Mercy Mercy

Vocalist Philip Bailey's high-flying falsetto made Earth, Wind & Fire an immortal supergroup. On this album, he's backed by a streamlined combo featuring saxophonist Bob Belden, keyboardists Scott Kinsey and Myron McKinley, and remixer DJ Smash. Nine of the 11 tracks are updated classic jazz, pop, and R&B/fusion-tinged tunes, from Nat "King" Cole's "Nature Boy" to Freddie Hubbard's "On the Red Clay". Thelonious Monk's "Ruby My Dear" is revived as a quiet-storm ballad, "Dear Ruby". "My Indiscretions", Bailey's take on the funky, futuristic Weather Report jam, "Indiscretions", features catchy lyrics by the singer's son, Sir Bailey. Chick Corea's "Sometime Ago" is turned into a club-friendly dance number, while Herbie Hancock's "Tell Me a Bedtime Story" is retouched with Afro-Latin tinges. The church-inspired EW&F hit, "Keep Your Head to the Sky", is rendered with hip-hop-styled rim shots. Philip Bailey's vocalisms show that Soul on Jazz does mix.

Former FBI agent Sam Delvecchio brings the keen skills of a profiler to his new position as a Mercy Street Foundation operative — and not a moment too soon. His first assignment, the cold-case murder of a local soup kitchen volunteer, has all the telltale signs of a serial killer’s work.

Cannonball Adderley only recorded once as a leader for Blue Note, but this sampler manages to cover most of his prime years. There are cuts taken from the Riverside catalog ("Au Privave" with Wes Montgomery, "Sack O' Woe" and "Gemini"), plus Adderley's big Capitol hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," "One for Daddy-O" (taken from the Blue Note set with Miles Davis as a sideman), and a previously unreleased "Bohemia After Dark" from 1966. The latter (a hot uptempo version taken from a Japanese concert) will drive completists mad, since they will undoubtedly already own all of the rest of the material. For beginners, this is an excellent overview of the exuberant altoist's bop-oriented years, before he gradually switched to funkier sounds.