"Work Song" is a work song and jazz standard [1] by American trumpeter Nat Adderley and writer Oscar Brown Jr. It was first featured in Adderley's 1960 studio album of the same name, which was met with high praise and acclaim. [2] [3] "Work Song" is one of Adderley's best known compositions. [4]
The song was originally only an instrumental, but Oscar Brown Jr. included lyrics in a cover released the following year on his album, Sin & Soul. [5]
"Work Song" was inspired by Nat Adderley's childhood experience of seeing a group of convict laborers singing while they worked on a chain gang, paving the street in front of his family’s home in Florida. [6]
The song is a 16 bar form in F minor. It is a minor blues. [7]
| F-7 | 𝄎 [lower-alpha 1] | 𝄎 | 𝄎 |
| 𝄎 | 𝄎 | C7 | 𝄎 |
| F-7 | 𝄎 | 𝄎 | 𝄎 |
| F7 | Bb7 | G7 C7 | F-7 |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz states: "'Work Song' is the real classic, of course, laced with a funky blues feel but marked by some unexpectedly lyrical playing." [8] In a musical analysis of Adderley's improvisational bebop style, Kyle M. Granville writes that the song is "connected to the soul-jazz style that Nat Adderley and his brother Cannonball Adderley immersed themselves into during the mid-1960s." [9]
Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s.
Nathaniel Carlyle Adderley was an American jazz trumpeter. He was the younger brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, whom he supported and played with for many years.
Very Tall is a 1962 album by the jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and his trio, with the vibraphonist Milt Jackson.
Radio Nights is an album released in 1991 featuring previously unreleased live radio broadcasts by the Cannonball Adderley Quartet, Quintet and Sextet from New York City's Half Note Club jazz club. They were recorded by Alan Grant and broadcast live on radio in the last week of 1967 and the first week of 1968. The montage of Adderley's monologues are taken from a recording made at the Keystone Korner jazz club, San Francisco. At the time of the recordings, Adderley was under contract to Capitol.
Cannonball in Japan is a live recording by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet at the Sankei Hall in Tokyo which was first released on the Japanese Capitol label in 1966 before being more widely released on CD in 1990.
"Dat Dere" is a jazz song written by Bobby Timmons that was recorded in 1960. Lyrics were written later by Oscar Brown, Jr.
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco is a 1959 album by The Cannonball Adderley Quintet.
Them Dirty Blues is an album by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, recorded in 1960.
Bohemia After Dark is an album by jazz drummer Kenny Clarke, featuring the earliest recordings with Cannonball Adderley and Nat Adderley. It was released by Savoy Records in September 1955.
Presenting Cannonball is the 1955 debut album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, released on the Savoy label, featuring a quintet with Nat Adderley, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, and Kenny Clarke. A 1994 Japanese CD release also included alternate takes of tracks from Adderley's recording debut previously released as Kenny Clarke's Bohemia After Dark (1955).
Sophisticated Swing is the fifth album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, and his fourth released on the EmArcy label, featuring performances with Nat Adderley, Junior Mance, Sam Jones and Jimmy Cobb. The front cover photograph was by Chuck Stewart taken at the Ulysses S. Grant Monument, Chicago, Illinois.
Cannonball Adderley and the Poll-Winners is an album by jazz saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley released on the Riverside label, featuring performances by Adderley with Wes Montgomery, Ray Brown, Victor Feldman, and Louis Hayes.
Plus is an album by Cannonball Adderley Quintet released on the Riverside label featuring performances by Adderley with Nat Adderley, Wynton Kelly, Victor Feldman, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes.
Jazz Workshop Revisited is a live album by the jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley released on the Riverside label. Alongside Adderley, it features performances by Nat Adderley, Yusef Lateef, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes. It was recorded at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco on September 22 & 23, 1962
Live Session! is a live album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recorded at Memory Lane, Los Angeles in 1962 and the Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach in 1964 and released on the Capitol label featuring performances by Adderley with Nat Adderley, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes and vocalist Ernie Andrews.
Cannonball Adderley's Fiddler on the Roof is an album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley released on the Capitol label featuring performances of material from the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof by Adderley with Nat Adderley, Charles Lloyd, Joe Zawinul, Sam Jones and Louis Hayes.
African Waltz is an album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, released on the Riverside label and performed by Adderley with an orchestra conducted by Ernie Wilkins. The title track had been a UK hit single for Johnny Dankworth.
Inside Straight is a live album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recorded at the Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California in 1973 featuring performances by Adderley's Quintet with Nat Adderley, Hal Galper, Walter Booker and Roy McCurdy with guest percussionist King Errisson.
Phenix is an album by jazz saxophonist Cannonball Adderley recorded in 1975 at the Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, featuring performances by Adderley's Quintet with Nat Adderley, keyboardist Michael Wolff, bassist Walter Booker and drummer Roy McCurdy with guest percussionist Airto Moreira and past Quintet members keyboardist George Duke, bassist Sam Jones, and drummer Louis Hayes guesting on select tracks. The program essentially consists of energetic new arrangements of the Quintet's best known pieces from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, including Nat Adderley's “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.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)