Forty-nine albums reviewed across two decades: from the thrilling EmArcy debuts that announced a new alto voice in 1955, through the classic Riverside quintet recordings that defined soul jazz, the Capitol crossover years that brought "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" to the pop charts, and the late Fantasy sessions where funk and spiritual jazz opened new territory before Adderley's sudden death in 1975.
The arrival: from the stunning debut that made him the talk of New York in 1955, through the EmArcy sessions with Nat Adderley, the strings album, and the two masterworks that closed the period. Somethin' Else with Miles Davis and Portrait of Cannonball with Bill Evans.
View 8 Reviews →The quintet finds its voice. Bobby Timmons, then Victor Feldman, then Joe Zawinul at the piano. Sam Jones and Louis Hayes driving from below. The San Francisco and Lighthouse live dates, the Coltrane summit in Chicago, the Nancy Wilson collaboration, and the Bill Evans duo.
View 15 Reviews →Crossover and conquest. The sextet with Yusef Lateef and Charles Lloyd. Nippon Soul live in Tokyo. "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy" becomes a pop hit. Joe Zawinul's compositions push the quintet toward electric territory. The bossa nova record, the Fiddler on the Roof album, the Oliver Nelson big band date.
View 15 Reviews →The final years. Country Preacher live at Operation Breadbasket. George Duke replaces Zawinul. The funk and spiritual jazz explorations of The Black Messiah and Inside Straight. The Phenix retrospective. Big Man, the folk opera. Lovers, the posthumous farewell with Jack DeJohnette and Airto.
View 11 Reviews →Julian Edwin Adderley was born September 15, 1928, in Tampa, Florida, and grew up in Tallahassee, where he led a high school band and earned the nickname "Cannibal" for his appetite, later softened to "Cannonball." He studied music education at Florida A&M University and led an Army band before moving to New York in 1955, where a sit-in session at the Cafe Bohemia with Oscar Pettiford's group launched his career overnight.
The quintet he co-led with his brother Nat Adderley became one of the most popular and hardest-swinging groups in jazz, building a repertoire that moved fluently from hard bop to soul jazz to funk without ever losing the blues feeling at its core. His alto tone was enormous, warm, and authoritative, equally at home in the most demanding bebop lines and the simplest gospel melody.
He died of a stroke on August 8, 1975, in Gary, Indiana, at the age of 46, shortly after performing at a concert. He left behind one of the richest discographies in jazz: over two hundred recordings as leader and sideman, and a body of quintet music that remains among the most joyful and life-affirming work the music has produced.