Cannonball Adderley was a brilliant hard bop alto stylist who never forgot the blues roots of jazz.
As a bandleader and as an alto and soprano saxophone stylist, Julian Edwin Cannonball Adderley was an originator of the intense, rhythmically driving style of jazz that became known as hard bop.
Adderley was born in Florida on September 15, 1928. In his youth, he played the saxophone in local bands until he was drafted into the army in 1950. By the time he left the military in 1953, he had formed his own band while studying music at the U.S. Naval Academy, and fronted another army band during a posting at Fort Knox. His high-school nickname “Cannibal"— coined because of his voracious appetite—had mutated into and remained “Cannonball.”
In 1955, he travelled to New York with his brother Nat, a cornetist. While there he sat in on a club date with bassist Oscar Pettiford—a performance that led to a recording contract. Adderley formed his own band in 1956 featuring his brother Nat, pianist Junior Mance, and bassist Sam Jones. However, the group broke up a year later when Adderley was invited to join the Miles DAVIS Quintet. Soon after he joined, Davis expanded his group to a sextet by hiring tenor 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 later explained.
From 1957 to 1959, Adderley recorded some of his best work on the Davis albums Milestones and Kind of Blue. Davis reciprocated with a guest appearance on Adderley’s 1958 solo album Somethin Else, which also included bassist Jones, pianist Hank Jones, and drummer Art BLAKEY.
In 1959, Adderley left the Davis band to form his own quintet again, which this time featured Nat, Sam Jones, pianist Bobby Timmons, and drummer Louis Hayes. The multitalented Yusef Lateef made it a sextet when he joined in 1962; pianist Joe Zawinul replaced Timmons in 1963. The group played soulful, gutsy music, and simple, memorable tunes, such as “Work Song” (by Joe Zawinul), that reached a wide audience. Adderley recorded on the Riverside Records label from 1959–63, on Capitol thereafter until 1973, and then on Fantasy. Sadly, however, on August 8, 1975, Adderley suffered a fatal stroke while on tour.
Cannonball Adderley was a brilliant hard bop alto stylist who never forgot the blues roots of jazz.
During an era when the development of polyrhythms and polytonality threatened to make jazz difficult for non-musicians to appreciate, the Cannonball Adderley bands played a brand of modern jazz using the more accessible vocabulary of gospel and blues.
Chris Slawecki
SEE ALSO:
FURTHER READING
Rosenthal, David H. Hard Bop: Jazz and Black Music 1955–65 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Cannonball Adderley—Live!; The Cannonball
Adderley Quintet in San Francisco;
Mercy Mercy Mercy, Somethin’ Else;
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue; Milestones.