Track Listing

1. Autumn Leaves
2. Love For Sale
3. Somethin' Else
4. One For Daddy O
5. Dancing In The Dark
6. Bangoon

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1273 in Music
• Released on: 1999-04-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 44 minutes

CD Description
When alto saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, a high school band director from Florida, passed through New York with brother Nat during a school break, he found more excitement than he was counting on. After Julian offered to sit in for a late reedman, the session's leader, bassist Oscar Pettiford confronted him with the challenging changes of "I'll Remember April," at a breakneck tempo designed to humiliate the young upstart. Instead, Adderley responded with a solo that became the talk of the town; within days, his recording career had begun, and within a year he was able to give up his teaching job to front a full-time band. Adderley gave up his own band in 1957 when he had the opportunity to become a sideman in Miles Davis' epic ensemble with John Coltrane, resulting in some of the greatest jazz recordings of all time (including MILESTONES and KIND OF BLUE). Davis returned the favor in March of 1958, appearing as a sideman on Adderley'sall-star quintet date for Blue Note, and the resulting session is indeed SOMETHIN' ELSE. Both horn players are at theirpeak of lyrical invention, crafting gorgeous, flowing blueslines on the title tune and "One For Daddy-O," as the Hank Jones/Sam Jones/Art Blakey rhythm team creates a taut, focused groove (pianist Hank Jones' sly, intuitive orchestrationsare studies of harmonic understatement). Adderley's lush, romantic improvisation on "Dancing In The Dark" is worthy of Charlie Parker or Johnny Hodges, while the band refurbishes "Autumn Leaves" and "Love For Sale" into personal cliche-free swingers. And "Alison's Uncle" puts a boppish coda on SOMETHIN' ELSE, one of the most gloriously laid-back blowing sessions of the hard bop era.

Customer Reviews

Flawless, sublime, the finest jazz album I know
One of my first jazz purchases, and the album against which I measure all others: and usually find wanting!

I picked up at random in the store, and it has become my jazz conversion album -- the one I buy for people who don't see why I love jazz.

A very close second to this album for me is Miles Davis, Kind of Blue.

I challenge you to not love this CD. "Autumn Leaves" alone will melt the hardest hard.

The greatest of all the Blue Notes?
This was very much a collaborative effort between Cannonball Adderley and the master himself, Miles Davis, in a rare guest appearance. Adderley was part of Miles' sextet that recorded 'Milestones' around the same time as this recording, and Miles was returning the favour. Miles is, if anything, more dominant on this album than his own.
The beautiful opener 'Autumn Leaves',one of the truly great jazz recordings, is an example of this, as Miles takes three solos to Adderley's one, playing the theme at the beginning and end. The arrangement of this standard is inspired, the piano intro and outro by Hank Jones work superbly well, and Miles is at his lyrical, moody best.
'Love For Sale' is also excellent, particularly Miles' contribution, and it is interesting to compare with the version by Miles' sextet, including Adderley, recorded a few months later, and found on '58 Sessions.'
After those two slow/medium tracks, Miles' own 'Somethin Else' raises the tempo and contains blistering interplay between the two men, both playing brilliantly in a joyful and exuberant performance.
Adderley redresses the balance with 'Dancing in the Dark,' where he takes the only lead role and slowly builds momentum and emotion in his playing.
'One for Daddy O' is another fine track featuring both soloists in great form, and although the additional 'Rangoon' is a pefectly decent performance, the album would be as good without it, as it was in its original form, with Dancing in the Dark' as the closing track.
A classic album, and in my opinion the best of all Blue Note recordings; a must for fans of either star (and the supporting cast isn't bad either including Art Blakey on drums!) It offers yet another element to Miles' remarkable late 50s music, arguably the greatest period of his career.

The title says it all
A stunning album, 'Somethin' Else' was a collaboration between three men - Julian 'Cannonball' Adderley, the credited bandleader; Alfred Lion, the producer and that inescapable great of jazz, Miles Davis. It always seems a bit harsh to Adderley that Miles gets so much more credit for this work than his sideman from 'Kind of Blue' - a much larger photo than the former for example - but then you sit back and realise that, as Musician noted in 1992, this is "...Among the candidates for 'greatest Miles Davis record'...". Miles has such a large role in the recording that you wonder if he is actually bandleader. Fortunately, this is not really important - and soloing from all the players is brilliant, Adderley especially.

You can refer to the liner notes for details of the tracks when you get the album - the bonus track 'Bangoon' is reason enough to buy this re-release. 1958 was a great year for jazz, and 'somethin' else' is right up there with the other great releases of its time.