Nat Adderley (November 25, 1931 – January 2, 2000) - Hummin’ (1976)
This funky track was written and produced by Adderley, feat. Phyllis Hyman's future musical director Onaje Allen Gumbs on piano.
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On January 2, 2000, we lost Nat Adderley (born November 25, 1931), Cannonball’s younger brother and a celebrated soul jazz innovator in his own right.
The Adderley brothers were born in Tampa, Florida. Their father played trumpet as a young man and first passed his instrument down to Nat’s older brother Julian, later known as Cannonball. Julian eventually took up the alto sax and gave the trumpet to Nat, who began playing at age 15. Nat switched to cornet four years later, in 1950.
After serving in Korea, Nat auditioned for Lionel Hampton when he played a concert at Florida A&M, who invited him to join his band. He played with Hampton from 1954-55 and toured Europe. After returning, he and his brother joined bassist Oscar Pettiford onstage at Café Bohemia in New York City one night in 1955, blowing the other musicians’ minds with their talent. The next year they formed the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, but it disbanded in 1957. Nat played with J.J. Johnson and Woody Herman while Cannonball joined Miles Davis’ group alongside John Coltrane and played on the landmark Kind Of Blue LP.
The brothers re-formed the Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1959, and soon popularized the sound known as soul jazz. Nat served as the group’s cornetist and manager while also writing some of their biggest hits, including “Work Song” (1960) which was destined to become a jazz standard. At various times the Quintet included jazz greats including bassist Ray Brown, saxophonists Charles Lloyd and Yusef Lateef, and pianists Bobby Timmons, Joe Zawinul, George Duke, and Bill Evans.
Nat also released records under his own name even in the group’s heyday. He went electric on his You, Baby LP (1968) and came up with “Electric Eel” as he played a sometimes electrified cornet alongside an incredible lineup of Ron Carter on bass, Grady Tate behind the drums, and Joe Zawinul on piano.
The Quintet released more than twenty albums until breaking up after Cannonball’s death from a stroke in 1975. Nat then formed a new Quintet and toured Europe and Japan before releasing more records under his own name. During this period, he wrote and produced the very funky title track from his album Hummin’ (1976).
Adderley played the cornet, his signature instrument, joined by John Stubblefield on reeds, Onaje Allen Gumbs on piano (who was soon to become music director for Phyllis Hyman), Fernando Gumbs on bass, Ira “Buddy” Williams on drums, and additional percussion by Victor See Yuen.
#jazz #funk #soul #NatAdderley
Excellent. 🎼
One of my favorite melodies to hum! Didn’t remember the son was actually called humming!