js “Planet Earth” is an excellent album, yet few seem to know it even exists. The cover says that these songs have been released before, but doing a short casual search I could only find two of the tracks on Cannonball's Sextet in New York live album. The first four tracks feature the same band and all in live settings. It certainly does not sound like a comp until you get to “Seventh Son”, which is quite different from the other tracks. Technically this is Julian’s (Cannonball) album, but it seems more like a Yusef Lateef album. Yusef wrote the four live tracks, and the music reflects his semi avant-garde post bop with some Eastern modal leanings. The songs are very forward looking and in many ways sound a lot like the jazz you hear today in the second decade of the new century. Louis Hayes’ drumming in particular reflects today’s style in that he swings, but he does not confine himself to the ride cymbal, instead he is all over the set.

The two lengthy tracks on side are both up tempo modal hard bop. Yusef goes Coltrane-beast on the first track, but then breaks out the oboe for some Eastern flavored runs on “Brother John”. Hearing his oboe may remind some of how influential Yusef was on Les McCann’s mystical, “Invitation to Openness”. The Adderly Brothers show their bop roots, but also branch out into some odd sounds and effects while Zawinul is in full bop mode as he channels Bud Powell. Over the years Joe will not play this way much again, so its interesting hear him in this style on here.

Side two opens with another energy track, but then switches gears for the more abstract and mysterious “Syn-Anthesia” which has the group working like a small orchestra. The album closes with Zawinul’s “Seventh Son”, which sounds like another one of Joe’s somewhat commercial soul jazz tracks. Julian and Yusef do not appear on this one as Nat dominates with a bright sunshine muted trumpet solo. As mentioned earlier, this album has almost disappeared from known discogs. I found it in a used record shop and I seriously doubt this will ever be re-issued.

siLLy puPPy After releasing his critically acclaimed and most popular albums of his career with such classics as “Something Else” on the Blue Note label, CANNONBALL ADDERLEY spent many years after pumping out album after album with totally new lineups with many of them including AFRICAN WALTZ ending up on the Riverside label. This album is completely different than ADDERLEY’s other albums which fall on the hard bop side of jazz. For AFRICAN WALTZ he has no less than 22 musicians on board including five trumpet players, four on trombone as well as other lesser used musical timbres such as bass trombone, tuba and of course ADDERLEY’s signature alto sax sound. This big band sound comes across as brash and bold with every track being carefully crafted for a full-on larger than life experience.

The album was built around the title track which was actually a surprise hit single in the UK for Johnny Dankworth. The huge big band experience was orchestrated by Ernie Wilkins, best known for his work with Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Dizzy Gillespie and the well seasoned approach to taming the large musical beast shines through as everything is perfectly executed. Trombonist Bob Brookmeyer also contributed the arrangements of two tracks. While this is a big band album through and through, this was the early 60s and there is plenty of evidence of the milestones in jazz that had recently come into play. The hard bop still finds its way into the musical compositions with several bass lines lifted right out of the 50s bop scene. The modal jazz set forth by Miles Davis shines through as well.

Since the eleven tracks on board are short with none venturing over the five minute mark, they hit hard and offer a quick and to-the-point approach that focuses most of all on the melodic development and like much in the big band world of jazz don’t rely on improvisation as much as other types of the genre. The only rip roaring solos found on this one are by ADDERLEY, his brother Nat Adderley on cornet with some lesser roles by pianist Wynton Kelly. The album has a hardcore exotica feel to it as well. It sounds like a 60s movie soundtrack of some sort and despite the title really evokes nothing AFRICAN at all in mood or musical texture.

While this album delivers some extremely strong well played pieces with a unique albeit bloated lineup, to my ears it sounds extremely powerful and confident and as far as early 60s jazz goes, quite catchy without ever entering syrupy ballad territory. It captures all the best aspects of big band jazz but offers the wild swinging tapestry of instruments so common in hard bop and more improvisational types of jazz. While AFRICAN WALTZ failed to inspire the fans at the time and has since been relegated to the bottom of the pile of ADDERLEY releases, i find this to be an exciting and exhilarating big band jazz experience with every track delivering high quality performances. Woefully underrated in most jazz circles.

js :”The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco” was one of Cannonball’s first albums with his new group, coming after his successful work with Miles Davis, and features some of the best recorded solos of his career. Prior to this recording, Adderley had joined with Miles to record hallmark jazz albums such as “Kind of Blue” and “Something Else”. Needless to say, his career was on fire at this time, and his new quintet did not disappoint with his brother Nat supplying high register trumpet flights and Bobby Timmons pounding out bluesy rhythms on the piano along with Sam Jones on bass and the innovative and under-rated Louis Hayes on drums.

