'Cannonball' Adderley Quintet - "Accent On Africa"

Capitol Records ST 2987 (stereo) (USA), 1968

This album is quite a departure for 'Cannonball', in that he plays soprano saxophone for the first time on record, along with the then novel Selmer Varitone, a device which doubles up the sound of the saxophone, and of course, his primary instrument, alto saxophone.  With a large orchestra (unidentified) arranged and conducted by H. B. Barnum, Nat Adderleyis featured on cornet, and the rhythm section is probably Joe Zawinul, piano (and also composer of "Ndo Lima"), Victor Gaskin, bass, and Roy McCurdy. drums.  'Cannonball' composed two tunes, "Hamba Nami", which means "walk with me" in Zulu, and "Marabi", which refers to a 'high life' style dance common in the West Indies.  Caiphus Semanya wrote two songs, "Khutsana", which means 'the orphan' in Sesotho, and "Gumba Gumba", a Pan-African expression meaning 'party time' or 'all night session', understood by any West African.  One tune, "Gunjah" (the name of a Swahili intoxicant similar to marijuana), is contributed by David Axelrod, the album's producer; another tune, called "Up And At It", was written by the great guitarist Wes Montgomery (who incidentally was originally brought to Riverside Records' attention byAdderley), and one was co-composed by arranger H. B. Barnum with KBCA deejays Rick Holmes and Jay Rich, "Lehadima", which means 'lightning' in Sesotho.