VMP Magazine

Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley got the New York jazz world talking the second he took the stage in 1955. Originally from Florida, this gregarious man had originally intended to pursue graduate studies and came to Manhattan to do so. He had been the high school band director at the Dillard High School in Ft. Lauderdale and had a local following as a musician there as well. He and his brother Nat had played with Ray Charles in the 1940s. But, he didn’t come to New York to play the clubs specifically. He wanted a higher education. By chance, he was asked to sit in with Oscar Pettiford one night at the Café Bohemia and that changed everything. Talk of a new Charlie Parker on the scene began immediately.

Soon Adderley had formed a group with his brother and they worked the club circuit and recorded a number of albums for the likes of Savoy and EmArcy Records. Eventually, Cannonball was brought in to join the Miles Davis Sextet, which he played with for two years. After his split from Davis’ group, Cannonball went on to help pioneer soul jazz, post-bop and a number of other subgenres.

Adderley was a fun-loving guy who liked the audience to have a good time, but he was also a thought-provoking artist and he addressed that with every genre that he played in. Oh, about that nickname? During Adderley’s youth, a guy in one of his early groups tried to make fun of his weight by calling him a “cannibal” but mispronounced it as can-i-bol. The other bandmates used “can-i-bol” to lightly make fun of the would-be mocker and the name eventually morphed into Cannonball. Or so the story goes. Anyway, here are the 10 best Cannonball Adderley albums to own on vinyl in chronological order.

Even though records are mass produced — not as bad as CDs, but mass produced nonetheless — there are still tiny, handcrafted elements to them. Many of us collectors enjoy the tactile experience that records provide. There’s a literal connection between music and listener there, but that’s not the only way that vinyl passes through hands. From the person running the press, to the QC tester, to the mastering engineer that cut the lacquer, to the technician that anodized that lacquer and began the process of turning it into a pressing plate, each one of those unsung heroes has had a direct influence on the sound of the albums we love.

While those people mostly remain anonymous, the journey of your record through various stages is actually contained in the space between the music, and the label, aka the “dead wax.” So now you’re thinking, wait. What? Yes, those letters and numbers in the dead wax on each of your records contains info that will allow you to determine any number of things.