Country Preacher is a live album recorded by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1969.

Recorded at an unidentified church meeting of the Chicago chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

's Operation Breadbasket

Operation Breadbasket

Operation Breadbasket was an organization dedicated to improving the economic conditions of black communities across the United States of America....

, the album spent two months in the Cash Box R&B charts in 1970.

Described by discographer and Adderley biographer Chris Sheridan as "an audible sociological record", the introduction is by the Reverend Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

. The liner notes, written by Adderley, give some background to Operation Breadbasket and the Country Preacher.

The album is the first with bassist Booker as a member of the Quintet.

Adderley, in his introduction to the title track, makes a specific mention of fellow saxophonist Ben Branch

Ben Branch

Ben F. Branch was an American entrepreneur, jazz tenor saxophonist, and bandleader.Although possibly better known as being one of the last people Martin Luther King Jr spoke to moments before his assassination in 1968, Branch had been a leading bandleader for many years.-Musical career:With his...

, the director of the Operation Breadbasket Orchestra and Choir.

Track listing

Introduction by the Reverend Jesse Jackson

1. "Walk Tall" (Zawinul-Marrow-Rein) 5:03
2. "Country Preacher" (J. Zawinul) 4:30
3. "Hummin'" (N. Adderley) 6:32
4. "Oh Babe" (N. Adderley-J. Adderley) 4:50
5. "Afro-Spanish Omlet" a. Umbakwen (N. Adderley) 4:30
   b. Soli Tomba (W. Booker) 3:03
   c. Oiga (J. Zawinul) 4:23
   d. Marabi (J. Adderley) 3:47
6. "The Scene" (J. Zawinul-N. Adderley) 2:01

Personnel

• Julian "Cannonball" Adderley (alto and soprano saxophones)
• Nat Adderley
  Nat Adderley
  Nathaniel Adderley was an American jazz cornet and trumpet player who played in the hard bop and soul jazz genres. He was the brother of saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley....
  
   (cornet and vocals on "Oh Babe")
• Joe Zawinul
  Joe Zawinul
  Josef Erich Zawinul was an Austrian-American jazz keyboardist and composer.First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with trumpeter Miles Davis, and to become one of the creators of jazz fusion, an innovative musical genre that combined jazz with...
  
   (keyboard)
• Walter Booker
  Walter Booker
  Walter Booker was an American jazz musician. A native of Prairie View, Texas, Booker was a reliable bass player and an underrated stylist. His playing was marked by voice-like inflections, glissandos and tremolo techniques.-Biography:Booker moved with his family to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1940s...
  
   (bass)
• Roy McCurdy
  Roy McCurdy
  Roy McCurdy, born November 28, 1936 in Rochester, New York, is a jazz drummer.Before joining Cannonball Adderley's Quintet in 1965 and staying with the band until Adderley's death in 1975, he had played with Chuck and Gap Mangione in the Jazz Brothers , as well as with Bobby Timmons, Betty Carter...
  
  (drums)