Cannonball, Bird, and Trane
Three of the most influential sax players in the history of Jazz (in my opinion anyway) and while everybody probably knows who Bird and Trane are, Cannonball is perhaps not quite in the upper stratosphere of the collective jazz conscience. That’s too bad because he was one of the greatest. Perhaps he didn’t have quite as hot a group as Trane or Bird. He didn’t compose as much, and eventually we forget the players and only remember the composers, but he could play! I saw him once as a young teenager way too many years ago. I was spellbound. I heard him on the radio again yesterday. His playing is still like magic. They all went too quickly. There are a number of clips on youtube (what isn’t on youtube?) – check here to see them. Most of his recordings are from the 60′s but there are a few that are later. Here’s one from the 70′s. By 75 he was gone.
The next two are just audio from Black Messiah. See this for more info. By now, Cannonball had moved out of hard bop and into early fusion, just like Miles. His pianist is George Duke.
Tags: Music
