© -Steven
Cerra , copyright protected; all rights reserved.
It didn’t last
long.
But the eighteen
month association between the Adderley brothers and pianist and vibraphonist Victor
Feldman was a mutual admiration society.
Older brother and
alto saxophonist Julian Adderley, affectionately known as Cannonball, was
quoted as saying of his time together with Victor: “I had a ball; the band just
burned. Victor is one bad cat.” Victor, never one to use many words when a few
would do, outdid himself in this regard by summing up his experience with
Cannonball’s quintet in one word: “Brilliant!”
On the other hand,
18 months is a long time for a jazz group to be together.
And while touring
with the quintet led by Cannonball and his younger brother Nat [who plays
cornet], Victor was leaving a ton of "bread" on the table.
So for
professional as well as some personal reasons, coming off the road and getting
back into the then-vibrant Los Angeles studio scene seemed the prudent and wise
thing for Victor to do.
As was always the
case, wherever he went, Victor brought a lot of new music with him as he was constantly
composing.
One of his tunes
that Cannonball’s group played at almost every appearance while Victor was on
the band was Lisa, a tune that Victor
co-composed with Torrie Zito.
You can hear Lisa on the following video montage. It
was recorded during the band’s April 15, 1961 appearance at the famous L’Olympia concert
hall in Paris , France
