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Revisiting "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!" (the album)

Larry Kart

By Larry Kart
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Larry Kart Proficient

Larry Kart

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I was delighted by how fresh and urgent it remains. Cannonball and Nat (don't go to sleep on him) are both in scorching form, the tunes are varied and heady, even if the title track has become over familiar, and in its remixed form the whole album leaps out of the speakers. I like it more now than I ever did before.

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Teasing the Korean Veteran

Teasing the Korean

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I have a accumulated a decent amount of Cannonball over the years, and Mercy Mercy is probably my third favorite among his Capitol albums, my favorites being Soul Zodiac and the album with extended compositions by Axelrod, Lalo Schifrin, and whomever else.   If you count Soul Zodiac as a Nat Adderley and/or David Axelrod album, then Mercy Mercy becomes my second favorite of the Capitols.  I also like the other live album on Capitol with cover art similar to that on Mercy Mercy.  

As I wrote elsewhere, I did not really get into jazz until I was around 12 or 13, but as a very little kid, I would see Mercy Mercy pictured on Capitol inner sleeves that came with Beatles and Beach Boys LPs.  So for that reason alone, Cannonball becomes an early figure in my jazz explorations.  

Edited by Teasing the Korean
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mr jazz Contributor

mr jazz

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18 hours ago, felser said:

What's the story ?!?

Though the original liner notes state that it was recorded at the Club DeLisa in Chicago, it was actually recorded at Capitol's Hollywood studio with an invited audience and an open bar.[4] The reason for this discrepancy, according to the liner notes in the CD reissue, is that Adderley and the new manager of Club DeLisa (which had been renamed "The Club", after operating for years in Chicago under its old name) were friends, and Adderley offered to give the club a bit of free publicity.

The open bar was a brilliant idea.

 

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Guy Berger Enthusiast

Guy Berger

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MONEY IN THE POCKET *was* actually recorded live at The Club in March 1966.  (The album wasn't released until 2005, though excerpts were released as singles in 1966.)

I've never seen it spelled out, but I wonder if the initial plan was to release a live album recorded at The Club, then for whatever reason Cannonball/Capitol decided against releasing that recording and went into the studio to record Mercy Mercy Mercy as "faux-live-at-The-Club" .

For those who haven't heard it, BTW, Money in the Pocket - imho one of the best Cannonball live recordings.

Edited by Guy Berger
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  • 1 year later...
Rabshakeh Grand Master

Rabshakeh

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On 12/21/2021 at 3:15 PM, Teasing the Korean said:

I have a accumulated a decent amount of Cannonball over the years, and Mercy Mercy is probably my third favorite among his Capitol albums, my favorites being Soul Zodiac and the album with extended compositions by Axelrod, Lalo Schifrin, and whomever else.   If you count Soul Zodiac as a Nat Adderley and/or David Axelrod album, then Mercy Mercy becomes my second favorite of the Capitols. 

Is Soul Zodiac by Nat different to Love Sex and the Zodiac by Julian? Was the concept so good that they made it twice?

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sgcim Proficient

sgcim

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Speaking of narrations, I once led a gig where I hired a sax player friend of mine who I had done a lot of gigs with, so I thought I knew what to expect.

All of a sudden he calls "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" and grabs the mic. He then proceeded to recite Cannonball's speech verbatim. I felt like hiding behind an amp ,or pulling out his mic jack, before he made people start to throw bottles at him or something.

It turned out to be a dream of his to do that on a gig, and I guess he figured that since i was a pretty loose leader, he could live out the dream on my gig.

There was something about watching a white, nerdy looking guy make that speech which gave me the feeling that it wasn't going to be received too well, but thios was in the East Village, and I guess the people thought it was cool or something. It went over pretty well, and my friend was in some Nirvana-like state for the rest of the gig.

He LIVED THE DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Teasing the Korean Veteran

Teasing the Korean

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20 minutes ago, sgcim said:

He LIVED THE DREAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And you made it happen!  As someone who is obsessed with Cannonball's between-tune banter, I would have loved to have been there.

Ms. TTK will get on these obsessive repetitions of words or phrases, for example, when we first got together, she kept repeating "Ren Höek, Ren Höek"  over and over. After a recent Cannonball jag, she kept repeating, in a Cannonball-like cadence,  "Why...am I treated...so bad?"  This was hopefully not a reflection on her husband.

I love this electronica track that samples Cannonball talking about Bossa nova:

 

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sgcim Proficient

sgcim

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4 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

And you made it happen!  As someone who is obsessed with Cannonball's between-tune banter, I would have loved to have been there.

Ms. TTK will get on these obsessive repetitions of words or phrases, for example, when we first got together, she kept repeating "Ren Höek, Ren Höek"  over and over. After a recent Cannonball jag, she kept repeating, in a Cannonball-like cadence,  "Why...am I treated...so bad?"  This was hopefully not a reflection on her husband.

I love this electronica track that samples Cannonball talking about Bossa nova:

 

A sax player friend of mine who's in his 80s, saw Cannonball at Birdland, and after a set, he complimented Cannon on his playing. Cannon gave him a huge bear hug, lifting him off the floor!

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