Three from Cannonball Adderley (1969-71)

CANNONBALL ADDERLEY
'THE BLACK MESSIAH" (1971)

Originally posted by Bacoso at "Orgy in Rhythm", May 2006.
Re-post by permission. Text by Bacoso.

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I guess this must be the post I have had the most requests to re-up since I first posted it in May 2006. I finally got it together to rip it again this time @320 from my original vinyl.

Still immersed in the burgeoning electronic jazz-rock explosion of the times, Cannonball Adderley goes further toward a rapprochement with the rock and soul audiences than ever before on this fascinating, overlooked double album. For starters, he recorded it live at West Hollywood's Troubadour club, then known as a showcase for folk and rock acts. He also imported additional players into his quintet, expanding into exotic percussion effects with Airto Moreira (whom Miles Davis had previously featured), hard rock guitar with session man Mike Deasy, fiery tenor sax from the young Ernie Watts, and occasional seasoning from conguero Buck Clarke and clarinetist Alvin Batiste.

"Now I don't give a damn whether you can count or not, we still are the Cannonball Adderley Quintet!," quoth the leader, who is in loose, loquacious form throughout the set (the jazz world badly misses his witty verbal intros). With Joe Zawinul now flying off to Weather Report, his replacement is an even more electronically minded pianist, George Duke, who levitates into the outer limits with his Echoplex and ring modulator and proves to be a solid comper. But Zawinul is not forgotten, for the band pursues a long, probing, atmospheric excursion on his tune, "Dr. Honouris Causa". Adderley generously gives Deasy two contrasting feature numbers -- "Little Benny Hen", a raucous, amateurishly sung blues/rock piece, and "Zanek", a great countrified tune with an avant-garde freakout at the climax -- and all of the other guests save Clarke get single solo features.

Brother Nat Adderley gamely visits the outside on cornet while Cannonball doubles with increasing adventurousness on soprano and alto and bassist Walter Booker and drummer Roy McCurdy deftly handle all of the changes of style. Cannonball adeptly keeps pace with Miles Davis, his former boss - the driving "The Chocolate Nuisance" could easily be a first cousin of "Pharoah's Dance" on "Bitches Brew" - while not abandoning his funky soul-jazz base nor the special audience-friendly ambience of his concerts.

Unlike Adderley's other two-for-one-priced double albums of the '70s, this one was inexplicably sold at full price, which probably limited its sales and might partly explain why it remains surprisingly hard to find in used LP bins. Surprisingly enough this has never made a cd issue. No reissues in any format. Recorded Live at The Troubadour.

MUSICIANS

Cannonball Adderley (Alto & Soprano saxophone)
Nat Adderley (Cornet)
Roy Mac Curdy (Drums)
Walter Booker (bass)
George Duke (Piano, electric piano)
Airto Moreira (percussion)
David Axelrod (Production)

'THE CANNONBALL ADDERLEY QUINTET & ORCHESTRA' (1970)

Originally posted by Bacoso at "Orgy in Rhythm", May 2006.
Re-post by permission. Text by Bacoso and Motown67.

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No reissues - ripped from the original vinyl @320.Side 1 has the intro edited by 20 seconds due to a bad scratch, so
Reader lc has kindly upped 'Experience in E' without my edited intro - nice work chap !!!

This one's for Kristof. Motown67 on the case at Soulstrut.com :

Cannonball Adderley Quintet & Orchestra features three songs, each penned by different authors. Joe Zawinul wrote 'Experience In E', 'Tensity' is by David Axelrod and Lalo Schifrin was responsible for 'Dialogues For Jazz Quintet and Orchestra'.

'Experience In E' and 'Dialogues For Jazz Quintet' gravitate back and forth between Free Jazz and heavily orchestrated Bop. There’s a nice middle part in the former, and a short bass and drum part in the latter that could be looped. 'Tensity' is the best of the three as it has a strong backbeat to a Soul-Jazz melody. It’s been sampled several times as well.

