Record of the Day: Cannonball Adderley, “Inside Straight”

Cannonball Adderley
“Inside Straight” (Cd Fantasy 0025218675024)

One of the funkiest albums in the history of jazz, Inside Straight will cheer you up even if you’ve just returned from vacation, thanks to the determination with which saxophonist Cannonball Adderley and his band play powerful songs, continuing on the path taken on historic albums such as “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!” and “Country Preacher”.

Starting in the late 1960s, Cannonball had begun to incorporate into his own jazz language directly linked to bebop, which saw him as one of the undisputed titans of the alto saxophone, several elements taken from other experiences of African-American music, in particular soul and funk styles that made his music (already excellent in itself) even spicier.
Naturally, jazz purists were outraged by what they considered a banal subservience to the commercial channels of music, but fortunately time has done justice to these critical nonsense (let’s call them that) to reveal the cultural importance of the musical crossbreeding operation carried out by Cannonball (and not only by him, just think of Miles Davis’ electric records).

Along with his faithful brother Nat, a reckless cornet virtuoso capable of providing exceptional instrumental performances as usual, appear such unbreakable musicians as Walter Booker on bass and Roy Mc Curdy on drums, who together with the rhythms of Hal Galper’s gritty electric piano (also a splendid soloist) lay the most solid rhythmic foundations imaginable, allowing the two main soloists to set the audience at Fantasy Studios alight on June 4, 1973 and creating a general festive and energetic atmosphere.

After the boiling funk cauldron of the debut track, the temperature cools down a bit with the more relaxed climates of the Bossa Nova of “Saudade”, but the engine returns to full speed with the Latin-jazz climates of “Inner Journey”, the pounding groove of “Snakin’ the Grass”, the nervous and fragmented timing of “Five of a Kind” (where Cannonball creates a solo with incredible instrumental virtuosity, certainly among the most explosive of his career) and the bouncing melody of “Second Son”, which, looking towards the fusion style of Chick Corea, masterfully leads to the closing of this excellent concert.

Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical subjects.

This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: Un disco per ogni giorno dell’anno” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.