George Shearing & Cannonball Adderley: Quintets at Newport

GEORGE SHEARING/CANNONBALL ADDERLEY
QUINTETS AT NEWPORT

Pablo

This CD documents performances by two top-notch jazz quintets recorded at the Newprot Jazz Fesitval on July 5, 1957. Both the Cannonball Adderley and George Shearing quintets perform a set, followed by a performance of Curtis Fuller's "Soul Station" on which Cannonball and his brother, Nat, guest with Shearing's group. Armando Peraza, the Cuban hand-drumming legend, joins the group for the concluding two tunes. A great time is had by all.

At the time of this recording, Cannonball and Nat Adderley's quintet was not successful commercially. They were recording for Mercury-EmArcy, a label that did little to promote the group, and the Adderleys owed back taxes that put them deeply into debt. By the end of 1958, the group would disband as Cannonball joined Miles Davis's band, participating in the recording of the legendary Kind of Blue. When the group reconvened in the early '60s, they became one of the most well-known and loved groups on the jazz circuit.

Of course, you'd never know about Cannonball's money troubles from his playing or patter on this CD, which says a lot about this incredibly positive, talented man. The band tears through the bopped-up J.J. Johnson composition WeeDot, with Cannon giving his soaring Bird-on-blues best. Nat and pianist Junior Mance play well throught also. In fact, Mance, along with rhythm section cohorts Sam Jones and Jimmy Cobb, contribute mightily to the energy and clarity of this performance, and Mance's solos are real beauties, calling to mind both Albert Ammons and Bud Powell. Afterward Cannon tells us: "That, of course, was a blues, which we like to play very much. You'll find it obvious in our performance here this afternoon, because we feel the blues reflects what jazz should be made of." Indeed, they do provide some blues shouts, performing Nat Adderley's tribute to Ray Charles, "Sermonette", and Jones's "Sam's Tune." They also get off a beautiful "A Foggy Day" (with an introductory figure that Adderley describes as "plagiarized") and conclude with a full-bore bop attack on the Quincy Jones composition "Hurricane Connie," complete with Nat Adderley's best Dizzy Gillespie impersonation.

George Shearing was riding a wave of success at the time of this recording, his "Shearing sound"-- which features the vibraphone on top, guitar on the bottom, and piano in the middle playing block chords--was very popular with sophisticated listeners. He opens with Ray Bryant's "Pawn Ticket," demonstrating that his group can also play fast bop with the best. "It Never Entered My Mind" demonstrates the real ability that Shearing has to draw the beauty from any melody and set it before the listener like a pearl. "There Will Never Be Another You" features the playing of vibraphonist Emil Richards and shows that Shearing and his rhythm section were a total swing machine, as Shearing, guitarist Toots Thielmans, bassist Al McKibbon, and drummer Percy Brice provide Richards with all he needs to play at his best. The concluding numbers, a suave rendition of "Old Devil Moon" and Denzil Best's Carribean-influenced "Nothin' But de Best" bring the energy level up a notch without destroying the air of erudite swinging that Shearing has created throughout.

So, what about the meeting of Shearing and the Brothers Adderley? It's all you'd expect, with Cannonball's insoucient, urbane soul, Nat's trumpet acrobatics, a tasty solo from Thielmans, and a statement so hot from Shearing that you can almost hear him breaking a sweat. At the end of the track Shearing asks the audience "You don't mind us enjoying ourselves for one night, do you?" As long as the results are as amazing as this, the answer can only be "of course not!"

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