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Cannonball Adderley

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop.

Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own band while studying music at the U.S. Naval Academy and then led an army band while stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Originally nicknamed "Cannibal" in high school for his voracious appetite, the nickname mutated into "Cannonball" and stuck.

In 1955, Adderley traveled to New York City with his younger brother and lifelong musical partner, Nat Jr. (cornet). The elder Adderley sat in on a club date with bassist Oscar Pettiford and created such a furvor that he was signed almost immediately to a recording contract and was often (if not entirely accurately) called "the new Bird."

Adderley's direct style on alto was indebted to the biting clarity of Charlie Parker, but it also significantly drew from the warm, rounded tones of Benny Carter; hard swingers such as Louis Jordan and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson were important influences as well. Adderly became a seminal influence on the hard-driving style known as hard-bop, and could swing ferociously at faster tempos, yet he was also an effective and soulful ballad stylist.

From 1956-57, Adderley led his own band featuring Nat, pianist Junior Mance and bassist Sam Jones. The group broke up when he was invited to join the Miles Davis Quintet in 1957. Davis expanded his group to a Sextet soon thereafter by hiring saxophonist John Coltrane. "I felt that Cannonball's blues-rooted alto sax up against Trane's harmonic, chordal way of playing, his more free-form approach, would create a new kind of feeling," Davis explained in his autobiography.

From 1957-59, Adderley recorded some of his best work on the landmark Davis albums Milestones and Kind of Blue within this sextet. Davis reciprocated with a guest appearance on Adderly's 1958 solo album Somethin' Else, which also included bassist Jones, pianist Hank Jones, and drummer Art Blakey.

Adderley left the Davis band to reform his quintet in 1959, this time with his brother, Sam Jones, pianist Bobby Timmons and drummer Louis Hayes. Yusef Lateef made it a sextet around 1962; pianist Joe Zawinul replaced Timmons around 1963. Other band alumni include Charles Lloyd, and pianists Barry Harris, Victor Feldman and George Duke.

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Liner Notes

Raul De Souza: Colors

Read "Raul De Souza: Colors" reviewed by Arnaldo DeSouteiro


Raul De Souza's life can be seen as a one-of-a-kind story. Indeed, it would make a perfect novel or film script. It may not be as big a tragedy as 'Round Midnight or Bird, but it has drama, love, adventure, and great music. Picture this: a poor child grows up in Brazil working as a weaver and practicing trombone in conversations with a buffalo in the jungle, dreaming of someday becoming an internationally famous jazzman. Suddenly, this dream ...

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Radio & Podcasts

The Alto After Bird - Pepper, Woods, McLean, Adderley (1957 - 1960)

Read "The Alto After Bird  - Pepper, Woods, McLean, Adderley (1957 - 1960)" reviewed by Russell Perry


When Charlie Parker died at 34 in 1955, it was as if an ancient tree fell in the forest with the resulting sunlight promoting the growth of numerous alto saxophone progeny. Art Pepper appeared in Stan Kenton's Orchestra in 1950 and by 1953 was recording as a leader while still collaborating with West Coast colleagues like Shorty Rogers and Chet Baker. In 1957, his LP Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section signaled the maturity of a singular improviser from the ...

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Interview

Cannonball: A Man of the People

Read "Cannonball: A Man of the People" reviewed by Rob Rosenblum


This interview was conducted at Union College in Schenectady, New York in 1971 and was originally published in an arts newspaper called Transition. Julian Cannonball Adderley was only three when he began to dig jazz and his hunger for his music is yet to be satiated. The first music he remembers hearing was in church. His mother was the organist of an Episcopal church. This church background has had a profound effect on his playing. His father played ...

6
Multiple Reviews

Introducing Reel to Real Records

Read "Introducing Reel to Real Records" reviewed by Jakob Baekgaard


As the driving force behind the Cellar Live label, saxophonist Cory Weeds has been busy doing his share to promote contemporary jazz, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that he has found the time to start the archive label Reel to Real. Unlike reissues that are sometimes lost treasures that are found again, an archive release is a found treasure that has never been heard before. Weeds has found the perfect partner in producer Zev Feldman ...

