Customer Reviews

Fiddler on the Roof

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fiddler On the Roof has always been my most favorite musical. I've watched it trillion times and I just adore everything about it. In addition to this I'm a true jazz fan, I adore the sound of the sax and I like Cannonball very much. So it's a "can't get any better" kind of CD to me. Cannonball's true genious takes you to another world.. The songs are great.. What's not to like?! Well, for one thing he didn't play "If I Were a Rich Man". That could have made the recording perfect. After all isn't that the most famous song of the musical?
But it includes my favorite, "To Life" and Cannonball plays it totally wonderful.
If you like jazz and/or the musical itself You have to own this CD.

I'd never heard of this album until I heard a clip serving as a bumper for a radio story on the Broadway revival. This album is a wonderful interpretation of music I've know well for ages. Since Broadway musicals and jazz music are considered our most 'american' art forms, it's wonderful to see them mixed this way.

To address the reviewer that didn't like the audio mix, my sound system is probably several degrees lower than his, but the cd sounded great to me.

This has been my favorite Cannonball record ever since it was first recorded. I've been waiting decades for it to appear in CD form. What a great surprise to see it today on Amazon.com.

Actually, two of the tracks have appeared before on CD -- the title track on a "best of" compilation and my absolute favorte - Now I Have Everything - has appeared in a compilation of Adderley ballad performances.

Cannonball had a fat soul -- everything he played seemed designed to make you smile and laugh. When you hear Now I Have Everything, you'll believe it.

A wonderful album. I actually have two vinyl copies of it -- each to get around the scratches and worn spots in the other.

If the music in 'Fiddler' on Broadway was done with Zero Mostel-and The Cannonball Adderley Sextet,it would never have closed.This masterpiece which features Cannonball on alto sax ,brother Nat on trumpet,Charles Lloyd on tenor sax,Joe Zawinul on piano,Louis Hayes on drums and Sam Jones on bass was recorded a month or so after the 1964 Broadway premiere.Given a choice of the play-or this cd-I'll take the cd;worth it for Nat Adderley's trumpet on 'To Life',alone.

I have fond recollections of this LP from many years ago, but I am dissappointed in the CD. Sure the playing is great but the mix is absolutely terrible...flute too loud, flute too soft, drums too loud, drums too soft, leaky embouchure front and center on the ballads. The LP had a smoother sound, and the group sounded like they meshed. This sounds like 6 guys playing in different rooms. I am sure the original tapes were not of the highest quality, but they should have been left alone.

The Broadway play was probably at the height of popularity when the gracious and broad-minded Cannonball decided these Harnick-Bock tunes could serve well as vehicles for jazz interpretation.
Cannonbal and his fine sextet, which included Charles Lloyd and Joe Zawinul in addition to Sam Jones, Louis Hayes, and of course, brother Nat, play at their most inspired, expanding the well-crafted melodies into the realm of sophisticated modern jazz. I can't comment on the bonus tracks, recorded by the same sextet at an earlier session, since I haven't yet received the CD, but I've cherished my vinyl copy for decades. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this great music, just a fan of great jazz.

I only learned of this album today by hearing "To Life" played on WPRB's "Serenade to a Cuckoo." Afterwards, DJ Jerry Gordon explained that Charles Lloyd produced the album. Cool. I've been listening to more Cannonball lately. (I only heard one of the "live" in the studio albums--"Inside Straight"-- for the first time last week, again on WPRB, learning how the recording studio would be set up like a nightclub, with tables and food and an audience, knowing that it prompted more vivid playing.) One thing about Adderley that strikes me is how musically generous he is...he often gives the other players considerably more time in a piece than he takes...when he speaks live in concert he's often effusive in his praise of his players, and acknowledges who wrote what. Not only is his playing exquisite but there's a warmth about him that seems to color the music and those around him, and that makes him good company. As one of the other reviewers so aptly put it, he had a "fat soul." He was only 46 when he died from a stroke in 1975. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy.

In general, Cannonball was at his best live - and into that category, I'll throw in some of those late 60s pseudo-live albums. There was a certain intensity the Cannonball bands built up in front of a crowd that it never matched in a regular studio recording.

However, that lack of intensity is compensated for by other qualities on this great LP. This was Cannonball's second sextet - Yusef Lateef had left and was replaced by Charles Lloyd. Overall, Lateef was probably a better player, but Lloyd's contributions to this band were definitely worthwhile.

Fiddler was also Cannonball's first album for Capitol. While the criticism of the Capitol albums as overly commercial and pop-oriented is misplaced, it should be stated this is a completely straight-ahead jazz recording. Louis Hayes and Sam Jones are still here, and at this point they were tighter than ever.

Because it's a studio album, there's a stronger tilt toward arrangements. Some tracks feature only one musician. The highlight is obviously the title track, with Sam Jones and Louis Hayes locking into a nice Coltraneish groove over which we get great solos by Cannonball, Nat, Charles Lloyd and Joe Zawinul. The two ballads near the end, "Now I Have Everything" and "Tell Me You Love Me", feature the super ballad-playing talents of Cannonball and Lloyd, respectively. And Cannonball's solo on "Sewing Machine" is among my favorite by him on any album.

Highly recommended!

Great cd !!! A Classic ! 5 STARS !!!!!!!!!!

Matthias