Thursday 22 December 2011

Breakfast Sax

Cannonball and Coltrane

The album was originally titled Cannonball Adderly Quintet in Chicago on its release in 1959, and is Miles Davis' band of the time without Miles Davis.


It's delightful saxophone dueting and duelling between Cannonball's alto and Coltrane's tenor. I don't always hear the nuances in style, apart from on opener Limehouse Blues where it seems obviously tonal [apart from the different saxophones] and Coltrane's sound is less crisp on the notes - though that sounds critical, and I don't mean that - but there is a little more merging and warbling and dances across notes, and that's the explanation from a novice.


There are two alternative cover versions of the album as John Coltrane became more famous. I'm not sure of the sequence, but it seems that the first has him slightly in the background to Cannonball's lead, and the second gives Coltrane equal visual billing as his popularity had grown even more. But I could be wrong. It's a spirited bop romp, with a couple of ballads.


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