Cannonball Adderley's Somethin' Else featuring Miles Davis and Art Blakey is one of the acclaimed jazz albums that lives up to the hype. Released by Blue Note in 1958, the year before Davis's Kind of Blue, the album brings the clash of styles between Davis and Adderley to the fore. The music has a restrained, yet also exuberant feel, which could be attributed to the different styles of Adderley and Davis. Adderley's playing was rooted in the blues and hard bop school, whereas Miles Davis was one of progenitors of cool jazz, a sub-genre often racialized as "white" and lacking the strong grooves and blues influences of hard bop. Interestingly, the inherent clash in their styles is probably what makes this album so good. Moreover, most of the sidemen on this recording follow the hard bop tradition, yet they play in the subdued, restrained style, limiting themselves to rhythm for the most part. Perhaps this is due to the fact that Miles Davis co-led the recording session, evidenced by the title track being composed by Miles Davis and several of the numbers and arrangements were chosen by Davis.
The first song, "Autumn Leaves," is a French song called "Les Feuilles Mortes" that became a pop standard in America. The song is dominated by Adderley and Davis, whose solos exemplify their stylistic divergence. Davis, however, seems to dominate the track, since he arranged it (based on an Ahmad Jamal arrangement) and plays the melody and first solo. The rest of the 11 minute song is essentially Davis and Cannonball Adderley exchanging licks, with Adderley tending to play in the bluesy, soulful style he usually uses. The band slows it down near the end of the piece, but the pianist, bassist, and drummer (Art Blakey) never get a chance to shine. Regardless of their lack of improvisational opportunities, the bassist's groove keeps the song going.
The next song, "Love for Sale," is a Cole Porter standard and song for Cannonball Adderley to show off his Charlie Parker-esque skills. Blakey makes things more interesting with a Latin beat and Hank Jones introduces the piece with an elegant piano introduction one would hear in bourgie old films. Adderley for the most part blows through the changes in a bluesy, Parker-like tone and style that brings to mind the hard bop school of jazz. Fortunately, Art Blakey's drumming keeps everything going and Hank Jones fills in on piano to provide harmony and Sam Jones on bass is walking. All the while Adderley wails, moans and shouts on his alto saxophone, sounding like Charlie Parker reincarnated. Near the end, Hank Jones, the pianist, gets a very short solo, and Miles Davis restates the song's melody on the trumpet, concluding with Art Blakey's Latin rhythms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tSYXpq2kW0
The title track, "Somethin' Else," is a bluesy romp composed by Davis. Like "Autumn Leaves," Davis and Cannonball get the only real solos, except for a short piano solo that doesn't go anywhere. It's funky, fun, and swinging, courtesy of Sam Jones's bass and Art Blakey's incessant polyrhythms. Davis surprisingly demonstrates competency with the blues form that one wouldn't expect from a jazz musician, bending, wailing, and shouting bluesy lines to make his trumpet cry. Adderley takes it to the next level, however. Adderley, more proficient in the blues language, sends Davis to school with long blues licks and playing in all registers of his saxophone. Adderley then takes his solo into the bebop/Charlie Parker school, before returning to the blues. Then Miles and Cannonball play together, with Davis leading and Adderley following. Once they're done, we're treated to a Hank Jones piano solo, which doesn't match up to Davis and Adderley, unfortunately. Fortunately, Davis and Adderley play together again to bring it home, through call and response. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kag0vqS8CU&feature=related
My favorite song from the album, "One for Daddy-O," a Nat Adderley original written in honor of a black Chicago radio DJ, is another bluesy piece. Introduced with a bluesy piano lick by Hank Jones, the horns come in with Miles and Adderley stating the song's melody. Adderley takes the first solo, which soars and soars. Coming to it's end, he calls and responds to himself in his solo. Then Davis takes a solo, with a strong bass accompaniment and Art Blakey's characteristically polyrhythmic approach to drumming. Davis soars as well, taking you left and right before letting his trumpet scream blues-inflected cries. Davis's 'soul' be comin' out now, with some fine comping by the pianist. The song demonstrates the blues-based swing of hard bop, but Davis's solo and the relaxed nature of cool jazz, with Blakey, Sam Jones, and Hank Jones never playing too fast or taking too much of a lead role. Jones's piano solo is well-played here, focusing on the higher keys of the keyboard, which he travels across diligently. Adderley then picks up after Jones's brief interlude, with essentially what he played earlier in his first solo. Miles Davis then brings it home near the last minute, with another blues-drenched solo, before Jones gets another brief piano solo. Then the horns restate the melody, never losing the "cool" or laid-back feel that began the song. Davis closes in his whisper of a voice, "Is that what you wanted, Alfred." Alfred was one of the founders of Blue Note Records, the label that released Somethin' Else. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2xx3YTu2ac&feature=related
Adderley gets his own solo piece, "Dancing in the Dark," a beautiful standard for late nights. Apparently Davis convinced Adderley to do this piece, which was a good thing. His alto sax soars brilliantly above the dark clouds, but never strays too far from the blues either. Davis sits out on this one, and the rhythm section swings gently (which is quite rare from Art Blakey), giving Adderley all the time in the world to improvise in only a little more than 4 minutes. Adderley's solo demonstrates his mastery of the blues and jazz standards, perhaps dominated by his hard bop background.
The final track, not part of the original album, "Bangoon," or "Alison's Uncle," is a fun Hank Jones hard bop piece. Jones and Blakey get a chance to really shine here. Davis takes a brief solo that, like the song's melody, doesn't leave the blues-based path already set. Adderley, on the other hand, has a fun solo that matches the song's light-hearted sound and uptempo feel, which makes this song quite different from the rest of the album's relaxed feel. Hank Jones's piano solo is also sweet and fast, like the song. Blakey then takes a thunderous solo over which he can be heard humming, which is always a pleasure to hear these most human of moments going on in the recording studio. One more thing which must be pointed out, is the "Africaness" of Blakey's drumming, which at times sounds like a hand drum due to him using his elbows, and his use of Afro-Caribbean rhythms.
Indeed, this album is one of those critically acclaimed albums that does live up to the hype. In fact, I like it more than Kind of Blue, which must sound blasphemous to many jazz lovers. Cannonball is at his best here, and though this album may seem to be more Miles than Cannonball, I prefer Cannonball's playing on the album.
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