Adderley, Nathaniel

▪ 2001

“Nat” 

      American cornetist-songwriter (b. Nov. 25, 1931, Tampa, Fla.—d. Jan. 2, 2000, Lakeland, Fla.), became a star in the 1959–75 quintet headed by his older brother, Cannonball Adderley, which was probably the most popular “soul jazz” group of its era. Although he began playing the trumpet in his teens, Nat switched in 1950 to the somewhat smaller cornet, playing it in the U.S. Army band that his brother led. After a year with Lionel Hampton's big band (1954–55), he played in Cannonball's first quintet (1956–57), then toured widely with J.J. Johnson's group and the Woody Herman band. Formed at the height of the popularity of hard bop, the second quintet, the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, in which Nat's warm, lyric improvising contrasted with his brother's flaring alto saxophone solos, was a success from the beginning. Meanwhile, Nat introduced his best-known tune, “Work Song,” on one of his own albums in 1960; the song soon became a standard—Herb Alpert made a hit recording of it—and Nat's blues-drenched songs, including “Jive Samba” and “Sermonette,” also became hits for Cannonball's group. The brothers collaborated on a musical about the mythical African American railroad man John Henry, originally recorded as “Big Man” (1975) and staged as Shout Up a Morning (1986). After Cannonball's death, Nat's retirement was only temporary; from 1976 he led his own groups, which usually included a Cannonball-styled altoist. A favourite of audiences, in part for his good-humoured presentation, and of fellow musicians, Nat played on nearly 100 albums as a leader and sideman. Diabetes led to the amputation of a leg (1997), which effectively ended his career.

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