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.
Adderleys debutalbum från 1955 satte tonen för vad som skulle komma. Medan det är fullt av dansbara nummer är Cannonballs solon här äventyrliga och självsäkra. Öppningslåten, Spontaneous Combustion, börjar med en spindelformad pianoliknande melodi innan bandet ger sig in i en bluesaktig groove som är perfekt för en kväll med dans i klubben. När låten framskrider byter den tempo och vi blir smittade av både bas- och trumsolon. Det här är klassisk Cannonball; alltid redo för en trevlig stund men aldrig glömmer att jazz också är en konst. Eller kanske tvärtom. Denna vibbar fortsätter genom hela albumet ända till slutet. Definitivt en fantastisk vårlyssning.
\nPresentera var också debuten av Cannonballs bror och livslånga samarbetspartner, Nat Adderley. Nat, som var en seriöst begåvad trumpetsolist, skulle ha sitt eget soloalbum utgivet bara två veckor efter att Presentera Cannonball Adderley kom ut på marknaden. Till Adderley-bröderna anslöt sig även Donald Byrd, Horace Silver, Hank Jones, Paul Chambers, Kenny Clarke och Jerome Richardson. Alla legender från den klassiska bebop-eran av 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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