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!
DISC ONE:
1.
Introduction / 2. The
Black Messiah / 3.
Monologue / 4.
Little Benny Hen / 5. Zanek / 6. Dr.
Honouris Causa /
DISC TWO
1..The
Chocolate Nuisance / 2.
Untitled / 3. The
Steam Drill / 4. Eye
of the Cosmos / 5.
Episode from The Music Came / 6.
Heritage / 7.
Circumference / 8.
Pretty Paul
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