Cannonball Adderley

Cannonball's lone Blue Note date, with Miles Davis as the rarest of sidemen. Autumn Leaves alone is worth the whole record: Miles's muted statement of the theme is one of the most famous trumpet performances ever recorded. Hank Jones, Sam Jones, and Art Blakey round out the band.

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The live record that launched soul jazz, taped at the Jazz Workshop in October 1959. Bobby Timmons's This Here became a jukebox hit, and Cannonball's between-song patter set the template for every live Adderley album that followed.

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The biggest hit of Cannonball's career, recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood in front of an invited audience. Joe Zawinul's gospel-flavored electric piano riff on the title track became one of the biggest-selling jazz singles of the decade.

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The duo summit with Bill Evans, two years after they shared the bandstand on Kind of Blue. Percy Heath and Connie Kay from the Modern Jazz Quartet hold down the rhythm section. Waltz for Debby and Toy are the standouts, lyrical without ever going soft.

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The Coltrane summit. Recorded in February 1959, weeks before the Kind of Blue sessions, with the Miles Davis rhythm section of Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. Two alto and tenor giants pushing each other with no trumpet in the room.

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The studio follow-up to the San Francisco live date, split between New York and Chicago sessions. Nat Adderley's Work Song and Bobby Timmons's Dat Dere both debut here, two of the most durable tunes in the whole soul jazz songbook.

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