Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans, Know What I Mean?

By Paul Casey

Cannonball Adderley and Bill Evans worked together on Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. That should be enough of a reason for you to seek out and listen to Know What I Mean? As the cover reminds us, Bill Evans accompanies that fearsomely moustachioed fellow, Cannonball Adderley, who first transfixed me with his earlier Somethin’ Else album.

“Waltz For Debby” was performed many times by Bill Evans in his career. The song is featured on both New Jazz Conceptions, Evans’ debut as leader, as well as The Tony Bennett and Bill Evans Album, appearing there in a sumptuous vocal recording. Johnny Hartman, that unfairly overlooked crooner with a voice you could sleep under, sleep on top of ,and eventually sleep with, also did a version for his album The Voice That Is. Yet on Know What I Mean? the song exists in perhaps its greatest form.

Cannonball’s alto sax puts things in an easy mood. He plays to seduce, as does Evans, with the same tender approach he displayed with his reborn Trio on Moonbeams, with Jim Hall on Undercurrent, and on “Piece Peace,” whenever it went from his brain to his fingers to show you something special. Know What I Mean? is a romantic album. It is space enveloped in and overcome with warmth. “Goodbye” is not goodbye.

It isn’t just the two players on the cover that you should consider, though. There is also Connie Kay, member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, who played drums on perhaps the greatest album of the 1960s, Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks. Fellow Modern Jazz Quartet member Percy Heath, also a collaborator with Miles Davis as well as his own group, The Heath Brothers, is on bass. Both had worked with Evans before, on his and Bob Brookmeyer’s 1959 album, The Ivory Hunters.

As I described in my Chet Baker In New York review, the mood of New York is also present on Know What I Mean? It was recorded over three months at the beginning of 1961 at Bell Sound Studios in New York City. This is not a hopped up, hopped out affair. The only all-nighter present is accidental, like the one when you stay up late talking about a loving future between you and your significant other. There are also moments where it feels as if a darker edge might creep in, as on the opening of “Who Cares?” but Cannonball comes in with a circus happy melody and undercuts it. This is a nihilism that accidentally had a good day, week, and year. And wants to go for a walk in Central Park, damn it, and commit to a long term relationship.

“Elsa” is the walk home. Quiet. Quiet. It’s a back-in-time tune. An “I was a good man, then” tune. “Nancy (With the Laughing Face).” Safe to remember now.

Know What I Mean? is a relationship album and a friendship album. The title track, a Bill Evans composition, shows a musical friendship that was rewarding to both Evans and Adderly. Slow burn. This is how I feel. Know What I Mean?

As a testament to the individual skill of all the players, and the great music that Evans and Adderley made together, Know What I Mean? is a wonderful album.

The reissue of Know What I Mean? was released on June 14 via Concord Music Group as part of the Original Jazz Classics series.