Cannonball Adderley Sextet
Cannonball in Europe
Capital Jazz

Discs like this simply confirms my feeling that if Cannonball Adderley had come on the scene before Charlie Parker, Bebop would be much more popular today. While Bird was able to create a whole new style of music, it always seemed out of reach to the casual listener. Adderley can take the exact same music, as he does on this wonderful cd recorded in Belgium in 62, and make Bebop as listener friendly as "Sweet Georgia Brown"

Mixing a funky backbeat to mercurial solos, Adderley's band joyfully tears through classics "Work Song" and "Gemini" with such an ease that the casual listener will be caught up in the incessant rhythm of the song without even realizing that his mind is being overwhelmed by pin-point perfect solos. With Lateef on his high cholesterol tenor, and adding exotic tinges with flute (Gemini) and oboe ("Trouble in Mind") Adderley and company gives a textbook example how music can appeal to both the feet and the head.


-- George Harris