Mercy Mercy Mercy! – THE CANNONBALL ADDERLEY QUINTET****

Introduction/Fun/Games/Mercy Mercy Mercy/Sticks/Hippodelphia/Sack O’woe

Mercy, Mercy. Mercy! was supposedly a live performance by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in a club setting. In fact, it was recorded in a studio in front of an invited audience. The title track hit single reached No. 11 in the States. (US:13)

"Performed in front of a studio crowd plied with free drinks, Cannonball and company (Nat, Joe Zawinul, Victor Gaskin & Roy McCurdy) play six funky songs. First Cannonball speaks to the crowd, then the band gets in the groove. The groove is a strength and weakness of the album, with the exception of the title track, the songs don't stand out very strongly from each other. The title track has the most interesting songwriting, though the fact that it was a crossover hit surprises me. It's very good, though. The playing is all top-notch, too."

"In Los Angeles during the fall of 1966, Cannonball Adderley and his crack quintet laid down one of the most joyous, defining statements in the history of hard bop. Mercy Mercy Mercy, recorded live before a select and very vocal audience at Capitol's capacious Studio A, presages the funky rhythm changes and hollering gospel testimonies that distinguish contemporary jazz and new jack fusion, but with a greasy vitality and cerebral harmonic elegance often lacking in today's imitations."

"This is extremely alive music, even though it is not technically a real live performance at the 'Club' but a makeshift live in studio set with an invited audience. Where it is really living and breathing however is in the verve and energy of the players. The first two compositions here are by Nat Adderley and are titled Fun and Games which were knowingly paired together to set the tone for the evening. It has the mood of the spectacular jumping jazz joints of old animation, where the laws of physics need not apply. The vigour of this set is out of this world, and much more fifties bop in style than one might expect from something recorded in the late sixties."

"This whole performance brings the house down. This is hard bop at its best: a swinging, infectious album whose energy is impossible not to get wrapped up in. Mercy Mercy Mercy is the highest point, but there are plenty of others where that came from."