AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Nat Adderley

Artist:Nat Adderley

Song:Work Song

Album:The Classic Albums Collection 1955-1962

Trumpeter Nat Adderley is best known as the younger brother of alto sax legend Julian "Cannonball" Adderley. They toured and recorded together until Cannonball's 1975 death. Though he is perceived in his brother's shadow, Nat Adderley was the band's manager and he wrote and arranged plenty of the band's songs. The best known of these is Work Song. But Nat recorded it first on one of his own albums. So he was in the band with his brother but he always recorded as a leader. He was born Nov. 25, 1931 in Tampa, FL but he grew up in Tallahassee as his parents taught at Florida A&M University. His father played trumpet and he gave his trumpet to Cannonball. After Cannonball picked up the alto sax, he passed the trumpet to Nat. And they started playing together. Nat attended Florida University majoring in sociology. He was planning to be a teacher like his parents. Nat switched to cornet in 1950. A cornet is smaller than a trumpet. Louis Armstrong frequently played cornet but it wasn't as popular with bebop musicians. A lot of them play flugelhorn. He served in the US Army in Korea from 1951-53. When Nat returned, he returned to school at Florida A&M. After playing a Lionel Hampton concert, Nat joined the band for a European tour. He still planned to be be a teacher. Then the Adderley brothers took a 1955 trip to New York City. They stopped in the Cafe Bohemia where bassist Oscar Pettiford was playing. His sax player didn't show up that day. When he saw that the Adderleys had their horns with them, he invited them on stage and soon after they moved to New York. They played together at first but were not successful until after Cannonball appeared on the 1959 Miles Davis album Kind of Blue. Meanwhile, Nat played with J.J. Johnson and Woody Herman and he recorded his debut as a leader in 1955. He signed with Riverside Records in 1956. Nat recorded seven albums for Riverside from 1956-63. Work Song is from the 1960 album Work Song. It's Adderley's best known composition as many have recorded it. Musicians are Wes Montgomery on guitar, Bobby Timmons on piano, Percy Heath on bass, Sam Jones on cello and Louis Hayes on drums. This album is available on CD. But I recommend this 4CD budget comp of most of Nat's Riverside albums from the British label Enlightenment. Nat continued to record as a leader for Atlantic, CTI and Capitol through the success of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet. He also dubbed Sammy Davis Jr.'s trumpet playing in the 1966 film A Man Called Adam. After his brother's 1975 death, Nat taught at Harvard and toured mostly in Europe and Japan. He recorded for smaller labels infrequently. His son Nat Adderley Jr. is best known as an arranger for R&B singer Luther Vandross. Nat Adderley died on Jan. 2, 2000 at age 68. Here's Nat Adderley with Vincent Herring on alto sax, Robert Bargad on piano, Walter Booker on bass and Jimmy Cobb on drums performing Work Song in Japan 1990.