Cannonball Adderley Quintet – Live In Berlin 1972 – Past Daily Downbeat

Cannonball Adderley Quintet – live at Philharmonie Hall, Berlin – November 2, 1972 – RBB-Berlin – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –

Cannonball Adderley this weekend. Joined by his brother Nat on Cornet, George Duke on keyboards, Walter Booker and bass and Roy McCurdy on drums. Recorded live at Phhilharmonie Hall in West Berlin on November 2,1972 and preserved for posterity by RBB Berlin (Radio Berlin).

Adderley was associated with Miles Davis during his Kind Of Blue period. He was also a noted band leader in the early 1960s, whose members read like a who’s who in Jazz during that period. But he’s most likely best known for his 1966 Jazz-Soul single Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, which became a surprise and massive crossover hit as well as making number 5 in the singles charts when The Buckinghams recorded a Pop version with lyrics in 1967.

But it didn’t diminish the fact that Cannonball Adderley was a pivotal figure in Jazz during the late 1960s, when the focus was turned on the eclectic and avant-garde. It was during his tenure with Miles Davis that his playing branched out and his horizons became broader. And even though he had a pop hit, he was clearly into something else.

Sadly, Adderley would die in 1975, the result of a cerebral hemorrhage at at 46. Way too early for an artist of his magnitude to go, but an artist who left a huge catalog and a lot of influences to be drawn from, years after his death. He probably couldn’t have imagined it, but Adderley’s music and style have been pioneered in Hip-Hop with A Tribe Called Quest and Pharcyde citing him as an inspiration.

This concert puts us in 1972. Three years before his death and in the middle of his eclectic explorations. As with most American Jazz musicians, his European audiences were wildly enthusiastic, and fortunately for everyone, the broadcasters in Europe preserved every note possible.

Enjoy.

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