Work Song Nat Adderley Quintet

• 1 Work Song 04:15
• 2 Pretty Memory 03:53
• 3 I've Got A Crush On You 02:56
• 4 Mean To Me 05:01
• 5 Fallout 04:53
• 6 Sack Of Woe 04:28
• 7 My Heart Stood Still 06:25
• 8 Violets For Your Furs 03:49
• 9 Scrambled Eggs 03:19
• Total Runtime 38:59

Info for Work Song

Work Song is an album by jazz cornetist Nat Adderley, recorded in January 1960 and released on the Riverside label. It features Adderley with Bobby Timmons, Wes Montgomery, Sam Jones, Percy Heath, Keter Betts and Louis Hayes in various combinations from a trio to a sextet, with the unusual sound of pizzicato cello to the fore on some tracks.

„Work Song is a near-classic by cornetist Nat Adderley. Adderley utilizes a cornet-cello-guitar front line with Sam Jones and Wes Montgomery, along with a top-notch rhythm section pianist including Bobby Timmons, Percy Heath, or Keter Betts on bass and drummer Louis Hayes. First up is a fine early performance of his greatest hit, 'Work Song.' He also helps introduce Cannonball Adderley's 'Sack O' Woe.' Four songs use a smaller group, with Timmons absent on 'My Heart Stood Still,' which finds Keter Betts on cello and Jones on bass; 'Mean to Me' featuring Nat backed by Montgomery, Betts, and Hayes; and two ballads ('I've Got a Crush on You' and 'Violets for Your Furs') interpreted by the Adderley-Montgomery-Jones trio. No matter the setting, Nat Adderley is heard throughout in peak form, playing quite lyrically. Highly recommended.“ (Scott Yanow, AMG)

'...warm, fresh and sunny... Montgomery's playing is of the highest order...Recommended strongly...' (Down Beat)

'Work Song is the real classic, of course, laced with a funky blues feel but marked by some unexpectedly lyrical playing.' (The Penguin Guide to Jazz)

Nat Adderley, cornet
Wes Montgomery, guitar
Bobby Timmons, piano (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6 & 9)
Sam Jones, bass, cello
Keter Betts, bass, cello
Percy Heath, bass
Louis Hayes, drums

Recorded January 1960 at Reeves Sound Studios in New York City
Engineered by Jack Higgins
Produced by Orrin Keepnews


Digitally remastered

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 96 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 192 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Nat Adderley
worked in his brother’s band for 16 years, and during most of that time he was been cited as a strong, integral part of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Critics always say he didn’t get the attention he deserved, mostly because the Quintet was a finely-honed group, and to say one part is better than another was an exercise in futility.

As Jon Hendricks said of the Adderley brothers: "Cannonball and Nat have shared a whole incarnation on Earth together. They are together, and I don’t mean just playin’ at the same time, but being the same thing at the same time, which ain’t easy.”

The Adderley Quintet was noted for its easy grace and genuine warmth. To witness the interplay (musical and otherwise) between Nat and his older brother was an experience!

Nat explained his personal career, apart from his brother’s, this way: "Well, you know I haven’t made a record, by myself, for three or four years. I haven’t had anything personal I wanted to say. Then I gradually formulated the idea for this album [Double Exposure], and got ready to do it.”

The Adderley Quintet was as busy as any group working in jazz. They recorded frequently, and had a continuing series of concerts and club dates across the country. Nat said: "We’re always busy, unless we’re on vacation, and that doesn’t happen often enough! I didn’t decide to make my say, and I didn’t want to impose myself on the band. You know, I didn’t want to walk up to Julian and say, ‘Hey, how about cutting "Watermelon Man” and let me do the vocals?’ This is music that I’d rather do by myself, even if I do have Hal, Walter, and Roy on the date! [Hal Galper, pianist; Walter Booker, bassist; and Roy McCurdy, drummer; all from the Adderley Quintet].

"And Julian produced this with David Axelrod [who also works frequently with the Adderley Quintet] because I asked them to. But this is my music, stuff I feel very personal about.”

In fact, it may surprise some people to learn that Nat recorded, under his own name, for Milestone, Mercury, Limelight, A&M, and Atlantic. Double Exposure was his first LP for Prestige.

Talking about his early days in Florida, Nat said he made his musical debut at the Edgewood Club in Tallahassee. He described himself as a "boy soprano singer, and I stayed that way until 12 when my voice changed.” Nat then picked up the trumpet and started blowing "for my daily bread.” For the next seven years he played with a series of bands, and finally got his voice straightened out "to the point where I sounded like a teen Billy Eckstine.”

Adderley eventually ended up in the Army and was stationed in Louisville, Kentucky. "By this time I was so heavy into the jazz scene that I spent each free weekend in Louisville or across the border in Indiana sitting in with local jazz and blues groups who were laying down Charlie Parker tunes.”

After the Army, Adderley entered Florida A&M, and graduated with a B.S. in sociology. He went on to graduate school and then landed "my first major job— playing with Lionel Hampton.” This association lasted for a year. Following Hampton, Adderley worked with a series of r&b groups and eventually teamed up with his brother Julian "Cannonball” Adderley in 1955. In 1956 Nat formed his own band, working with such jazz figures as Sam Jones, Jimmy Cobb, and Junior Mance. This was to last until 1957. "Then my brother joined Miles Davis, and I freelanced around New York with Bill Evans and [alto/saxist] Lou Donaldson.”

In 1958 Nat joined J.J. Johnson for nine months, then left on a tour of Europe with Woody Herman and his "nnnnnnnth Herd,” as Adderley termed it.

It was not until 1959 that the brothers were reunited to form the famous Cannonball Adderley Quintet. "I left Woody, and Julian left Miles, and it happened.”

Nat Adderley was also a composer of some note. He wrote "Jive Samba” and "Work Song,” two songs which have often been recorded by others.

Nat Adderley died on January 2, 2000.

Booklet for Work Song