Cannonball Adderley
Money In The Pocket

Good: for those who are not familiar with the vast work of Cannonball Adderley, one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, this album is a very easy place to start. It’s worth it. Cannonball was particularly attentive to his audience, keen on entertaining and making people feel good, personally engaging them between drinks ("Let's have a good time, ladies and gentlemen, with one of our favorite people... Cannonball Adderley" and down came the laughter...). All this with his personal and enjoyable soul-jazz approach: a visceral and swinging but cerebral music, carefully crafted and refined "just enough" to silence the most snobbish of critics. A skilled and inventive musician "just enough" to fully earn his spot in Davis' golden sextet alongside Trane, who served as his alter ego and from whom he would learn much in terms of expressiveness, dynamics, grit, and stage presence. A fun fact: the nickname Cannonball didn't derive from his rather large build, but from his voracious appetite, which led his schoolmates to jokingly call him "cannibal", a nickname that, through some distortions, became "cannonball".

Back to the topic, a small prologue: C. A.'s album "Mercy Mercy Mercy" (also from 1966), although officially recorded at "The Club" in Chicago, was actually captured in the Capitol studios in front of a large audience gathered for the occasion. No harm done. It was Cannonball himself who asked the club's manager for permission to still write "Captured live at The Club". This was partly for business reasons, since at that time it was his "main gig", and partly for sentimental reasons: as a young man, he used to go to that club to hear Fletcher Henderson play. Unfortunately, due to "Mercy" selling like crazy, despite the efforts and the remarkable results of the actual sessions at "The Club" which make up "Money in the Pocket", it remained in Capitol Records' vaults for years (the mysteries of record companies); forgotten in the archives, as a complete album, except for the episodic release of four songs on 45s over the years. In fact, the album was assembled and marketed after more than twenty years post-recording by record producer Michael Cuscuna, directly pulled from the precious tapes of the session, resurrected as needed.

1) "Money in the Pocket" gets its name from the fact that it’s essentially composed of an absolutely catchy and "groovy" riff that, in Cannonball’s wise intuition, would bring him a lot of money. No comment needed; when you listen, you’ll feel your knees and foot tapping.

2) "Stardust", a well-known standard, is the perfect canvas for a series of beautiful convolutions and skillful phrasing from an impeccably sharp Cannonball on sax and Joe Zawinul on piano, supported, as throughout the album, by long-time group drummer Roy McCurdy and Herbie Lewis on double bass, who more than worthily replaces the regular Victor "The Prince" Gaskin on this album. Nat Adderley, Cannonball’s brother and faithful partner, does not play on this track.

3) "Introduction to a Samba" provides a nice break from the average. Cuban atmospheres and precise unisons between sax and trumpet, with a rhythmic background that also includes some Arabic scales. The tempo is in two, running on a catchy and note-dense loop. Nat’s trumpet performance reaches technical and expressiveness levels unimaginable for mere mortals even back then. Nat was a highly skilled, personal, and inventive trumpeter; adept both in high-pitched notes and in a broader spectrum.

4) "Hear Me Talkin' to You" is a medium swing in the style of Horace Silver. Relaxed and played again here on a two-beat tempo, with a strategic "ostinato-with-break" at the end of the loop that characterizes and serves as a re-entry point. It grabs you by the scruff and drags you to the center of the room.

5) "Requiem for a Jazz Musician" is Joe Zawinul's tribute to all musicians, well-known or not, who died as victims of drugs, a scourge that was rampant during those years, taking a significant toll on representatives of all arts. Nobody thought of it until then, and he did. A slow and meaningful piece; very "composed" in execution, interpreted therefore with absolute respect, sentiment, and concentration. The seed of future jazz development in the upcoming seventies is strongly perceived here. Foreshadowings of VSOP. Absolutely. Cannonball, Nat & co. play each note with conviction. As in the rest of the album. A nice variety of thematic choices characterize the entire CD.

6) "Cannon’s Theme" is actually nothing more than the ad libitum repetition of "A" from Sam Jones' track "Unit Seven" (a bassist often playing with the Adderley brothers) which Cannonball typically uses as a small background blues riff to engage in conversation with the audience. Here, he gives space to a beautiful solo by Herbie Lewis before introducing the band members. Two minutes of pure soul-blues emotion.

7) "The Sticks" is a fast, captivating little "bluesy ride" that Cannonball dragged around without a title until one evening he saw some audience members keeping time with sticks (indeed, sticks) and "that's it"!!! For us, joy and good humor return to the air after the "Requiem".

8) "Fiddler on the Roof". Well, if so far we have savored varied and wonderful music, as well as appreciated the objective qualities of the individuals, now for 10:22 we listen to what this band was truly capable of: the "fiddler on the roof" (fiddler) is evoked by the sax, right after the introduction of double bass and drums on a medium-fast tempo, with the theme execution being a long scale typical of a hypothetical folk fiddler performed by the sax. Right after, there is an explosion of a sequence of solos with fast, sharp, and very concentrated phrases; the bandleader takes turns with Nat and to finish Zawinul, who literally explodes in this piece, plays and quotes (Salt Peanuts) like a madman. A real train: irresistible and driving fireball that you won’t be able to stop. Don’t put it on in the morning if you’re about to go to work: you’ll miss the bus (personal experience)!

In essence, what is beautiful about the jazz of the sixties / early seventies today is that these precious and beautiful things are now available for little money, and they constitute an ideal "carpet" on which to build and establish a solid jazz taste and knowledge base for new generations.

Accattataville, guagliò. ;-) V.