Album Review

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley: Swingin' in Seattle, Live at the Penthouse 1966-1967

Read "Swingin' in Seattle, Live at the Penthouse 1966-1967" reviewed by Luca Canini


Un imperdibile e prezioso inedito. Settanta minuti di musica mai ascoltati prima che arrivano dritti dritti dalla seconda metà degli anni Sessanta. Un periodo cruciale per Julian Cannonball Adderley e il suo quintetto, freschi di approdo alla californiana Capitol, etichetta con le spalle decisamente più larghe e molto meno “ortodossa" rispetto alla newyorchese Riverside, e lanciati verso il botto clamoroso di “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy!," brano uscito dalla penna soulful di Joe Zawinul (determinante l'intuizione di sostituire il piano con il ...

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Album Review

Julian "Cannonball" Adderley: Swingin' In Seattle, Live At The Penthouse 1966-1967

Read "Swingin' In Seattle, Live At The Penthouse 1966-1967" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


Julian “Cannonball" Adderley and his merry men--brother/cornetist Nat Adderley, bassist Victor Gaskin, backbeat king drummer Roy McCurdy and bursting-at-the-seams-with-new-ideas pianist Joe Zawinul--were having themselves a high time during 1966-67, that Renaissance time of adventure between Cecil Taylor's Unit Structures (Blue Note, 1966), Miles Smiles (Columbia, 1967) and the colorful, imagination emancipations of Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band (Capital, 1967) and Charles Lloyd's live Forest Sunflower (Atlantic, 1967). Into this froth drops Cannonball's earthy and jocular soul/blues/jazz and “Mercy, Mercy, ...

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Radio & Podcasts

Jazz Renditions of Blues, Soul, Pop & Rock Hits (Part 1)

Read "Jazz Renditions of Blues, Soul, Pop & Rock Hits (Part 1)" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


The compositions that we refer to as “jazz standards" were the pop songs of their time, before gradually developing into mainstays of the jazz repertoire. This week we focus on jazz interpretations of today's popular music, with renditions of the songs of artists ranging from Marvin Gaye to Sonic Youth, from Prince to Led Zeppelin, from Ray Charles to Paul Simon, from Donald Fagen to Bob Dylan and more. Will some of these songs become the standards of the coming ...

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Video / DVD

Video: Cannonball Adderley Sextet, BBC 1964

Video: Cannonball Adderley Sextet, BBC 1964

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers


Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Cannonball Adderley's birthday today!

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin “Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop. Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own band ...

5

Performance / Tour

Something Else! Vincent Herring Septet Honors Cannonball Adderley At Birdland from September 6-10, 2022

Something Else! Vincent Herring Septet Honors Cannonball Adderley At Birdland from September 6-10, 2022

Source: Scott Thompson Public Relations

Something Else!, will launch at Birdland on September 6-10, 2022 with two sets a night at Birdland Jazz Club and Birdland Theater. The shows will feature Vincent Herring, alto saxophone, James Carter, tenor sax, Jeremy Pelt, trumpet, Russell Malone, guitar, David Kikoski, piano, Essiet Essiet, bass and Johnathan Blake, drums. Something Else! is the only Blue Note album by Cannonball Adderley recorded and released in 1958 and became an iconic masterpiece presenting funky, soulful and bluesy Jazz which was the ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Cannonball Adderley's birthday today!

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin “Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop. Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own band ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Jazz Musician of the Day: Cannonball Adderley

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Cannonball Adderley's birthday today!

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin “Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop. Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own band ...

1

Recording

Portrait Of Cannonball Adderley: Award-Winning Saxophonist Tony Kofi Readies “Another Kind Of Soul” For April 24th Release

Portrait Of Cannonball Adderley:  Award-Winning Saxophonist Tony Kofi Readies  “Another Kind Of Soul” For April 24th Release

Source: The Last Music Company

BBC and Parliamentary Jazz Awards winner Tony Kofi will release Another Kind of Soul 24th April on The Last Music Company label. The album, recorded live at Luton’s Bear Club in 2019 by Paul Riley, also features Andy Davies on trumpet, pianist Alex Webb, bassist Andrew Cleyndert and Alfonso Vitale on drums. The session traces the explosive music of Cannonball Adderley from his first sessions as leader in the mid-1950s through his work with Miles Davis to the soul-jazz of ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley

Jazz Musician of the Day: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Julian “Cannonball" Adderley's birthday today!

