Cannonball Adderley - LYDIALIEBMAN.COM

Burnin’ in Bordeaux: Live in France (1969)
Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia (1972)

Vinyl Release Dates: April 20, 2024 / CD + Digital: April 26, 2024
Label: Elemental

RECORD STORE DAY EXCLUSIVE

This Record Store Day, Elemental Music will launches a pair of previously unreleased recordings by alto saxophone giant Cannonball Adderley, recorded Live in France. Burnin’ in Bordeaux (1969) and Poppin’ in Paris (1972), both special edition, double 180-gram LP sets will release exclusively for RSD on April 20, 2024.

Recorded live at the Bordeaux Jazz Festival and the Paris Jazz Festival, this impressive document showcases the monumental jazz giant legend in his prime. This is the first complete, authorized release of these performances, transferred from the original tape reels, recorded by the ORTF and housed in the INA (Institut national de l'audiovisuel). Released by Elemental Music in collaboration with the Cannonball Adderley Estate and INA France, both volumes have been mastered for vinyl by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab.

This marks the second Cannonball Adderley production by “the Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman, who previously collaborated with the Adderley estate for Swingin’ in Seattle: Live at the Penthouse 1966-67, in 2019.

“It’s a pleasure and a great honor to collaborate once again with the Cannonball Adderley Estate, this time to present two new official releases on Elemental Music. It’s my hope that this music will live on through these recordings and we’ll continue to celebrate the genius of Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time when jazz music was undergoing great changes. We’ve gone back to the original tape reels to make glorious new transfers and perform meticulous audio restoration,” shares producer Feldman.

Burnin’ in Bordeaux: Live in France (1969) was captured live at the Alhambra Theater at the Bordeaux Jazz Festival in France on March 14, 1969. Adderley’s stellar band includes his brother Nat Adderley on cornet, Joe Zawinful on electric and acoustic piano, bassist Victor Gaskin, and drummer Roy McCurdy. Jazz historian Bob Blumenthal reflects: “It is difficult to identify the ‘classic’ Cannonball Adderley Quintet. Not because of constant turnover, since many of his accompanists enjoyed lengthy service; he simply employed too many notable musicians whose tenures overlapped. To single out one specific edition is to ignore great players whose names are inextricably linked to the band’s heritage. If we focus on time spent under Adderley’s leadership, however, the band he brought to the Bordeaux Jazz Festival in 1969 must be considered as worthy as any to wear the classic title.”

Regarding this period, drummer McCurdy says: “Cannonball was a great leader, but he didn’t stand out just as a saxophone player, he was also a great communicator. He would talk to the public, let them know about the different tunes, and speak on their level so they would understand. There was a big rapport between him and the audience, and the people loved that just as much as they loved hearing him play.” That rapport is clear throughout the Bordeaux concert, which features a varied set including “The Scavenger,” “Work Song” and “Experience in E.”

“Cannonball was a great model of everything to do with the saxophone. He had a beautiful sound, incredible sense of swing, and everything just felt like it came out of him effortlessly. Music was always naturally flowing out of him, and I’m often surprised at how adventurous he was. He wasn’t standing still and this is evident in this Bordeaux concert,” comments saxophone great Chris Potter.

The stunning package for the Bordeaux concert features an extensive booklet with rare photos, essays by acclaimed jazz author and historian Bob Blumenthal and producer Zev Feldman, plus testimonies by Roy McCurdy, Hal Galper, Chris Potter and Michael Wolff.

Poppin’ in Paris: Live at L’Olympia (1972) was recorded at the world-famous Olympia Theatre in Paris, France on October 25, 1972 as part of the Paris Jazz Festival. Nat Adderley and Roy McCurdy return on cornet and drums respectively, while pianist George Duke and bassist Walter Booker join the fold.

Like the 1969 counterpart, the Olympia concert features a diverse program comprised of epics like “Doctor Honoris Causa” and “The Black Messiah” as well as the cross-over popular song “Mercy Mercy Mercy.” Nat Adderley shared once: “We never covered a hit. We never made cover versions of hit records as many musicians have done. All the music we ever did came from within whatever our band had at the time. Either I wrote the song, or Cannon did, or whoever was in the band did. That is where our repertoire came from and we didn’t get material from outside our own little family. If those songs came up successful, we are to be blamed for that success, I’ll take the blame.”

Pianist Michael Wolff, who played with Cannonball during this period, says, “I think Cannonball is really underrated because he was so accessible and so bluesy, but he was also experimental. He had superb technique and an amazing ear. And he was a beautiful person, really fun to be on the road with.”

The package for the Olympia concert also features an extensive booklet complete with rare photos and essays by Bob Blumenthal and Zev Feldman, as well as testimonies by Tia Fuller, Lou Donaldson and Vincent Herring. The set also includes a never-before-published 1983 interview with Nat Adderley.

Reflecting on the impact of the great saxophonist, saxophonist Vincent Herring, who shores up the Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band, asserts that Cannonball was “more than just a musician.” He says, “he contributed more to the music than just playing great saxophone. His overall band concept and leadership, allowing people within the band to thrive and make contributions that helped to create that special and unique sound, were essential to his success.” Hal Galper agrees. “Cannonball set the standard for alto players after him,” he says. “Who else was as proficient as he was at every aspect of the music, writing, playing, and arranging? Cannonball’s mastery of the instrument was amazing, but also his big beat.”