Cannonball Adderley

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 on August 8, 1975, in Gary, Indiana, at the age of 46, four weeks after suffering a stroke. He left behind one of the richest discographies in jazz: more than 140 albums, and a body of quintet music that remains among the most joyful and life-affirming work the music has produced.