CANNONBALL ADDERLEY QUINTET AND ORCHESTRA:

Nat Adderley - cornet
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley - alto sax
Joe Zawinul - electric piano
Walter Booker - bass
Roy McCurdy - drums
Orchestra arranged & conducted by Bill Fischer: 
Trumpet - Freddie Hill, Paul Hubinon
Trombone - Dick Leith, Dick Hyde
French Horn - David Duke, Art Maebe
Saxaphones - Gene Cipriano, Jackie Kelso
Flute, clarinet, piccolo - Bill Green
Flute, piccolo - Jim Horn
Oboe - Ernie Watts, Jerry Kasper
Bassoon - Don Christlieb
Arco Bass - Ray Brown
Mallets - Gary Coleman
Percussion - John Arnold
Violins - James Getzoff, Bill Hymanson, Ralph Schaefer, Bill Henderson, Assa Drori, Stanley Plummer, Gerald Vinci, Henry Roth, Israel Baker, Marvin Limonick, Paul Shure, Lou Raderman.
Violas - Joe Reilich, Milton Thomas, Allan Harshman, Myron Sandler, Sam Boghossian, Gary Nuttycombe
Cellos - Edgar Lustgarden, Raphael Kramer, Armand Kaproff, Jeffrey Solow
Bass - Morty Corb, Bob West, Al McKibbon, Max Bennett

Session #18574 - Capitol Tower - LA, May 20, 1970
74567 'Experience in E' Cap.ST-484
74568: no information (poss. not used).

Nat Adderley (c) , Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (as), Joe Zawinul (p), Walter Booker (b), Roy McCurdy (dm) with Orchestra arr. & cond. by Bill Fischer (similar to previous session).
Arr. by Lalo Schifrin-1.
Session #18575 - Capitol Tower - LA, May 21, 1970

CANNONBALL ADDERLEY QUINTET
'COUNTRY PREACHER" (1969)

Originally posted by Bacoso at "Orgy in Rhythm", December 2006. Re-post by permission. Text by Bacoso.

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David Axelrod at the controls again- although he does not get credited on the cover he shared the production duties on this with the Adderley brothers. This one's for Kristof.

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley's 1969 album COUNTRY PREACHER is not only one of his best works but one of the pinnacles of the entire soul-jazz movement. Though Yusef Lateef, Herbie Mann, Jimmy Smith, and others made outstanding records in this under-appreciated sub-genre, COUNTRY PREACHER is the album that delivers all of the strengths of soul jazz with few of its weaknesses.

A stellar combo, featuring Adderley's cornetist brother Nat, standout electric pianist Joe Zawinul, and the killer rhythm section of bassist Walter Booker and drummer Roy McCurdy, gives Adderley's alto and, unusually for him, soprano sax just the sort of groove-oriented, percussive setting his hard-edged and intense sound needs. The gospel-based titled track is wonderful, but "Afro-Spanish Omelette", a medley of Caribbean-style workouts, is one of the highlights of Adderley's entire career.

TRACKLIST

01. Walk Tall (Queen Esther Marrow/Jim Rein/Joe Zawinul) 5:12
02. Country Preacher (Joe Zawinul) 4:28
03. Hummin' (Nat Adderley) 6:35
04. Oh Babe (Nat Adderley/Julian Adderley) 4:50
05. Afro-Spanish Omlet (Nat Adderley/W. Booker/Joe Zawinul/Julian Adderley) 15:40
06. The Scene (Joe Zawinul/Nat Adderley) 2:03

MUSICIANS

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley - saxaphones
Nat Adderley - cornet
Joe Zawinul - electric piano
Walter Booker - bass
Roy McCurdy - drums

more 70s albums from CANNONBALL ADDERLEY in the blogosphere :

"the price you got to pay to be free"(1970) at Ile Oxumare
"the happy people" (1972) at Ile Oxumare
(GREAT tracks on "Happy people" featuring Airto and Flora Purim)
"Soul Zodiac" (1972) thanks Gildas

"Live at Jazz Jamboree (Poland)" (1972) at Pan Mietek

"Love, Sex and the Zodiac" (1974) at My Jazz World
"Big Man" (1975) at Axography
"Phenix" (1975) - at Oufar Khan
"Music, You all" (1976) at My Jazz World
"Soul of the Bible" (1976) at My Jazz World
"Lovers" (1976) at My Jazz World

Please leave a comment.

