Cannonball Adderley Quintet - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at "The Club" (1966)

Cannonball Adderley's most popular album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy wasn't actually recorded "Live at 'The Club'," as its subtitle says. The hoax was meant to publicize a friend's nightclub venture in Chicago, but Adderley actually recorded the album in Los Angeles, where producer David Axelrod set up a club in the Capitol studios and furnished free drinks to an invitation-only audience. Naturally, the crowd is in an extremely good mood, and Adderley's quintet, feeding off the energy in the room, gives them something to shout about. By this point, Adderley had perfected a unique blend of earthy soul-jazz and modern, subtly advanced post-bop; very rarely did some of these harmonies and rhythms pop up in jazz so saturated with blues and gospel feeling. Those latter influences are the main inspiration for acoustic/electric pianist Joe Zawinul's legendary title cut, a genuine Top 40 pop hit that bears a passing resemblance to the Southern soul instrumentals of the mid-'60s, but works a looser, more laid-back groove (without much improvisation). The deep, moaning quality and spacy texture of "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" stand in contrast to the remainder of the record, though; Nat Adderley contributes two upbeat and challenging originals in "Fun" and "Games," while Zawinul's second piece, "Hippodelphia," is on the same level of sophistication. The leader's two selections -- the gospel-inflected "Sticks" and the hard-swinging, bluesy bop of "Sack O' Woe" (the latter of which became a staple of his repertoire) -- are terrific as well, letting the group really dig into its roots. Adderley's irrepressible exuberance was a major part of his popularity, and no document captures that quality as well -- or with such tremendous musical rewards -- as Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop
Soul Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Fun (08:26)
02 - Games (07:19)
03 - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! (05:10)
04 - Sticks (03:54)
05 - Hippodelphia (05:49)
06 - Sack O' Woe (10:29)

Line-up:
Cannonball Adderley - Alto saxophone
Nat Adderley - Cornet
Joe Zawinul - Piano, Wurlitzer electric piano
Victor Gaskin - Bass
Roy McCurdy - Drums

Cannonball Adderley - Nippon Soul (1964)

Recorded live in Tokyo on July 14th and 15th, 1963, Nippon Soul is not the Asian-jazz fusion suggested by the title (check out Cal Tjader's Several Shades of Jade and Breeze From the East for that), but a solid live set that showcases one of Cannonball Adderley's finest groups, featuring himself, brother Nat Adderley on cornet, bassist Sam Jones, drummer Louis Hayes, and most notably pianist Joe Zawinul and reedsman Yusef Lateef. Both near the beginnings of their careers, Zawinul and Lateef nonetheless dominate this set; two of the original tracks are by Lateef, including the centerpiece "Brother John," for John Coltrane and featuring an astonishing extended Lateef solo on oboe, an instrument not normally associated with jazz, but which takes on an almost Middle Eastern fluidity and grace in its approximation of Coltrane's "sheets of sound" technique. Zawinul arranged the standards for the group, reinterpreting Cole Porter's warm "Easy to Love" as a fleet bebop vehicle for a wicked Adderley solo and working the "Come Sunday" section of Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige" into a full gospel-style call and response between himself and Jones. Often overlooked, this is one of Adderley's finest albums.

by Stewart Mason in All Music Guide

Styles:
Hard-Bop

Tracks:
01 - Nippon Soul (Nihon No Soul) (9:34)
02 - Easy to Love (3:49)
03 - The Weaver (10:50)
04 - Tengo Tango (2:40)
05 - Come Sunday (7:03)
06 - Brother John (13:03)

Line-up:
Cannonball Adderley - alto saxophone
Nat Adderley - cornet
Yusef Lateef - tenor saxophone, flute, oboe
Joe Zawinul - piano
Sam Jones - bass
Louis Hayes - drums

Cannonball Adderley - Brother John (1963)

Line-up:
Cannonball Adderley - alto saxophone
Nat Adderley - cornet
Yusef Lateef - tenor saxpphone / oboe / flute
Joe Zawinul - piano
Sam Jones - bass
Louis Hayes - drums