Cannonball Adderley - The Black Messiah (1972) [2014 Blue Note Remaster]

In 1970, Cannonball Adderley recorded a series of concerts that resulted in three cult classic live albums, of which this double-album produced, like other landmark double albums of the time like Soul Zodiac and Soul of the Bible, by David Axelrod is the hardest to find. It captures Cannonball and the Quintet (brother Nat Adderley on cornet, Roy McCurdy on drums, Walter Booker on bass and George Duke fresh from replacing Joe Zawinul, who had left to form Weather Report on keyboards) at the forefront of the burgeoning electronic jazz-rock fusion movement, sounding at times every bit like the early 70s band of Cannonball s former bandleader Miles Davis, except maybe even funkier and more out there. But Cannonball always had a populist streak to him after all, the man had a Top 20 hit with Mercy, Mercy, Mercy and so The Black Messiah also features flat-out rock and roll (guest guitarist Mike Deasy s Liittle Benny Hen ) as well as dips into the soul-jazz style that had landed him on the charts several years earlier, all punctuated by his always entertaining between-song raps. The band is killer, too, with guests including, in addition to Deasy, percussionists Airto Moreira and Buck Clark, clarinetist Alvin Battiste and saxman Ernie Watts. How this fascinating double live album which was recorded at the Troubadour in Los Angeles during the same concerts that yielded the album Music, You All has eluded reissue till now is anybody s guess, but our Real Gone Music/Dusty Groove release features liner notes by Cannonball devotee Bill Kopp, with original art and added photos. Remastered by Maria Triana at Battery Studios in NYC one of the most mindblowing collaborations between Adderley and Axelrod!

Tracks:

CD1
01 - Introduction
02 - Black Messiah
03 - Monologue
04 - Little Benny Hen
05 - Zanek
06 - Dr. Honouris Causa

CD2
01 - The Chocolate Nuisance
02 - Untitled
03 - The Steam Drill
04 - Eyes Of The Cosmos
05 - Episode From The Music Came
06 - Heritage
07 - Circumference
08 - Pretty Paul
09 - The Scene

Personnel:

Cannonball Adderley - alto & soprano saxophone
Nat Adderley - cornet
Roy McCurdy - drums
Walter Booker - bass
George Duke - piano
Airto Moreira - percussion