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin “Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop. Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own ...

Video / DVD

Cannonball Adderley: EmArcy #1

Cannonball Adderley: EmArcy #1

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Born in Tampa, Fla., and raised in Tallahassee, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley studied music at Florida A&M before becoming the band director at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale. In 1955, Adderley moved to New York to explore studying at graduate-level music schools. He was joined by his brother, trumpeter and cornetist Nat Adderley, who had been on tour with Lionel Hampton. As the story goes, the Adderley brothers brought their instruments to the Café Bohemia at 15 Barrow Street ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley

Jazz Musician of the Day: Julian "Cannonball" Adderley

Source: Michael Ricci

All About Jazz is celebrating Julian “Cannonball" Adderley's birthday today!

Both as the leader of his own bands as well as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin “Cannonball" Adderley was one of the progenitors of the swinging, rhythmically robust style of music that became known as hard-bop. Born September 15, 1928, into a musical family in Florida, Adderley was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1950. He became leader of the 36th Army Dance Band, led his own ...

1

Video / DVD

Cannonball Adderley on Kung Fu

Cannonball Adderley on Kung Fu

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Between 1972 and 1975, David Carradine starred in a TV series called Kung Fu. He played Kwai Chang Caine, a Chinese Shaolin monk in the Wild West with only his Buddhist spiritualism and marshal-arts skills. Throughout the series, Carradine's character helped those who were defenseless and did away with those who hurt or harmed them. Along the way, he met many interesting and perplexing characters. In 1975, in the episode “Battle Hymn," Carradine encountered alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderely and guitarist José ...

Christopher Burnett
saxophone, alto
Dom Minasi
guitar
Ken Stout
saxophone
Noah Peterson
saxophone
Keith Pray
saxophone
Anna Brooks
saxophone
Lynda Murray
saxophone, alto
Frank Macchia
composer / conductor
Albert Rivera
saxophone, tenor
Doug Munro
guitar
Ed Palermo
saxophone
Alan Gaumer
trumpet
Fred Haas
saxophone
Sharel Cassity
saxophone
Ofer Shapira
saxophone
Alon Farber
saxophone
Chris Gale
saxophone, tenor
Lynn Ligammari
saxophone
Richard Howell
saxophone
Amy Shook
bass, acoustic
Tony Exum, Jr
saxophone
Laurent Doumont
saxophone
Brent Bowman
saxophone, alto
Frido ter Beek
saxophone
Damani Phillips
saxophone
F. ter Beek
saxophone
Melanie Howell-Brooks
saxophone, baritone
Chris Engel
saxophone, alto
The Ed Palermo Big Band
band / ensemble / orchestra
Aldo Salvent
saxophone, tenor
Alex Hahn
saxophone, alto
Benjamin Deschamps
saxophone, alto
Allison Au
saxophone, alto
Joan Hutton
saxophone
Jason Kush
saxophone
Zac Zinger
saxophone, tenor
Karolis Šarkus
saxophone, alto
Ally Fiola
saxophone
Adam Claussen
saxophone
Pureum Jin
saxophone, alto
The Rookies
arranger
Bill Hauser
saxophone, tenor
Glen Manby
saxophone, alto
Alex Clarke
saxophone
Patricia López
saxophone
David Bode
saxophone
Ian Charleton
composer / conductor
Dave Coules
saxophone
Andres Hayes
saxophone, tenor
Alex León Reyes
saxophone, alto
Kyle James
saxophone, alto
Erich Fischer
vibraphone
Steve Britt
saxophone
Logan Conkright
saxophone
Orlando Madrid
saxophone, alto

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Burnin’ in...

Elemental Music
2024

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Waltz For Debby

American Jazz Classics
2019

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The Legendary Quartet...

American Jazz Classics
2014

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Kind Of Blue

Not Now Music
2010

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Videos

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