Search - Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Cannonball Adderley :: Cleanhead & Cannonball

So downhome nasty blues

Bill Carbone | Middletown, CT United States | 02/12/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A great teacher once told me the best jazz musicians are those that have a deep bag of tricks but use only a few on a given night. In that case the Cannonball Adderley Quintet is among the greatest, shedding its prodigious jazz chops in favor of simply nasty blues to support Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson's vocals and alto saxophone work. The selflessness of the group is further exemplified in the story of the creation of "Cleanhead and Cannonball." Simplified, Cannonball was working and Cleanhead was not, and when Cannonball realized that a legend such as Vinson had not recorded in several years he lined up the record label and volunteered his own band for the job. The results were excellent; the group sounds as if they had been backing Vinson for years.Vinson sounds best on mid tempo tunes like "Kidney Stew" and "Back Door Blues" (a moderate hit upon its release in 1961 until church groups spoke out against the "immorality" of its lyrics). The clear tone and vibrato of his shouting blues style are all but gone in modern music. At first the ballad "Audrey" seemed the only miss but it grew oddly charming upon further listening. Jones and Vinson's own "This Time," driven by the preaching piano of Joe Zawinul, would sound at home on a Mahalia Jackson album. Bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes settle in to a raunchy shuffle on "Bright Lights, Big City" and are infallible throughout. The Adderley brothers' vibrant and joyous playing leads one to believe that this record was a good time in the making. On "Hold It!" Cannonball answers each line of Vinson's lyrics with an alto shout and Nat burns a cornet solo to follow. The two sound like a mini-Basie band on "Kidney Stew." The album's instrumentals, though still good, are less memorable than the vocal features. This is partially due to the fact the Adderley hands off lead horn duties to Vinson, an excellent alto saxophonist who suffers only from following Cannonball. After listening to several tracks featuring the commanding tones of Cannonball's sax and Vinson's voice the instrumentals with only Vinson's sax and no vocals are less exciting.In the sea of "straight ahead" jazz reissues and new releases, "Cleanhead and Cannonball" is a welcome variation. The decidedly un-heady approach of this album is one of the rare post-big band examples of jazz as music for having a good time."

Asbestos Gloves Required

stranger2himself | Down Here | 10/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stunning, awe-inspiring. Can we believe that Mr. Clean actually got into the studio with Cannonball?! No holds are barred. No prisoners are taken. Several volumes of The Riot Act are read. Clean sings on all but a couple of instrumentals. On the instrumentals Cannonball plays backup (!) and Mr. Vinson plays blistering blues alto sax. Burning. Smoking. Absolutely cosmic. Be careful about what you're doing when you put this on."

A sure thing!

some guy | Newport, OR USA | 01/25/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"6 Stars. This is one of my favorite albums ever, period. Falling squarely between jazz and blues, this entire album just rips it up. Cleanhead is at the top of his game and the sax backup provided by Cannonball is spine-tingling (and the rest of the band is right there with them). You will assume they have been playing together for years, this whole thing is so tight. I'm on a Cleanhead crusade because nobody knows this guy and you hardly ever hear him on the radio, but he will blow you away. And when you buy this and love it, check out "Kidney stew is fine" or "Meat's too high", a more recent release (well, late 80's, before we lost him). Careful on the earlier stuff, though-it's a whole different sound, and Cleanhead sings a bit like Big Joe Turner (but if you're into that, you're set). You won't regret this........"