The Friday song (on a Sunday): ‘Autumn Leaves’ by Cannonball Adderley

WI’m having lunch today with an old friend from out of town who I haven’t seen in years and who’s an accomplished jazz alto player. The idea of seeing him had me listening to alto sax players this week: Parker, Dolphy, Konitz, Pepper, Ornette, Desmond and so on. It’s been fun, exploring the alto, given its less iconographic position relative to the tenor in jazz. 

Sandwiched between two Miles Davis classics, the hard bop/modal bridge that was Milestones and the truly modal explorations of Kind of Blue, the alto player in Davis’s band at the time, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, released Somethin’ Else. It was his first, acclaimed album as a leader, and would itself become a jazz classic.

Charlie Parker was the key saxophone architect of the bop framework, flying through phrases with a speed and dexterity that had not been heard or played before. Cannonball Adderley helped grow the language, steeped more in the blues, leaving more time for air and with a substantially warmer tone. While Parker’s playing crackled with a velocity that left you goggle-eyed, Cannonball, almost as articulate, had a sound that pulled you in rather than having you marvelling from the sidelines. 

’Tis the season for this song

As many of you know, I love talking about track one, side one as the showpiece entry point to an album and Autumn Leaves, today’s song, is a perfect opener. Davis was asked by Cannonball to play on Somethin’ Else and took the trumpet chair for the session. 

The song starts in a beautifully arranged, almost big-band way, substantial just for a quintet, before Davis takes the melody, which he delivers with his characteristic, cool ache. Then enter Cannonball for his run. He starts off twisting, fluid and winding, before he turns warmer, building his solo differently to the expected, through a perfectly constructed chorus and laying the ground for Davis to go round for a second shot at the melody.

Drummer Art Blakey’s brushwork is unusually restrained, Sam Jones’s bass is functional and Hank Jones’s piano approach is elegant, whether comping or soloing. But this track is really about Davis and Cannonball. If Coltrane was an exploratory foil for Davis during this period, Cannonball was the liquid to his air. 

Somethin’ Else is worth a run from start to finish. It’s textbook stuff – great playing, swing and songs, production by Alfred Lion, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder, Blue Note’s cover font and on this autumnal Cape weekend,
“Autumn Leaves” says it all!

Happy weekend and hope you enjoy this beautiful track.

Listen to Autumn Leaves on Spotify here and on Apple Music here.

I started a music WhatsApp group in 2023. I send one song a week on a Friday, with links to both Apple and Spotify, and an accompanying narrative/capsule piece. If you want to engage about a song, get a playlist or just get in touch, email me on markgrosin@gmail.com.

For more of Mark’s memorable track selections, go here.

_{Top image: Currency collage.}