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.
Adderley zijn debuutalbum uit 1955 stelde de toon voor wat komen ging. Terwijl het vol staat met dansbare nummers, zijn Cannonball's solopartijen avontuurlijk en vol zelfvertrouwen. Het openingsnummer, Spontaneous Combustion, begint met een spinnige pianomelodie voordat de band in een bluesachtige groove duikt, perfect voor een avond dansen in de club. Terwijl het nummer verder gaat, verandert het van tempo en worden we geraakt door zowel bas- als drumsolo's. Dit is klassieke Cannonball; altijd klaar voor een goed moment, maar nooit vergeten dat jazz ook een kunst is. Of misschien vice versa. Deze vibe zet zich door het hele album tot het einde. Zeker een geweldige lente-luisterervaring.
\nPresents was ook de debuut van Cannonball's broer en levenslange collaborator, Nat Adderley. Nat, die een serieuze getalenteerde trompetspeler was, zou zijn eigen soloalbum uitbrengen slechts twee weken nadat Presents Cannonball Adderley op de markt kwam. Ook deelde hij het podium met Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke en Jerome Richardson. Allen zijn legendes uit het klassieke bebop tijdperk van jazz.
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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