Track Listing

1. If This Isn't Love
2. I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out To Dry
3. Serenata
4. I've Told Ev'ry Little Star
5. Barefoot Sunday Blues
6. Poor Butterfly
7. I Remember You
8. Barefoot Sunday Blues (Alternate Take)
9. I Remember You (Alternate Take)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191841 in Music
• Released on: 2002-08-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Consummate Cannonball!
Unquestionably, the best album under Cannonball's name. The quintet/sextet albums are mostly geared to a more pop market and contain much "packaged" soul and funk, while the dates Cannonball shared with Miles, Bags, Bill Evans, Coltrane, and Gil Evans often find him deferring to or competing against musical temperaments not wholly sympathetic with his own. But with no other horn to share the solo space and a grooving accompanist like Wynton Kelley, Cannonball indeed "takes charge," having his ebullient, inventive way with a varied program of show tunes ("If This Isn't Love)," soul tunes ("Barefoot Sunday Blues"), jazz standards ("I Remember You") and sentimental old favorites ("Poor Butterfly"). And the photo of Cannonball on the front cover of this Riverside classic is as good as any I've seen of this masterful musician. For the sake of jazz fans, saxophonists, and collectors everywhere, let's hope this one remains in circulation, digitally remastered or not (Cannonball's musical mastery is sufficient in itself).

Cannonball Takes Charge
In my humble opinion, the most underrated jazz album ever! This album never seemed to get much attention mainly because albums done by Cannonball's quintet have overshadowed this masterpiece. Recorded while Cannonball was a featured member of the amazing Miles Davis Sextet, this album demonstrates him at the top of his game. The album has this very light feeling about it, even though Cannonball swings hard. The way Cannonball and the band (Wynton Kelly on piano, with either Paul Chambers or Percy Heath on bass, and either Jimmy Cobb or Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums) treat these classics is just amazing. The only track that isn't a standard is the intriguing original "Barefoot Sunday Blues", which once again demonstrates Cannonball's mastery of the blues. If I had to pick my favorite track on this set it would have to be "Poor Butterfly" (It's interesting to compare the differences between this version and the one on Sonny Rollins's masterpiece "Volume Two".) This album really deserves more attention than it gets, so if you're a fan of "Somethin' Else", Cannonball's work with the Miles sextet, or his work with his classic quintet, you will love this album!

From the cover to the last note...
This is a great CD. True, it was a Riverside session - the cover is a Riverside picture - and now released by Capitol, where Cannon went in 1963, tapes in tow, and that shows both in the groove and the personnel: Wynton, Chambers, Cobb, and the Heath brothers. Every single track, alternate takes included, is Cannonball blowing in his very best soul/gospel/blues/bop mode. It is interesting to contrast "Barefoot Sunday Blues" on this recording with "Spontaneous Combustion" on the equally 5-star "Cannonball 5tet In San Fransisco" with a completely different group of sidemen and his brother, Nat. Notice also Wynton playing the identical 'turnaround' on this tune, right before Percy takes his, as on "Things Are Getting Better", the title track from another Riverside classic. Really nice to see this material reissued on CD.