WES MONTGOMERY & CANNONBALL ADDERLEY - THE POLL WINNERS

Description

It is Cannonball Adderley, the flamboyant alto saxophonist famous at the time for his collaborations with Miles Davis and for forming an incandescent quintet with his brother Nat, emblematic of the triumphant hard bop, who, at the end of the 1950s, was the first to recognize the genius of guitarist Wes Montgomery and offer him the opportunity to sign his first significant record deal with the Riverside label. However, while both musicians quickly established themselves as some of the greatest stylists of soul jazz in the 1960s, their paths crossed only very rarely, and this recording, compiling two sessions from early 1960, is the only discographic trace of their collaboration. In the classic hard bop quintet format, propelled by a flexible and organic rhythm section consisting of Victor Feldman on piano and vibraphone, Ray Brown on double bass, and Louis Hayes on drums, the two men casually provide a striking glimpse of their talents. Once again demonstrating the prodigious mobility of his phrasing, alternating single-note playing and rhythmic sequences in chords, Wes Montgomery makes the jazz guitar sound like no one before him, while Cannonball Adderley, constantly lyrical and melodic, transcends even the slightest of his interventions with his astonishing virtuosity, infusing this summit meeting with that little extra soul that makes it unforgettable.