Adderley, Julian Cannonball

The great alto saxophonist was born Julian Edwin Adderley in 1928 in Tampa, Florida. He had a career as a high school band director when a visit to New York in 1955 lead to his playing jazz full-time. He joined Miles Davis in 1957 and two years later formed the Adderley Quintet with his younger brother Nat, a cornetist. The group is considered one of the pioneers of hard bop and also crossed over to soul jazz. They produced dozens of albums before Adderley died suddenly in 1975.