''Somethin' Else'' is a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

album by

alto saxophonist The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single " Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", wh ...

, his only album on the

Blue Note In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...

label, recorded and released in 1958. Also on the session is

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...

in one of his handful of recording dates for Blue Note. Adderley was a member of Davis' group at the time, and the album was recorded shortly after Davis' own landmark album ''

Milestones A milestone is a marker of distance along roads. Milestone may also refer to: Measurements *Milestone (project management), metaphorically, markers of reaching an identifiable stage in any task or the project *Software release life cycle state, s ...

''. ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled by ...

'' selected ''Somethin' Else'' as part of its suggested "Core Collection."

Background

The album was recorded during Adderley's membership in the Miles Davis' First Great Quintet, and it also marks one of the few recordings Davis made as a sideman after 1955. Indeed, Davis plays several of the first solos, composed the bluesy title track and, according to the liner notes, chose most of the material. " Autumn Leaves" would remain in the Davis book, and " Love for Sale" would be recorded by the Davis Sextet a little over two months later. In the original liner notes for album, Miles is quoted as follows: "All my inspiration today comes from Ahmad Jamal, the Chicago pianist. I got the idea for this treatment of "Autumn Leaves" from him." The twelve-bar blues "One for Daddy-O" was written by Adderley's brother

Nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National As ...

for Chicago radio DJ Holmes "Daddy-O" Daylie. At the end of that track, Davis can be heard addressing producer Alfred Lion, saying "is that what you wanted, Alfred?" Adderley and Davis would also play together on the 1958

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

release ''

'', as well as the 1959 landmark '' Kind of Blue'', one of the most universally acclaimed jazz albums.

Reissue bonus tracks

In the 1980s, the album was re-issued with a

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

from the recording session that was listed as "Alison's Uncle" and credited to Cannonball Adderley. The track appeared as "Alison's Uncle" on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

releases in the U.S. and Japan in 1986, and it continued to appear under this title, or as "Bangoon (aka Alison's Uncle)", on reissues into the 21st century. The composition is actually Hank Jones' "Bangoon", and first appeared on Gigi Gryce's 1957 Jubilee Records album

Jazz Lab ''Jazz Lab'' is an album by American jazz trumpeter Donald Byrd and saxophonist Gigi Gryce, released in 1957 by Columbia.Gigi Gryce Gigi Gryce (born George General Grice Jr.; November 28, 1925 – March 14, 1983), later Basheer Qusim, was an American jazz saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator. While his performing career was relatively short, ...

album.) The title "Alison's Uncle" was created by Nat Adderley in the 1980s when he was asked by reissue producers to name a track that they could not identify. Nat Adderly's alternate title refers to the fact that the session took place shortly after Nat's daughter Alison had been born. An alternate take of "Autumn Leaves" was released as a bonus track on a 2013 CD release in Japan.

Track listing

Side one

Side two

1986 Blue Note CD bonus track (U.S. and Japan releases)

2013 Blue Note SHM-CD edition (Japan)

Personnel

Musicians

Cannonball Adderley Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", whi ...

–

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

–

Hank Jones Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Sam Jones – bass *

Art Blakey Arthur Blakey (October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He was also known as Abdullah Ibn Buhaina after he converted to Islam for a short time in the late 1940s. Blakey made a name for himself in the 1 ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Production

* Alfred Lion – producer *

Rudy Van Gelder Rudolph Van Gelder (November 2, 1924 – August 25, 2016) was an American recording engineer who specialized in jazz. Over more than half a century, he recorded several thousand sessions, with musicians including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Theloni ...

– recording engineer *

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

–

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

* Frank Wolff –

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Reid Miles Reid Miles (July 4, 1927 – February 2, 1993) was an American graphic designer and photographer best known for his work for Blue Note Records in the 1950s and 1960s. Biography Reid Miles was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 4, 1927 but, ...

– cover design

References

External links

Blue Note 1595 - List of reissues
{{Authority control 1958 albums Cannonball Adderley albums Blue Note Records albums Albums produced by Alfred Lion Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio