release date: 04-08-2005 (originally release in 1959)

2005 Analogue Productions  5-track 2XLP 180gram vinyl 45RPM series, featuring Nat Adderley, Bobby Timmons, Sam Jones & Louis Hayes, recorded live at the Jazz Workshop. This LP has come from the vast personal collection of the former Director of Publicity & Marketing for Blue Note in the USA - A true piece of Jazz history! Now On 45RPM Pressing. -Stickered & sealed in  perforated tear strip bag

Tracks:
01. This Here
02. Spontaneous Combustion
03. Hi-Fly
04. You Got It!
05. Bohemia After Dark

In the late 50s and early 60s Cannonball enjoyed unparallelled popularity, marked by the commercially successful Riverside releases of first his quintet and later his sextet (Yusef Lateef was the 3rd horn). The sessions were frequently recorded live, included spoken introductions by the ebullient Cannonball, featured mostly "accessible" tunes, and showcased at least one crowd-pleaser (This Here, Sack of Woe, Jive Samba, Mercy Mercy) that was also released as a hit single.
These sessions are memorable less for the individual solos than the fire of the ensemble, anchored and propelled by perhaps the best walking bass player in the business, Sam Jones. When I return to these recordings, I can't help but lament the absence of such ensembles on the scene today as well as be reminded of the relatively tough times Cannonball would encounter in the late 60s and early 70s, when he had trouble booking the group. (I remember him having to "audition" for ignorant Student Activities Directors shopping for next year's campus entertainment.)

"Live in San Francisco" is an exemplary session, certainly the equal of any of the other recordings by Cannonball with his own group. If a choice is to be made, I would personally favor the recordings with Victor Feldman on piano, rather than Joe Zawinul or Bobby Timmons, the pianist on this particular session. Regardless, with the renewed interest in "acoustic" straightahead jazz, any of the recordings should be required listening for the ensemble sound alone.