Cannonball Adderley

Jazz musician

• Born: September 15, 1928
• Birthplace: Tampa, Florida
• Died: August 8, 1975
• Place of death: Gary, Indiana

Adderley was an alto saxophonist who merged bebop, hard bop, blues, modal jazz, soul jazz, and fusion into an acclaimed personal style. A popular figure on and off the stage, he attracted legions of appreciative jazz listeners.

Early Life

Julian Edwin Adderley was the son of Julian Carlyle Adderley, Sr., a trumpet and cornet player who founded the Collegians dance band at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (Florida A&M). Adderley’s father also regularly performed with several area jazz bands. Adderley started playing the trumpet in the fifth grade but switched to saxophone when he heard jazz great Coleman Hawkins in concert. Adderley, who had been playing trumpet in a local band, moved to the alto saxophone chair and taught his younger brother Nat to play the trumpet to take his place.

In high school, Adderley was nicknamed “Cannibal” because of his enormous appetite. The nickname gradually evolved into “Cannonball.” Upon graduation in 1944, Adderley enrolled at Florida A&M, where he joined the Collegians. His mother encouraged him to pursue a non-music degree, but the appeal of music was too great. Adderley received a degree in music education in 1948 and was hired as director of bands at Dillard High School, an all-black school in Fort Lauderdale. Although he held the position from 1948 to 1956, Adderley realized he preferred playing to teaching.

Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1951 because of the ongoing Korean War, Adderley was assigned to the Thirty-sixth Army Band at Fort Knox, Kentucky, as a music arranger and leader of the dance band. After his discharge in 1953, he returned to his teaching position at Dillard High School.

Adderley enrolled at New York University during the summer of 1955 to begin graduate school in music education. However, one night at the Café Bohemia, he was summoned to the bandstand by bassist Oscar Pettiford as an emergency substitute to play with the combo. Adderley’s impressive performance stunned everyone and he was invited to finish the night. Several more performances at Café Bohemia attracted the attention of Quincy Jones, the legendary composer, arranger, and bandleader, who negotiated Adderley’s first recording with the Kenny Clarke Septet, Bohemia After Dark (1955). This turn of events marked Adderley’s transition from teacher to professional saxophonist.

Life’s Work

Adderley formed a quintet with his brother Nat in 1956. During a tour, dissatisfied manager John Levy fired the group’s rhythm section. With new personnel in place, the quintet resumed performances and recorded throughout 1957. Since he was under contract to EmArcy Records, Adderley assumed fake names such as “Ronnie Peters” and “Buckshot La Funque” in order to record for other labels.

After the breakup of his quintet, Adderley joined a group led by trumpet legend Miles Davis. In 1958, Davis released Milestones, the precursor to perhaps the most influential and best-selling jazz album ever, Kind of Blue (1959). Kind of Blue was the first recording that explored modal jazz, a change from the conventional way of improvising over standard chord changes. The recording also was nearly entirely spontaneous since the musicians did not rehearse beforehand.

Adderley won DownBeat magazine’s New Star Award in 1959, an honor that prompted him to reassemble his quintet. The quintet was booked in Philadelphia, then San Francisco’s Jazz Workshop. It played to standing-room-only crowds every night for four weeks, a run that spawned a live album, The Cannonball Adderley Quintet in San Francisco (1959). In 1960, the quintet performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival and appeared on the television show A Date with Debbie, hosted by actor Debbie Reynolds. The Debbie performance marked the first time a jazz combo played on national television. Accolades continued to roll in as Adderley made Metronome magazine’s All-Star Poll.

Adderley teamed with musicians such as pianist Bill Evans and vocalist Nancy Wilson in the early 1960’s. When tenor saxophonist, flutist, and oboist Yusef Lateef joined the quintet in 1962, the result was The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York, an album that some critics labeled as avant-garde. That year, Adderley also recorded an album of trendy bossa nova music, a mixture of Brazilian styles and jazz, with Sergio Mendes.

WhenRiverside Records filed for bankruptcy in 1964. Adderley, the label’s top-selling artist, was due seven thousand dollars for previous work. He signed with Capitol, a larger company based in Hollywood that put a premium on sales. It was heavily promoting soul jazz.

Adderley’s most popular album, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy! Live at “The Club” was released in 1966. The title song—written by his then keyboardist Joe Zawinul—became a Top 10 pop single, selling 750,000 copies. Attempts to replicate its popularity were not as successful, but the song influenced the musical direction of Adderley’s quintet. In 1969, Country Preacher was released as a tribute to Jesse Jackson and Operation Breadbasket, which sought to revive poor, black, inner-city neighborhoods. The quintet mixed elements of gospel and blues into its music, which proved popular with audiences and added greatly to album sales.

In 1972, Adderley hosted his own talk show for thirteen episodes. Ninety Minutes Starring Cannonball Adderley included no music after an initial show that featured Wilson. In 1975, Adderley released his final completed album, Phenix, a compilation of blues and gospel songs such as “Work Song” and “This Here.” A summer tour that began in Uniondale, New York, ended in Gary, Indiana, when Adderley suffered a stroke in a restaurant. Overweight, diabetic, and afflicted with an enlarged heart, Adderley died after twenty-five days in a coma.

Significance

Adderley’s earlybebop artistry earned him the nickname “the new Bird,” a nod to his predecessor Charlie Parker. Indeed, Adderley carried on the tradition of exemplary bop saxophone playing but created his own voice from influences including gospel and blues—hard bop, later termed soul jazz. In his lifetime, jazz progressed from bop to cool to modal to fusion; Adderley evolved, too, yet also retained his own musical personality. He also spoke eloquently, educating listeners and promoting the arts. As a member of the Jazz Advisory Board of the National Endowment for the Arts, Adderley advocated social change. Appearances on television and university residencies allowed him opportunities to discuss issues important to him. In addition to his numerous engagements over a twenty-year span, Adderley recorded more than 140 albums. Shortly after his death, Adderley was elected to the DownBeat Hall of Fame.

Bibliography

Baker, David. The Jazz Style of Cannonball Adderley: A Musical and Historical Perspective. Van Nuys, Calif.: Alfred Publishing, 1990. Includes a biography, solo transcriptions, discography, and analysis of Adderley’s performance style.

Gelly, Dave, ed. Masters of Jazz Saxophone: The Story of the Players and Their Music. London: Balaphon, 2000. A collection of biographies of saxophonists from the 1940’s to the 1990’s. Provides an overall perspective of Adderley’s importance and place in jazz history.

Nisenson, Eric. The Making of “Kind of Blue”: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2001. A chapter is devoted to Adderley, a sideman on the historic album.

Sheridan, Chris. Dis Here: A Bio-Discography of Julian Cannonball Adderley. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000. Extensively documents activities surrounding Adderley’s recording sessions and performances at concert halls, clubs, and even jam sessions. Detailed discography.