[PREORDER] Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else (Blue Note Essentials Series)

Blue Note Essentials Series - 140 Gram Vinyl

Miles Davis had Cannonball Adderley in his own sextet in the spring of 1958, and when the alto player made his single album as a leader for Blue Note, Davis turned up on it as the sideman. He wrote the title track, chose most of the rest of the program, and shaped the date closely enough that the last thing heard on "One for Daddy-O" is his voice asking the producer, "Is that what you wanted, Alfred?"

Alfred Lion was indeed in the booth. Rudy Van Gelder recorded and cut it, at his studio in Hackensack, New Jersey, on March 9, 1958. Hank Jones took the piano chair, Sam Jones the bass, Art Blakey the drums. It went out later that year as BLP 1595. Davis had all but stopped working as a sideman after 1955, which leaves this among a very small number of dates where he plays under another leader's name.

The opening "Autumn Leaves" runs close to eleven minutes and is the performance most often attached to the record: Dom Cerulli gave the album five stars in DownBeat in 1958 and singled out Davis's playing on it. This pressing carries the original five-track program - the piece later issued as "Alison's Uncle" was added to reissues in the 1980s and is not included here.

Reid Miles laid out the sleeve, Francis Wolff shot the photography, Leonard Feather wrote the original notes. The Essentials Series, which Blue Note introduced in 2026, brings catalogue titles back at a lower price point: hi-resolution digital masters, 140 gram vinyl, and a separate line from the label's all-analog Classic Vinyl and Tone Poet pressings.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Autumn Leaves
2. Love for Sale

Side B

3. Somethin' Else
4. One for Daddy-O
5. Dancing in the Dark