Monday, September 2, is Labor Day in the United States. Congress established it in 1894 as a national holiday to honor working people. Decades ago, the observance expanded into a long weekend during which Americans celebrate the end of summer by going to beaches, swimming pools, mountains, campgrounds, parks and backyard barbecues. Detroit honors the occasion by holding a massive who’s-who jazz festival, one of the biggest in the world. It is not unlikely that during the course of the festival, somebody will perform a piece that was written with labor, rather than a respite from labor, in mind. On a 1962 broadcast of Jazz Scene USA, Cannonball Adderley introduced what was already becoming a jazz standard.
Happy Labor Day