Cannonball Adderley - Big Man: The Legend Of John Henry (1975) {2015 Remaster}

In what would turn out to be the final years of his short life, jazz great Julian “Cannonball” Adderley embarked on a number of ambitious, genre-stretching projects. The last of these was 1975's Big Man, the score for a musical play based on the John Henry (“the steel driving man”) American folk legend. The album was released as a two-LP set with libretto, and featured music from Adderley and his then-current musical associates including brother Nat Adderley, George Duke (using the alias “Dawilli Gonga”), Roy McCurdy, Airto Moreira, Carol Kaye and others. The sessions also made full use of a large string section and chorus, while the primary vocalists in Big Man sang and read their lines in character; the vocal cast included lead vocalist Joe Williams, Randy Crawford (making her professional debut on record here at age 21), and Robert Guillaume (later to win two Emmy Awards for his work on TV series Soap and Benson, and a Grammy Award for his work connected to The Lion King). Long out of print and never before issued on CD, Real Gone Music's reissue of Big Man boasts liner notes by Bill Kopp (Kopp also penned the liners for RGM's first Adderley reissue, The Black Messiah) with quotes from Robert Guillaume, and the full libretto, with remastering by Joe Tarantino. The final artistic statement from a jazz giant!

Alto Saxophone – Cannonball Adderley
Art Direction – Phil Carroll
Bass – Carol Kaye, Walter Booker
Chorus – Billie Barnum, Charles May, Donald Dandridge, Fleming Williams, Gwendolyn Owens, Jessie Richardson, Josef Powell, Michael Gray, Mortonette Jenkins, Sherwood Sledge, Stephanie Spruill, Vernettya Royster
Concertmaster – Jack Shulman
Cover – David Lance Goines
Design – David Lance Goines
Drums – Roy McCurdy
Engineer – Jim Stern
Guitar – Billy Fender, Don Peake
Keyboards – Dawilli Gonga
Liner Notes – Diane Lampert
Lyrics By – Diane Lampert, Peter Farrow
Mastered By – David Turner
Music By – Julian Adderley, Nat Adderley
Percussion – Airto Moreira, King Errisson
Photography By [Photo Of Joe Williams] – Tony Lane
Photography By [Photo Of Julian " Cannonball " Adderley] – Bruce Talamon
Piano – Jimmy Jones
Producer – Julian "Cannonball" Adderley, David Axelrod, Nat Adderley
Reeds – Donald Menza, Jackie Kelso, Jay Migliori, William Green
Strings – Alexander Neiman, Alfred Lustgarten, Arthur H. Brown, Bernard Kundell, Edgar Lustgarten), Gareth Nuttycombe, Henry Roth, Jack Shulman, Jerome Reisler, Kathleen Lustgarten, Mary Newkirk, Pamela Goldsmith, William Henderson, William Hymanson
Trombone – Dick Hyde, George Bohanon
Trumpet – Allen DeRienzo, Oliver Mitchell, Oscar Brashear
Voice Actor – Joe Williams, Judy Thames, Lane Smith, Randy Crawford, Robert Guillaume