgenre of bebop that
incorporated rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues. Miles Davis spotted Adderley and hired him to play on groundbreaking Davis albums “Milestones” and “Kind of Blue.” Adderley
would have a successful career and gained crossover success with his
1958 “Somethin’ Else” album and his 1966 “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at
‘The Club.’” He died in 1975. The
digital release features Adderley on alto saxophone, younger brother
Nat Adderley on cornet, Joe Zawinul on piano, Victor Gaskin on bass and
Roy McCurdy on drums. Matt
Block, la reserve co-founder, said the collection will be available on
all digital platforms, including Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Spotify. Included
in the release are rare photos and interviews with McCurdy,
Cannonball’s widow Olga Adderley Chandler and recording engineer/radio
DJ Jim Wilke. The
release comes amid the renewed Black Lives Matter movement as some
activists are seeking to draw attention to historic Black writers and
artists like Adderley.
from https://apnews.com
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