George Duke - "The Dream" (1978)

I'm really pleased to have Ish from the fantastic ile oxumaré blog as guest poster today. If you don't know his blog, you must check it out, it's a treasure trove of all sorts of great music. He also runs the indispensable Strata-East Fan Club blog. I've often joked that we seem to have the same vinyl collection, and as it turned out, we needed both copies of the same rare one to get today's post happening.
... so over to you Ish :

(First let me say I'm honored to be a guest poster on Simon's blog. In my short life as a music blogger he's been one of my earliest and best readers over at Ile Oxumare: quick to comment, with useful info to add, and generous with his shares. I've been thrilled with his entry into the world of jazz blogs. I've heard some great music I hadn't known of here, and he's been energetic supplying background info and links to related sources. Bravo Simon! It took two continents to make this post: my vinyl had a series of hopeless skips on side one. Together courtesy of some wires strung between New York and Australia here you have it in one restored piece, a keyboard classic.)

George Duke recorded eight albums for the German label MPS. Six of them are well-known classics on the rare groove scene, and these have finally been put out on CD by a rejuvenated MPS imprint as a 4-disk collection. One of these - "The Inner Source" - you'll even find on this blog.
His first album, pre-electric and more or less disavowed by Duke himself as unlistenable, seems to be lost to the ages. I think I may have had a copy once but it didn't survive one of my great vinyl purges.

The eighth album—“The Dream”--got caught up in contract dispute as Duke moved on to the US imprint Epic, and to greater commercial style and success. MPS put it out against his wishes, and apparently without paying him for it. It received relatively limited circulation. By way of revenge, Duke reworked the album and reissued it in 1982, retitling it "The 1976 Solo Keyboard Album." One suspects Duke was using the recording as filler for his Epic contract, for he shortly after moved to Elektra, his albums becoming more smooth-R&B and less interesting.

Anyway in the liner notes to the 1982 version--which has been put out on CD--Duke states :

"This album is the last in a series of records I made for MPS...it is my first and only solo record. It was originally recorded and mixed in 1976....The present album was remixed in 1980 with a few alterations at my recording studio, Le Gonks West....'Pathways' on the original recording was an acoustic piano improvisation. On this record I have added Prophet V synthesizer. All the other synthesizer work on this record was done in 1976 on arp odyssey and mini-moog synthesizers."
(The downloads include the later 1982 versions of "Pathways" and "Spock Gets Funky" for comparison).

Duke obviously fell in love with electric keyboards, His sound on the arp and minimoog is instantly recognizable on his solo albums and the dozens of albums for which he contributed, often under the nom-de-keys Dawilli Gonga. Making a solo album today is nothing--all you need is a mac and a copy of garage band. In 1976 it was a whole different story. There was no sampling. No flipping of a single on switch. Those synthesizers had to be taught to make those glorious sounds. Hearing this album you understand how seduced Duke got by later generations of keyboards. The less said about what happened to his music when he got into those perhaps the better.

Here. then, is “The Dream”!

*************************************

PRODUCTION


George Duke - "The Dream"
MPS LP, cat. number 68183
Recorded 1976, released 1978

TRACKLIST 

1 'Mr. McFreeze'
2 'Love Reborn'
3 'Tzina' (retitled in 1982 "Excerpts from the Opera Tzina")
4 'Spock Does the Bump at the Space Disco' (retitled in 1982 "Spock Gets Funky")
5 'Pathways'
6 'Vulcun Mind Probe' (1982 "Vulcun" respelled "Vulcan")
7 'The Dream That Ended'

Also included in downloads
"Pathways" and "Spock Gets Funky" from the 1982 release.

CREDITS

All compositions by George Duke, Mycenae Music / ASCAP
George Duke : keyboards, drums, bell tree, vocal
Recording Engineer : Kerry McNabb (Paramount Recording)
Producer : George Duke
Executive Producer : Baldhard Falk
Front Cover : Sätty
Photo : Baldhard Falk

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never enough rhodes comp #6 (jazz)

'Always Something' - Jazz Liberatorz


'Tergivisation' - Elvin Jones


'Trouble Man' - Ahmad Jamal

I'm really happy with the sequencing on this one, so I hope that you grab it even if you've got some of the tracks already. I really love the way that the Jazz Liberatorz build a rhodes track over a classic rhodes loop with great playing. John Klemmer's track fits the cover pic the best, George Duke is back with the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, recorded around the same time as "The Inner Source", if you liked that. The great Onaje Allan Gumbs stretches out with Buster William's ensemble, and we finish with Herbie Hancock intertwining his acoustic and rhodes pianos with Milt Jackson's vibes on the beautiful 'Sunflower'.

