![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/adderley_montreal.jpg\")
Saxophonist and band leader Julian \u201cCannonball\u201d Adderley was at the forefront of jazz musicians who believed that jazz is the people’s music. And he lived that ethos, moving seamlessly from hard bop to soul jazz to fusion during his sadly brief time in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
Adderley passed away in August 1975, at only 46 years of age. Just over two weeks before his premature death, he was onstage at the In Concert Room in Montreal. As always with brother Nat on Cornet, here the Quintet also featured pianist Michael Wolff, bassist Walter Booker and Roy McCurdy on drums. The group turned in a set that drew from across his body of work.<\/p>\n
Cannonball always shared the spotlight with his band mates, so it\u2019s no surprise that this set opens with a Nat tune, \u201cFive of a Kind.\u201d The tune first appeared on Cannon\u2019s 1973 LP Inside Straight<\/i>. Ron Carter\u2019s \u201cFirst Trip\u201d is up next, and it\u2019s a showcase for some modern, Sun Ra-like fiddling with effects like a ring modulator.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s followed by Joe Zawinul\u2019s \u201cMercy, Mercy, Mercy.\u201d Unlike the most well-known version of that tune (on Live at the Club<\/em>), here, the band takes it at a languorous pace, with an intriguing Cannon solo that was unfortunately poorly mic\u2019d. If I didn\u2019t know better, I\u2019d think that the solo was played on a synthesizer, but Woolf\u2019s understated electric piano playing makes it clear his hands were busy.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Scene\u201d figured into many Adderley sets of the era; it\u2019s a kind of intro\/outro vamp piece with a solid bass line and some tasty wailing. As is typical of many Adderley live albums, it\u2019s tantalizingly short, providing a bed for Cannon to introduce the band and announce a set break.<\/p>\n When the Quintet returns, a treasured occurrence takes place. As was his wont, Cannonball Adderley steps up to the mic and takes two full minutes to engage the audience, playfully introducing the upcoming tune. Rather than distracting from the music, Cannon\u2019s raps are a treasured part of his live performances, and this is no exception. Here Adderley raps a bit about the plight of Native Americans.<\/p>\n The tune itself, \u201cWaban,\u201d is a lengthy piece in which Booker plays his upright bass with a bow. A solemn, angular and contemplative tune, it\u2019s as lovely as it is understated, full of glistening piano lines and mournful bass. The Adderley brothers and McCurdy sit this one out, ceding the spotlight to the piano-and-bass duet.<\/p>\n \u201cCountry Preacher\u201d was the title track to Adderley\u2019s 1969 live album. Written for and dedicated to the Rev. Jesse Jackson, it\u2019s an instrumental tribute to his Operation Breadbasket. In this reading of the tune, Cannon spends nearly six minutes setting the scene, exuding his trademark mix of humor and sincerity. The tune itself \u2013 a gospel-flavored soul jazz number \u2013 is in fact shorter than its spoken introduction, and it\u2019s taken here in an understated fashion, only opening up toward the end.<\/p>\n And that description sums up Live in Montreal May 1975<\/i>. First released in 1977 as Cannonball Volume One<\/em> on the California-based Dobre Records, the recording has been out of print for some years. Expertly recorded, it captures a low-key set that may well be the last recorded live performance by the jazz giant. For that reason alone, it\u2019s worth hearing and owning. But its musical virtues make it worthwhile as well; ultimately any<\/i> Cannonball Adderley is good Cannonball Adderley.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Saxophonist and band leader Julian \u201cCannonball\u201d Adderley was at the forefront of jazz musicians who believed that jazz is the people’s music. And he lived that ethos, moving seamlessly from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,42,64,65,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumental","category-jazz","category-reissue","category-review","category-vinyl","cat-40-id","cat-42-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","cat-73-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28659"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30028,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28659\/revisions\/30028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}