"One of the best and most overlooked of the Cannonball Adderley Capitols, a rumbling session that bursts with the joy of working in an unfamiliar yet vital rhythmic context" praises the AMG.
Though labeled as a Quintet album, this has Cannonball backed by a big band, including a considerable percussion section and wordless female vocals.
I can think of quite a few jazz albums and tunes that refered to Africa in title (very hip in the 60s and 70s!) yet musically where often much more Latin than African. Here the accent really is on African music, looking mostly towards South African styles and occasionally Westafrican highlife.
The South African accent can be traced back to the expat couple of singer Letta Mbulu and composer Caiphus Semenya, whom Cannonball befriended in the mid-1960s. Subsequently, Letta toured with the Adderley band and the brothers guested on her "Naturally" album.
Producer David Axelrod gained some experience with South African music, too, when he recorded two Letta Mbulu albums for Capitol - "Sings" and "Free Soul" - in 1967/68. Both are worth seeking out for their vital mixture of African music and soul.
Some tunes - "Hamba Nami", "Up And At It" - are typical Adderley hardbop, some use elements of Westafrican highlife, "Ndolima" for instance, some are almost pure South African - "Gumba Gumba" is a great example for the later.
Cannonball utilises soprano and varitone sax besides his alto. He and Nat are the only soloists (and the only Adderley Quintet members present). The big band spices the proceedings up without ever dominating the sound, which is just the way i like big band best. The percussion is massive and used to great effect. And yes, even the wordless vocals are used really nicely, singing in unisono with the brass.
This IS out on cd, so consider this a sample.
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet: Accent On Africa
Capitol Records ST 2987
A1 Ndolima (Joe Zawinul) 3:49
A2 Hamba Nami (Cannonball Adderley) 3:32
A3 Khutsana (Caiphus Semenya) 3:58
A4 Up And At It (Wes Montgomery) 3:36
B1 Gumba Gumba (Caiphus Semenya) 5:31
B2 Marabi (Cannonball Adderley) 2:50
B3 Gunjah (David Axelrod) 4:23
B4 Lehadima (Barnum/Rich/Holmes) 3:38
Personnel according to Bruyninckx discography:
Nat Adderley (cnt) Jack Laubach, Freddie Hill, Anthony Terran, Oliver Mitchell (tp) Bob Pring (tb) Richard Leitch (tb,b-tb,hrn) Vincent DeRosa (fhr,tu) Cannonball Adderley (as,el-as,sop) Jules Jacob (ts,cl) Buddy Collette (ts,fl) Plas Johnson, Jim Horn (saxes) Jackie Kelso (reeds) Don Randi (p, claves) Gene Estes (vib, tymp) Howard Roberts, Carol Kaye (g) Ray Brown (b,el-b,perc) Earl Palmer (d,perc) Frank Guerrero, Joe Clayton (perc) unknown female background voices, H.B. Barnum (arr,cond) David Axelrod (prod)
New York, June 13, 1968
9 comments:
Thanks, LPR. I posted my own LP rip of this a while ago. While not essential, it is a very enjoyable session.
I love the African styles Cannonball touches here, thus too me it is an essential album ;-)
yeah, I love this record a lot. I also think it is one of Axelrod's most underrated productions. "Naturally" is fantastic too.
Cannonball with african rhythms! Never seen this record in my life and it's a bless! Thanks Porco!
Enjoy, Calisan.
Enjoyable album. Essential? I agree with Jazzjet. Thanks, LPR.
I liked it. It's extremely upbeat and joyful and a little quirky. It avoids the trap of being too repetitious and the arrangements nice and full too. The bongos, conga drums, and wordless vocals may be a touch forumlaic but they work because they are done well. C-Ball plays some really nice licks and keeps it from ever getting boring. Thank you LPR!
Back in the oh so early days of digital transfers, this lp was a long way from being transferred to disc. One evening I was doing an interview with David Harrington of Kronos Quartet and I gave him a cassette copy of this lp. The next evening after the performance I found him raving about it in the foyer to anyone who would listen. It doesn't hold up as well after repeated listenings over the years but it sure is different at first.
Bought this LP for a dollar many years ago, and when I finally got to digitizing my LPs, this was one of the first I ripped. Is it a jazz classic? Maybe not, but it would have been the hippest disk in any space-age bachelor pad! Love the Varitone electric sax!
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