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"Work Song" is a work song and jazz standard 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. "Work Song" is one of Adderley's best known compositions.

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.

Background

"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.

Musical composition

The song is a 16 bar form in F minor. It is a minor blues.

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." 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."

Notes

1. This indicates to stay on the chord that came before. See: Grid notation

References

1. Saunders, Martin Wesley. Nat Adderley (1931-2000) and Work song : an analysis of improvisational style and evolution. OCLC 690253067.
2. Yanow, S. Allmusic Review accessed February 17, 2010.
3. Larkin, Colin (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of 60s Music (3rd ed.). Virgin Books Ltd. p. 9. ISBN 1-85227-933-8.
4. Micucci, Matt (2020-11-25). "Song of the Day: Cannonball Adderley Quintet, "Work Song"". JAZZIZ Magazine. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
5. Yanow, Scott. "Oscar Brown, Jr.: Sin & Soul – Review". AllMusic. Retrieved August 28, 2022.
6. Gridley, Mark (2014). "Review of Walk Tall: The Music and Life of Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. (The Hal Leonard Jazz Biography Series); Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition". Notes. 71 (1): 108–112. doi:10.1353/not.2014.0108. ISSN 0027-4380. JSTOR 43672881.
7. Vaartstra, Brent (2013-05-30). "Work Song". Learn Jazz Standards. Retrieved 2022-08-13.
8. Cook, Richard; Brian Morton (2006) . The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. The Penguin Guide to Jazz (8th ed.). London: Penguin. pp. 11. ISBN 978-0-141-02327-4.
9. M, Granville, Kyle (2020-01-01). A Musical Analysis of the Improvisational Bebop Style of Nat Adderley (1955-1964). OCLC 1286934150.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• Jazz standards
• Jazz compositions in F minor
• 1960s jazz standards
• Blues songs
• Soul jazz songs