Search - Nat Adderley :: Introducing Nat Adderley

Altoist Cannonball and cornetist Nat Adderley arrived in New York from Florida without fanfare in 1955, but they rapidly established their credentials, sitting in with bassist Oscar Pettiford's group at Café Bohemia. Within days they were recording as leaders for Savoy, and a few months later they were both appearing on Norman Granz's family of labels. Originally issued on Mercury's Wing subsidiary, this session from November 1955 has been one of the rarest of modern jazz recordings, never previously reissued in either LP or CD format. It's a delight, from the flag-waving "Watermelon" on, an early essay in the emerging hard-bop idiom that's rich in swing, blues inflections, and the Adderleys' gift for lyricism. Nat's style was already a distinctive mix of Gillespie and Miles Davis, while Cannonball tempered the influence of Charlie Parker with the sweeter, earlier sound of Benny Carter. They get tremendous support from an all-star rhythm section of Horace Silver, Paul Chambers, and Roy Haynes, and the compositions, co-credited to the brothers and executed with fraternal familiarity, are already distinctive, including the playful "Little Joanie Walks" and the contrapuntal "Two Brothers." "I Should Care," the only standard, is a fine feature for Nat's burnished cornet sound, while Cannonball's liquid alto stands out on "New Arrivals." --Stuart Broomer