Walk Tall: The Music and Life of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley by Cary Ginell, and: Jazz Icons: Heroes, Myths and the Jazz Tradition by Tony Whyton (review)

Award-winning journalist Cary Ginell has crafted an extremely informative biography of the great jazz saxophonist–bandleader Julian “Cannonball” Adderley. This musician became one of the most respected alto saxophonists in modern jazz after Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Jackie McLean had arrived. Adderley was also very important to jazz history as a bandleader whose repertory and recordings did much to define the modern style known as hard bop. A subcategory of hard bop was influenced by African American church music and was dubbed “funky jazz” or “soul jazz.” This style is exemplified by three pieces in the Adderley band’s repertory that were written by Julian’s brother Nat: “Work Song,” “Sack o’ Woe,” and “Jive Samba”; and two pieces by the band’s pianist Bobby Timmons: “Dis Here” and “Dat Dere.”

The book is well-organized and easy to read. The author cuts straight to the heart of every major issue in the musician’s life and career. Unlike some musician biographies, Ginell’s book never descends into gratuitous gossip. The book does provide anecdotes and quotes from interviews that are sufficiently insightful to allow us to piece together the complexities of the subject’s personality and intelligence. For example, Adderley was so bright that he graduated from high school at age 15 and then graduated from college early, before he was 18 years old. In fact, the reason he ended up in New York was not to pursue a jazz career, but to attend graduate school at Columbia University. Adderley was well versed in current events and at one time had his own column in a newspaper.

Ginell attributes some of Adderley’s success to his personality and the ways he treated his audiences: “He addressed them directly with respect and treated them as if they were his friends. He didn’t preach to them, but he did explain in often humorous ways what they were going to be listening to, who wrote the song, who was playing in the band, and even how the songs got their titles” (p. 62). The author recounts comments by Adderley’s one-time employer Miles Davis that the saxophonist always seemed to be laughing, and that Davis admired his ability to get along with other band members.

In addition, the book documents the saxophonist’s morality. For instance, Adderley’s numerous contributions to civil causes and education may be new to jazz fans who know only the subject’s music. Moreover, the saxophonist’s attitude was made explicit in an October 24, 1964 interview that Ginell excerpted from Billboard magazine: “Musicians are busy analyzing themselves. … They used to enjoy themselves on the stand and this would carry over to their audience. Now jazzmen are injecting ‘deliberate complexities’ into their styles. It’s morally wrong to expect people to pay for satisfying your ego … Jazz is fun and people should remember this” (pp. 106–7).

The author’s interviews with Adderley’s wife Olga provide interesting sidelights. One reveals that “… most of the men in his band were college educated, and all of them came from intact families. People don’t think that about jazz musicians. If there’s a stereotype about jazz musicians, they were not it. They were not ‘good boys’ all the time, but they were responsible men” (p. 96).

A major focus, which may be the most valuable information in the book, is the backstory behind almost every recording session and significant gig in Adderley’s career. A staggering amount of research must have been undertaken to obtain these details. Ginell managed to determine the economic, aesthetic, and personal factors that...