Alto saxophonist, bandleader, educator, and leader of his own quintet, Cannonball Adderley was one of the preeminent jazz players of the 1950s and 1960s. Adderley's style combined hard-bop and soul jazz impregnated with blues and gospel. The first quintet he formed with his brother Nat Adderley disbanded because of financial difficul-ties. The second quintet, formed in 1959, successfully paved the way for the acceptance of soul jazz, achieved commercial viability, and remained intact until Adderley's untimely death on August 8, 1975. The group at various times consisted of Bobby Timmons, George Duke, Joe Zawinul, Victor Feldman, Roy McCurdy, and Louis Hayes, among others. Occasionally, a second saxophonist was added to make a sextet.

The son of a jazz cornetist, Julian Edwin Adderley was born September 15, 1928 in Tampa, Florida. "Cannonball" was a corruption of cannibal, an appellation he earned during childhood for his rapacious appetite. His first professional...