Cannonball Adderley Quintet – The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free (Capitol, 1970)

Cannonball Adderley (as, ss, vo); Nat Adderley (cor, vo); Joe Zawinul (p, el p, ring modulator); Nat Adderley, Jr. (p, el p, g, vo); Walter Booker (b); Bob West (b); Roy McCurdy (d)

Recorded on September 19 and October 5 & 6, 1970

Reissued on CD by Real Gone Music in 2016.

Cannonball's The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free is a free-wheeling cavalcade of musical genres and styles.  There's jazz, funk, soul, folk, and blues.  There's soul-jazz, modal jazz, contemporary jazz, fusion, and free improvisation.  There's even some spoken word.  Only a band as talented as Adderley's  could hold this wide-ranging diversity together and somehow make it work -- but they do.  The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free may not have the concentrated impact of some Cannonball albums, but the special parts are so powerful I had to include it in my survey.

Adderley's Quintet recorded eleven of the album's twenty tracks at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival.  Weeks later, intent on making enough music for a double-album, the band cut nine more tracks at the Capitol Records Tower in Hollywood.  To create a live show vibe, the band invited an audience to the studio -- just like they'd done on Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! and Why Am I Treated So Bad?  

I think this incarnation of Adderley's quintet was one of the finest that he ever had.  Walter Booker and Roy McCurdy are an impeccable rhythm team.  Josef Zawinul could range from ethereal, free-floating outer-space sounds to low-down, filthy blues.  Nat's cornet work is outstanding.  (And his singing ain't half bad either.  Just listen to "Down in Black Bottom.")  And Cannonball is Cannonball.  Oh man, what a sound!  So vital and unmistakable and expressive!  Whenever I hear Cannonball play his saxophone, he seems to be saying, "Life may not be easy, but it's good to be alive!"  And that is some potent medicine.

As the 1970s progressed and Cannonball's health declined, there was a subtle but noticeable diminishment in his playing.  But there's no hint of that decline here.  None whatsoever.

More Cannonball Adderley
One of the reasons I like The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free is because the band is playing live.  It's "unfiltered" Cannonball.  If there ever was a musician who did not need an intermediary to put his music across to an audience, it's Cannonball Adderley.  That's also why I'd recommend The Black Messiah (Capitol, 1971) and Music, You All (Captitol, rec. 1972, rel. 1976) if you're looking to explore more of Cannonball's music from the 1970s.  Just like The Price You Got to Pay to Be Free, both of these albums feature Cannonball and his band in a high-flying, live setting.