The Adderley brothers stayed true to each other, touring and recording together as a quintet under Cannonball’s leadership until his untimely death at the age of 46 in 1975, a mere three years after the second of these concert recordings.

As with all these ‘new-find’ Elemental albums, sound quality, provenance, and presentational content are of a high order, as is the music, albeit that the rhythm teams each assert themselves differently. McCurdy’s clamorous drumming is a constant as is the avuncular presence of Cannonball himself, the warmth of his personality evident in his likeable announcements.

The playing in Bordeaux is certainly spirited, the alto and cornet on the opening ‘The Scavenger’ by Zawinul quite wild and fragmented, the aura of the late Davis quintets immediately evident. ’La Manha de Carnival’ is quieter, Zawinul eloquent behind the senior Adderley. ‘Work Song’ is more familiar surely, well, no, not in this energised version, McCurdy kicking hard, Nat pushing himself.

So, no easy run-throughs here, even as Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’ is taken as an alto ballad and is quite tender, Gaskin arco. Thereafter the repertoire covers funk, bebop, and the blues, Zawinul’s immortal ‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy’ a standout, with its composer sonorous on electric piano, the group funkier yet on the pianist’s ‘The Scene’.

By Paris in 1972, pianists and bassists had changed, as had some of the repertoire. The 20-minute version of George Duke’s ‘Black Messiah’ opens with its composer ruminating at the piano before going electric, à la Miles again, sound washes heralding the horns and their ensemble riff. And again, this apparent tilt at fusion is followed by a standard, ‘Autumn Leaves,’ for 13 minutes, with Nat lyrical at first, Cannonball slithering here and there, McCurdy clattering, electric piano bubbling under, before Nat returns, his runs and upper register forays quite startling, Duke back again on keyboard ahead of McCurdy’s long solo and Nat’s final flourish. As with Bordeaux, ‘M,M,M’ was played again as was the groovy ‘Walk Tall’ with its catchy riff, and Duke’s prowling keyboard.

These audiences clearly relished everything; and given its quality and the quintet’s importance, it’s good that this music is now available. Producer Zev Feldman says that he knows that portions of these concert recordings (first made by ORTF) have appeared via irregular sources, but he now has the agreement of the Adderley Estate to their first official release in this complete form. He badges them as ’Deluxe Limited Editions’ and indeed they are.