Search - Cannonball Adderley :: Soul Zodiac

The Nat Adderley Sextet's Soul Zodiac could easily have been buried in a time capsule as an example to future generations of the ideas that were in the air in late 60s/ early 70s popular culture. A concept album based on the signs of the Zodiac, a hip narration, psychedelic guitars and some fatback drums. Paradoxically it was this level of vogueishness, that for many years consigned it to the parts of the jazz catalogue that time had forgotten. However in the early 90s the acid jazz scene discovered its funk filled grooves and hip hop producers used those very grooves as the building blocks of their own records, turning the album into a sought after collector's item. The Adderley brothers were born in Florida, Julian, more famously known as 'Cannonball' in 1928 and Nat in 1931. Cannon became a renowned alto saxophonist, and one of the leading bandleaders of his day. Signing in 1955 to Mercury Records, but making himself a national name when he joined the Miles Davis Sextet in 1957 being present on the recording of Davis' most enduring album Kind Of Blue. After leaving Davis he signed to the New York independent jazz label Riverside where he began to score a series of jazz hits that would make his group one of the most successful jazz bands of the time. A key component of that group was his brother Nat who had played at various times with his brother in the 50s, as well as with J J Johnson and Lionel Hampton. After rejoining Cannon he would stay in his bands until his brother's death in 1975. As well as his cornet playing being the front-line instrumental foil to Cannon he was also responsible for some of the most important tunes in the group's song-book including 'Work Song', 'Jive Samba' and 'Tengo Tango'. The Cannonball Adderley Quintet's success, and problems at Riverside saw them signed in 1964 to Capitol Records and working alongside staff A&R man and producer David Axelrod. Axelrod and Cannon got on well, and they settled into an extended period of work that would see the group reach a new level of success. That success reached its peak - commercially at least - with 1967's LP Live At The Club. This album contained the Joe Zawinul composition 'Mercy Mercy Mercy', which when edited down and released as a single became one of the biggest jazz hits of the decade. This success fed itself through to a level of freedom for the participants, that allowed them to experiment with the sorts of records that they could make. Axelrod made a pair of albums based on the works of William Blake Songs Of Innocence and Songs Of Experience, whilst Cannonball made an album focused on Africa, and released an album, Country Preacher that paid explicit tribute to Black rights leader Jesse Jackson. Nat Adderley was also given his opportunity. Since his breakthrough as a writer with his brother he had made several LPs as a leader, first of all at Riverside then Atlantic, Milestone and most recently under Creed Taylor's auspices at A&M. Although fairly numerous and of high quality these albums had always been really distractions from the day job of playing with his brother. Although the same could be said about the two "Cannonball Adderley presents The Nat Adderley Sextet" albums released by Capitol in the early 70s, there was a certain substance to them that suggested that they were definitely given more thought than usual. Those two albums were Soul Zodiac and Soul Of The Bible, produced by Cannonball Adderley and David Axelrod. In Wax Poetics magazine Axelrod was dismissive of Soul Of The Bible stating that it was so bad that it deserved not just to be rare but to be dead. He claimed that the problem was Rick Holmes' narrations which just didn't seem - to him - to work on the Bible stories. However of Soul Zodiac he had a much higher opinion "..astrology was fine, and Rick was really into astrology.(it) was a smash hit". Holmes may well have been the key to these records being made in the first place. He was one of the most influential jazz DJs in the country, the host of his own show on KBCA a very big jazz station. To a