Cannonball Adderley

Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (September 15, 1928 – August 8, 1975) was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s.

Adderley is perhaps best remembered by the general public for the 1966 soul jazz single "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", which was written for him by his keyboardist Joe Zawinul and became a major crossover hit on the pop and R&B charts. A cover version by the Buckinghams, who added lyrics, also reached No. 5 on the charts. Adderley worked with Miles Davis, first as a member of the Davis sextet, appearing on the seminal records Milestones (1958) and Kind of Blue (1959), and then on his own 1958 album Somethin' Else. He was the elder brother of jazz trumpeter Nat Adderley, who was a longtime member of his band. Elementary school classmates called him "cannonball" (i.e., "cannibal") for his voracious appetite. Both Cannonball and brother Nat played with Ray Charles when Charles lived in Tallahassee during the early 1940s. Adderley moved to Broward County, Florida, in 1948 and studied music at Florida A&M University, pledging the Beta Nu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He then became the band director at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, a position which he held until 1950. He left Southeast Florida and moved to New York City in 1955, seeking graduate studies at local conservatories. One of his known addresses in New York was in the neighborhood of Corona, Queens. One night, in 1955, he brought his saxophone with him to the Café Bohemia and was asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford in place of his band's regular saxophonist, Jerome Richardson, who was late for the gig. The "buzz" on the New York jazz scene after Adderley's performance announced him as the heir to the mantle of Charlie Parker. In 1962, Cannonball married actress Olga James. however, after leaving Davis's group, he formed another group again with his brother. The new quintet, which later became the Cannonball Adderley Sextet, and Cannonball's other combos and groups, included such noted musicians as saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Yusef Lateef, pianists Bobby Timmons, Barry Harris, Victor Feldman, Joe Zawinul, Sérgio Mendes, Hal Galper, Michael Wolff, and George Duke, bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, Walter Booker, and Victor Gaskin, and drummers Louis Hayes and Roy McCurdy.

This group was considerably more successful; in addition to his inventive and melodic music, Adderley became known for his wryly humorous comments in between songs. In Adderley's obituary in The New York Times, he was quoted as saying, "I like a close rapport with my audience … They like it, too. It gives them a closer association with what you have to say musically. That's healthy. Some guys hide behind their horns. I do everything but hide behind mine."

Songs made famous by Adderley and his bands include "This Here" (written by Bobby Timmons), "The Jive Samba", "Work Song" (written by Nat Adderley), "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" (written by Joe Zawinul),

Death and legacy In July 1975, Adderley suffered a stroke from a cerebral hemorrhage and died four weeks later, on August 8, 1975, at St. Mary Methodist Hospital in Gary, Indiana. He was 46 years old. He was buried in the Southside Cemetery, Tallahassee, Florida.

Later in 1975, he was inducted into the DownBeat Jazz Hall of Fame. Joe Zawinul's composition "Cannon Ball" on Weather Report's album Black Market is a tribute to his former leader.

Adderley was initiated as an honorary member of the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity (Gamma Theta chapter, University of North Texas, 1960, and Xi Omega chapter, Frostburg State University, 1970) and Alpha Phi Alpha (Beta Nu chapter, Florida A&M University).

Discography