Customer Reviews

The Best Of Capitol Years

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cannonball's bands are known for their soulfulness and their joyous spirit and exuberance, characteristics which have to be extensions of the man himself, and their great tunes, like "Mercy, Mercy", "Sack o' Woe", etc. Also, Cannonball's alto sound is archetypal, one of the best, a treat in itself, and his technique amazing. Plus, the band had a secret ingredient, Nat's always melodic and soulful cornet playing. Yet, there was a rap on the band - `not heavy (musically) enough'. Cannonball's solution was to augment his quintet with at one time Yusef Lateef, and another Charles Lloyd, two of the heaviest (musically) tenor players on the planet. The results were two of the best jazz bands of all time. Both bands are represented on this disc.

This is for sure the version to have of `Jive Samba', a live recording that features a great flute solo by Yusef. For the most part I think of jazz flute as twitering above the fray and not carrying too much weight, but in this solo Lateef plays his usual very strong lines, and then he hums along with the flute to establish maximum depth and funkiness, and then he throws in some whipping, cascading, fluttering runs that can only be liked to a lion's roar, that may cause you to jump from your seat.

As far as I know Lloyd only recorded one CD with the band, and it hasn't been re-released. On this CD Lloyd is on `Fiddler on the Roof', an up tempo bopper that culminates with a ferocious solo by Lloyd - it doesn't get any better.

The title of this recording seems very misleading. Although one will find most of Cannonball's most popular work (songs) here, the title should have read something like "Live Cannonball", since the entire recording is that of live performances with his band that included Joe Zawinul and his brother Nat Adderly. Truthfully, Cannonball did very little of original significance with Capitol Records. With that said however, I still enjoy this recording very much. The two featured bands really cook, Cannonball is at his soulful, playing best, and the digital sound production of Michael Cuscuna is typical par excellence. So despite the misleading title, I consider this a strong recording and a good introduction to Adderley's music.

I like Cannonball, but this disc is less interesting than the other three releases I have by him. As the other reviewers say, even the ones who like this CD more than I do, the pianist Joe Zawinul gets a lot of the spotlight on these nine tunes...more than he should. For my taste, this album is too much "live" and crowd noise and less than scintillating spoken song intros. A bit more of the funk and fusion feeling to it than I enjoy. Ahead of this, I'd recommend "Know What I Mean? Cannonball Adderley with Bill Evans" on Riverside; "Somethin' Else: Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones and Art Blakey" on Blue Note, and "Timeless Cannonball Adderley" on the Savoy label. Those three are uniformly fine, and varied enough to make a great Adderley collection all by themselves. "The Capitol Years" is not horrible, but compared to his earlier stuff, it just fails to enchant, and to entice repeated play.

I was shocked to see that the wizards of the rating schemes and games predicted I'd give this only 3 + 1/2 stars--I think it's a great album; in fact, it's on my top 15 list(see the list). Never regarded as one of the great technicians or innovators, Cannonball nevertheless was great at least 2 things: blowing a soulful tune and getting his great band members to keep up with him. I particularly like "Fiddler on the Roof," but the whole album swings.

This is a good disc. Work Song and Fiddler on the Roof are, IMHO, 2 of Cannonball's strongest songs. However, the majority of the CD spotlights Joe Zawinul's keyboard playing. It is still excellent. The tunes on this disc are very accessible and I would recommend it to anyone new to Jazz.

Cannonball Adderly recorded in two styles - serious jazz and pop/soul. For the jazz listener, this CD has only two of Cannonball's best jazz tracks - Jive Samaba (a recording borrowed from Riverside Records) and 74 Miles Away. Other tracks are not as good as they could be. For example, the CD includes Work Song but Capitol itself owns a much stronger version of Work Song that first appeared on Cannonball Live - an LP apparently not converted to CD. Jazz listers interested in the Cannonball's Capitol years should try "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy - Live at The Club" which, despite the title, has a lot more real jazz.

This cd starts off with three excellent jazz pieces. The Work Song, Jive Samba, and Fidler On The Roof are fabulous songs! They swing, heavily. Track four, is Adderley's top 40 Billboard hit, Mercy Mercy Mercy, which is enjoyable. I like it, to an extant, but it's all down hill from there. I don't know what he was trying to do, musically with his band. They don't swing, they're not quite fusion, they don't really belong anywhere. I don't dig it at all, nor do I know what it is. I haven't heard any other Capitol Recordings, and hearing this, I don't want to buy them. I have some early Cannonbal work that really does swing, like Know What I Mean, and The Poll Winners, and for now, I'll just stay away from the late Capitol works with pianist Joe Zawinul.

Pass the hard bop...

Cannonball Adderley has more sold Material than this elsewhere.Mercy,Mercy,Mercy is tight on any Album but this Album is way to much of Joe Zawinul.it's not to cool when you see a Best of or a Greatest hits Album by someone and a Side Musician takes over the Album.

To be direct: Cannonball's best work was not recorded with Capitol. Better recordings of Work Song and The Jive Samba are available on superior albums, and Mercy, Mercy, Mercy shows up on superior compilations, as well as on the wonderful same titled '66 album. Fiddler is good, but the album isn't worth the one track. Unless you're a Weather Report fan looking for some early Joe Z, steer clear.