Cannonball Adderley: Poppin In Paris: Live At L'Olympia 1972

In his most natural setting—onstage alongside brother Nat Adderley—and accompanied by pianist George Duke, bassist Walter Booker and the trusty Roy McCurdy on drums, Cannonball Adderley pops and bops to all heart's content on Poppin' In Paris: Live at the Olympia 1972 .

Appearing as part of the Paris Jazz Festival, the band holds true to its unspoken credo—defy expectations—and steams straight ahead into Duke's epic rent party stomp "Black Messiah." It is a colorful jazz-rock fireworks display both hip and full of head space, cascading madly on an arrangement that is as finely hewn as it is open ended. Everyone spars for the glory here: Duke (succeeding Joe Zawinul, who was by this point in the early throes of Weather Report with Wayne Shorter) overdriving his electric; McCurdy launching, holding back, launching again. A snappy, hyper rip-roaring push and pull drives both Adderleys to wail where no man has wailed before. It is a festival after all! Get your groove on!

After that melee, Johnny Mercer's well-worn "Autumn Leaves" leaps to life and Paris loves it. McCurdy is top shelf here, his solo crackling with fire. Duke dances electric. Booker, God bless him, stands amid the hurricane and manages to pull it his way until the senior Adderley calls the court to order and ends the proceedings on a tango.

Zawinul's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," the song that may or may not have stamped him as a genius —selling jazz and blues to the masses—gets a brief but spirited airing. Zawinul's compositions prevail throughout Poppin' In Paris: Live at the Olympia 1972 and that is, as is often the case, a real buzzy thing. "Doctor Honoris Causa" finds Duke up for any challenge the older keyboardist/composer has laid before him: vibin' and chillin' while the cornet blows exotic indigo phrases. Perhaps eyeing another Billboard Top Ten, Adderley and company swing for the fences and clear the bases on "Walk Tall (Baby, That's What I Need)."