(September 15, 1928 – August 8, 1975)
Julian Edwin Adderley in Tampa, Florida to cornet player Julian Carlyle Adderley. He acquired the enduring nickname early on - classmates called him "cannibal" because of his large appetite, which gradually evolved into "Cannonball."
Cannonball and his brother Nat had the opportunity to play with the great Ray Charles at an early age, at a time when Charles lived in Florida in the early 1940s. This early professional exposure to one of music's all time greats had a huge impact on his saxophone playing.
Among his work as a bandleader and sideman on many of the most important jazz recordings of the 1950s and 60s, Adderley is perhaps best remembered for the 1966 soul jazz single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."
Cannonball maintained teaching positions throughout his career. This interest led him to narrate The Child's Introduction to Jazz in 1961.
Cannonball Adderley has one of the most enduring and imitated alto saxophone sounds in history. Apart from Charlie Parker, Cannonball's most important influences were Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson and Johnny Hodges. Cannonball's blues playing carried forward the early melodic work of Vinson, whose legacy was to transpose country blues shouts and inflections onto the alto saxophone. Many of Cleanhead's signature phrases can be heard in Cannonball's melodic vocabulary. The two recorded an album together Cleanhead and Cannonball which documents the lineage.
Hodges' rhythmic phrasing and sound left a deep impression on Cannonball Adderley, and can clearly be heard in Cannonball's use of vibrato and phrasing on slow tempos. Cannonball's landmark recording of Autumn Leaves shows the influence of Hodges' time feel and use of rubato in a more sophisticated harmonic and rhythmic context.
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