Alexander the Great, according to
ancient legend, led his troops to victories over just about every
known country at a very early age and then wept because there
were no more worlds to conquer.
While we are not going to suggest too
direct a comparison, it is true enough that Cannonball Adderley
has led his sextet (and before that, a quintet) through
triumphant engagements in a great many clubs in just about every
major American city. Several of these dates have also produced
very triumphant record albums. And there have been, in addition,
successful tours of many European countries, as the Adderley
group has proceeded since 1959 to build and maintain a reputation
as one of the best and best-loved jazz groups of our time.
This would seem to have left this
hand with very little more to accomplish. But Julian Adderley and
his cohorts, despite being very soulful people, are not much
given to tears. So, instead of weeping, they set out to find new
worlds to conquer. It's still a bit early to attempt to he the
first jazz group on the moon or Mars, but there was the
relatively unexplored territory of Japan. Those few jazz
headliners who had already been there (such as the hands of Art
Blakey and Horace Silver) had reported that this was quite
fertile ground. So it is scarcely surprising that the Adderley
Sextet's first Japanese tour turned out to be a wild success.
They drew sell-out crowds to concerts at Tokyo's Sankei Hall
(roughly the size of Carnegie Hall), an achievement that
reportedly had previously been accomplished only by another
attraction of undoubted internationally-soulful appeal: Ray
Charles.
The Nipponese have in recent years
shown an avid appreciation for many things of Western origin:
clothes, base. ball, jazz (on one concert the Adderley musicians
were joined by local players of startlingly well-developed
talents). Considering the proven ability of this band to function
at its best in front of an enthusiastic and aware audience, as
has been demonstrated on more than one hit album, it would have
been quite a waste indeed if this tour had gone by without being
preserved on tape. Fortunately, the occasion was not to be
wasted. Through the cooperation of Philips Records of Japan,
obviously the possessors of equipment and engineering skills
fully up to American standards, Sankei Hall became the scene of
what is probably the first recording of American jazz artists in
that country.
So, in addition to fulfilling the
inevitable requests for Work Song and This Here and
Jive Samba, the Adderley group was able to set down a
half-dozen new additions to their repertoire. Leading off is a
brand-new Cannonball piece: full of grits, dedicated to the
occasion, and originally given a partly-Japanese title (as noted
in the title listings above) which has been translated for local
consumption. Also featured is the Adderley brothers' Tengo
Tango a most effective and strikingly concise performance in
the Jive Samba vein. (This number had been cut before the
tour for release as a single record, thereby leading to an
interesting and probably unique switch. Almost always, when a
formidable "blowing" group like this one produces a
short take of tune to fit the physical limitations of a single,
they proceed to use a much more extended version on the job. But
in this case they were so taken with the original succinct
treatment that it has become the only way the sextet offers this
intriguingly rhythmic tune.)
There are also two
"standards" or, more accurately, two works by outside
composers. For, while many musicians have tackled Cole Porter's Easy
to Love, which serves here as a vehicle for Cannon and
drummer Lou Hayes, the otherwork is something else again. Come
Sunday is one section of what Cannonball accurately describes
as one of the most ambitious and significant of all jazz
compositions, Duke Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige"
suite. Few, if any, groups would dare this one, but this Joe
Zawinul arrangement which spotlights the pianist and bassist Sam
Jones is a remarkably sensitive and moving success.
The multi-talented Yusef Lateef
contributed the other two selections. Brother John, dedicated
to John Coltrane, manages not only to evoke the feeling of
Trane's "bag", but also offers, in Lateef's fascinating
performance on oboe, what can only be called a brilliant
emulation (certainly not an imitation) of Coltrane's
soprano sax work. The Weaver is a mean (in the best sense)
blues on which everyone wails mightily.
The Japanese audience is
definitely a part of the proceedings, though not in the
whooping-and-hollering way that an American crowd might be.
Rigorously silent during solos (but not, the musicians point out,
with the quiet you get when an audience is not with you and is
"sitting on their hands" you could always feel them
out there), they burst forth at the end of a selection in a most
dramatic contrast. "And the way they line up for everyone's
autograph after a concert," Sam Jones informed us,
"makes you feel like a movie star."
Add it all together: the unique
setting, exceptional material, and top.of.their-form playing by
this spirited and (quite literally) internationally acclaimed
sextet. The result, to return to our original thought, is
certainly not anything at all for anyone to weep about!
-ORRIN
KEEPNEWS
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