Side one features two lengthy blues based workouts in a hard bop style that borders on soul jazz, pretty much what you could expect from Julian at this point in his career. Side two opens in a similar fashion, but then "you Got It" veers into a slightly more experimental direction foreshadowing some of the things that would soon be coming from Miles’ new quintet, and "Bohemia After Dark" is classic high speed bop. Throughout this entire album, Cannonball’s playing is on fire and features his strong devotion to Charlie Parker, particularly on the two closing cuts. In addition to the Parker influence, Adderley also shows an interest in the new style jazz/blues soloists like Stanley Turrentine. As mentioned earlier, the rest of Julian’s band is stellar, with honorable mention going to drummer Louis Hayes and his work on “You Got It”, a track that features interesting drum breaks that foreshadow much of what Tony Williams would be doing in a few years.

The recording quality of these tracks is quite good, the only slight problem being that the piano could be a bit louder at times, but its no big deal. The CD version has some bonus tracks, but the LP version that was used to write this review has that great unfiltered analog sound. This is highly recommended for fans of the Adderley Brothers and late 50s hard bop.

js In the mid-60s, right before the whole electric jazz rock fad broke, there was an energetic style of hard bop that was picking up a pronounced driving back beat from the world of RnB and rock. Eddie Harris, Les McCann, Gene Harris and the Adderly brothers were all masters of this proto jazz-rock style that mixed the groovy swing of jazz with the driving aggression of the new rock sound. Acoustic instruments were still the norm at this time, meaning that the more earthy elements in the music were not buried under rock star volume. Cannonball Adderly’s “Mercy Mercy Mercy” is a fine lively live set in this tradition and if you enjoy Eddie Harris classics like “Freedom Jazz Dance” and “Cold Duck Time”, you’ll find a lot to like here.

I wouldn’t say that the two Adderly brothers are underrated, they have received a lot of accolades over the years, but maybe they need more recognition, I rarely hear a bum song, much less a bum album from either of these two. Every song on here is great, but the band really hits their stride on “Sticks”, a high octane “rocker” that features blistering solos from both Cannonball on alto sax and Nat on the cornet. The relaxed version of their big hit, pianist Joe Zawinul’s “Mercy Mercy Mercy”, sounds almost obligatory, but the rest of the album burns with fresh and inspired energy.

js Recorded in 1972, before more busy and frilly styles of fusion kicked in, “Black Messiah” is in the more rootsy early style of fusion similar to “Bitches Brew”. Like other jazz musicians in the late 60s and early 70s, Cannonball and his crew on here mix hard bop, that verges on free jazz, with modern rock and a touch of psychedelia to create what was becoming known as fusion. This is early fusion where the emphasis is still on the jazz, the rock backbeat is implied, not bludgeoning you on top of the head. Freedom is the key word here, these jams sprawl out in a relaxed fashion and allow plenty of room for exploratory solos and breakdown sections where soloists can workout with the percussion players. Especially nice are solo sections where the musicians can create their own environment; George Duke uses a ring modulator and echoplex to create Stockhausen inspired icy electronic soundscapes and later Airto uses his voice and percussion to take us back to music in its earliest forms.

All of the soloists on here are great, but its possible that George Duke steals the show as he so often did in the early 70s as a sideman. Using his Fender Rhodes and a couple of effects, Duke’s solos on here build to intense torrents of electronic sound and dissonant jagged scales. Nat Turner uses his flugelhorn to channel the “angry” horn sound of Miles and Freddie Hubbard that was popular at the time, but as has been pointed out by other critics, usually easygoing Nat’s anger may not be entirely convincing. It might would have been interesting if Nat had topped this fusion with his more typical high flight bop style. All the same, if you enjoyed Miles’ blasting conversations with Chick Corea’s harsh distorted electric piano on the Live at Fillmore sessions, Duke and Nat’s interactions on here will definitely give you a sense of déjà vu. If there is one flaw on here, it’s the two tracks that feature rock guitarist Mike Deasy. More than likely the couple of mundane blues-rock numbers that were tacked on to the set were supposed to appeal to the trendy California rock crowd that usually hung out at The Troubador.

Once again, if you enjoy that early freedom-loving style of fusion similar to Les McCann’s “Invitation to Openess”, the first Weather Report album, Tony Williams’ first Lifetime or Miles’ early 70s work, you will probably enjoy these wide open hippy-jazz excursions.