David Axelrod: Heavy Axe (180g, reissue) [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

Craft's reissue is an all-analogue remaster by Kevin Gray on 180g vinyl, in a facsimile of the 1974 jacket. Cannonball Adderley produced the album and plays alto, with George Duke on keyboards and Gene Ammons guesting on tenor.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• All-analogue remaster by Kevin Gray
• Original 1974 jacket reproduced

About the album

Hip-hop producers have spent decades digging through David Axelrod's records for drum breaks and string swells, and Heavy Axe shows why. Recorded at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley in March 1974, it puts a twenty-three-piece jazz and string orchestra behind a funky rhythm section, with Axelrod conducting and arranging and his old friend Cannonball Adderley in the producer's chair.

George Duke handles piano, electric piano and synthesizers, Adderley plays alto, Gene Ammons drops in on tenor, and congas, ARP and Moog fill out the sound. "Get Up Off Your Knees" opens with a strut, Vince Guaraldi's "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" gets a lush makeover, and Stephanie Spruill sings a soulful take on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain." Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing" grooves hard, and "Mucho Chupar" and "Everything Counts" show off Axelrod's dramatic orchestral touch.

Axelrod had produced Adderley's "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" years earlier at Capitol, so this was two old colleagues settling back in. The result is the rare orchestral record that makes you want to dance and conduct at the same time; we recommend clearing some space first.

Also at Kops: more David Axelrod on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Fantasy / Craft Recordings (cat# CR00521), a reissue of the 1974 album.