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Comments will bring us all happiness :)

click the pic below for more rhodes compilations

George Duke - "The Inner Source" (1971)

Throughout the 1970s, George Duke continually redefined the way people used electric pianos and other keyboards. Like Joe Zawinul, Duke was an 'early adopter' of the Fender Rhodes, and when he took Zawinul's place in the Cannonball Adderley Quintet - just before this album was recorded in 1971 - he ferociously explored the instrument's sonic possibilities, manipulating echoplex and ring-modulation effects as if they were additional instruments in themselves - check "Manya" and "Nigerian Numberuma" on this album for examples, or check "Circumference" on Adderley's "Black Messiah"

Frank Zappa pushed him onto synthesisers, and Duke went on to release a successful series of albums that neatly straddled jazz, funk, soul and pop, often incorporating Brazilian harmonic structures and musicians. While some jazz piano players in the 70s simply translated their style onto either the Rhodes or electronic keyboards, George Duke continued to look at each one as a new instrument, incorporating the new possibilities into his compositional structures.

1971's "The Inner Source" on the MPS label is my favourite album by him - it's all Rhodes, Wurlitzer, brass and colour. Duke's written an extensive discography of his own albums, so we'll let him talk for this :

SOLUS (THE INNER SOURCE) (1971)

" This is a double album that originally was to be released separately. SABA records folded and became MPS, which is why the first album was delayed. As a result, the powers that be decided to release them as a double LP. However, for the purposes of these personal liner notes, I'll treat them separately, as they were intended.

The name for my first MPS record was to be called "SOLUS". The year was 1971 and I had joined The Cannonball Adderley Quintet (replacing Joe Zawinul). Three months into my gig with Cannon, I recorded this LP. I had already begun to experiment with the Fender Rhodes and Wurlitzer electric pianos with Jean-Luc Ponty and Don Ellis, so I continued doing the same on this record. Joining me on this LP were John Heard bass, Dick Berk drums."

THE INNER SOURCE (1971)

"The interesting thing to me is, looking back, I can really hear a lot of growth in my piano playing from "SOLUS", to the second LP, "THE INNER SOURCE". I almost sound like a different piano player more confident with definitely stronger musical ideas. It was recorded in December 1971. I had been with Cannon for about 10 months. Boy, did I learn a lot. It seems I was beginning to find my own musical voice!
Besides John and Dick, Armando Perazza joined us on percussion. He was living in San Francisco and playing with Santana. Also on the date were Jerome Richardson on saxes and flute; Luis Gasca on trumpet and flugelhorn; James Leary on bass for one tune.

I feel I should mention that on all my LP's for SABA and MPS, that Baldhard G. Falk is listed as producer. I want to clear this up once and for all. He did NOT produce these recordings musically. He did keep track of the budget, pay the bills, secure the LP covers, etc. He's a great music lover that gave me my first shot, never got in the way musically, and was always extremely supportive. He was one of the good guys that was also supportive outside the music arena, and my mother liked him too.

I should also mention that I played Trombone on all the horn tunes. Overdubbing is a wonderful thing! From what I remember, this was the last time I played trombone, at least on record. Oh well, ta ta!"

George Duke (inner sleeve pic)

TRACKLIST

01 Au-Right (3:27)
02 Love Reborn (7:25)
03 Peace (7:39)
04 So There You Go (5:18)
05 The Followers (5:15)
06 Solus (9:05)
07 Nigerian Numberuma (2:49)
08 My Soul (4:37)
09 The Inner Source (6:07)
10 Life (5:39)
11 Some Time Ago (5:00)
12 Feels So Good' (7:10)
13 Manya (3:26)
14 Sweet Bite (3:32)
15 Twenty-Five (4:54)
16 Always Constant (6:47)

MUSICIANS

Tracks 1-7 “SOLUS”

Piano, Electric Piano (Rhodes, Wurlitzer) - George Duke
Bass, Electric Bass - John Heard
Drums, Percussion - Dick Berk

Tracks 8-16 “THE INNER SOURCE”

Keyboards, Trombone, Conductor - George Duke
Congas - Armanda Peroza (tracks 8, 12)
Drums - Dick Berk (tracks 8, 12)
Electric Violin [Bass] - John Heard (tracks 8, 12)
Flugelhorn, Trumpet - Luis Gasca (tracks 8, 12)
Violin [Bass] - James Leary (track 15)
Saxophone [Tenor, Soprano], Flute - Jerome Richardson (tracks 8-9, 12, 16)

Producer - George Duke
(quoted on vinyl cover as Baldhard G. Falk, but see what George says above)

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