Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley got the New York jazz world talking the second he took the stage in 1955. Originally from Florida, this gregarious man had originally intended to pursue graduate studies and came to Manhattan to do so. He had been the high school band director at the Dillard High School in Ft. Lauderdale and had a local following as a musician there as well. He and his brother Nat had played with Ray Charles in the 1940s. But, he didn’t come to New York to play the clubs specifically. He wanted a higher education. By chance, he was asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford one night at the Café Bohemia and that changed everything. Talk of a new Charlie Parker on the scene began immediately.
Soon Adderley had formed a group with his brother and they worked the club circuit and recorded a number of albums for the likes of Savoy and EmArcy Records. Eventually, Cannonball was brought in to join the Miles Davis Sextet, which he played with for two years. After his split from Davis’ group, Cannonball went on to help pioneer soul jazz, post-bop and a number of other subgenres.
Adderley was a fun-loving guy who liked the audience to have a good time, but he was also a thought-provoking artist and he addressed that with every genre that he played in. Oh, about that nickname? During Adderley’s youth, a guy in one of his early groups tried to make fun of his weight by calling him a “cannibal” but mispronounced it as can-i-bol. The other bandmates used “can-i-bol” to lightly make fun of the would-be mocker and the name eventually morphed into Cannonball. Or so the story goes. Anyway, here are the 10 best Cannonball Adderley albums to own on vinyl in chronological order.
Adderleyn vuoden 1955 debyytti asetti sävyn tulevalle. Vaikka albumi on täynnä tanssittavia kappaleita, Cannonballin soolot ovat tässä seikkailullisia ja itsevarmoja. Alku yksi, Spontaneous Combustion, alkaa hämähäkki pianomelodiasta ennen kuin yhtye siirtyy bluesmaiseen grooveen, joka on täydellinen tanssi-iltaan klubilla. Kun kappale etenee, se vaihtaa vaihdetta ja saamme sekä basson että rumpujen sooloja. Tämä on klassista Cannonballia; aina valmiina hyvään aikaan, mutta unohtamatta, että jazz on myös taidetta. Tai ehkä toisinpäin. Tämä tunnelma jatkuu kautta albumin aina loppuun saakka. Ehdottomasti loistavaa kuunneltavaa keväällä.
\nEsittelyssä oli myös Cannonballin veljen ja elinikäisen yhteistyökumppanin Nat Adderleyn debyytti. Nat, joka oli erittäin taitava trumpetti, julkaisi oman sooloalbuminsa vain kaksi viikkoa sen jälkeen, kun Esittelyssä Cannonball Adderley julkaistiin. Adderleyn veljien kanssa olivat myös Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke ja Jerome Richardson. Kaikki legendaarisia klassisen bebop-aikakauden jazzeja.
CJ Hurtt is a record nerd and writer who lives in a remote fishing village in the Pacific Northwest. His work has appeared in Word Riot, various games for Aegis Studios, and Brain Scan Comics.
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