1. Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley was an American jazz alto saxophonist of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s.
17 Facts About Cannonball Adderley
1. 2.
Cannonball Adderley was the elder brother of jazz trumpeter Nat Adderley, who was a longtime member of his band.
3.
Julian Edwin Cannonball Adderley was born on September 15,1928, in Tampa, Florida, to high school guidance counselor and cornet player Julian Carlyle Cannonball Adderley and elementary school teacher Jessie Johnson.
4.
Cannonball Adderley was drafted into the US Army in 1950 during the Korean War, serving as leader of the 36th Army Dance Band.
5.
Cannonball Adderley left Southeast Florida and moved to New York City in 1955.
6.
Cannonball Adderley left Florida originally to seek graduate studies at New York conservatories, but one night in 1955 he brought his saxophone with him to the Cafe Bohemia.
7.
Cannonball Adderley was asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford in place of his band's regular saxophonist, Jerome Richardson, who was late for the gig.
8.
The "buzz" on the New York jazz scene after Cannonball Adderley's performance announced him as the heir to the mantle of Charlie Parker.
9.
Cannonball Adderley formed his own group with his brother Nat after signing onto the Savoy jazz label in 1955.
10.
Cannonball Adderley was noticed by Miles Davis, and it was because of his blues-rooted alto saxophone that Davis asked him to play with his group.
11.
Cannonball Adderley joined the Davis band in October 1957, three months prior to the return of John Coltrane to the group.
12.
Cannonball Adderley then played on the seminal Davis records Milestones and Kind of Blue.
13.
In 1961, Cannonball Adderley narrated The Child's Introduction to Jazz, released on Riverside Records.
14.
The Cannonball Adderley Quintet featured Cannonball on alto sax and his brother Nat Adderley on cornet.
15.
In July 1975, Cannonball 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.
16.
Cannonball Adderley was survived by his wife Olga James Adderley, parents Julian Carlyle and Jessie Lee Adderley, and brother Nat Adderley.
17.
Cannonball Adderley was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia fraternity and Alpha Phi Alpha.