Fort Lauderdale News (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Robert E. (Bob) Dickey : 10/30/1955

Julian, Nat Blow Up A Storm

The fine music of the two brightest stars on Ft. Lauderdale’s Jazz scene—Julian and Nat Adderley—is brought back here from Savoy Records studios on two long-play albums this reviewer picked off the shelves of the Second Street Music Shop.

The albums are Presenting Cannonball (MG-12018), featuring Julian, the larger of the two brothers, and That’s Nat (MG-12021), spotlighting the slighter half of the brother act at Porky’s Hideaway on N Federal Hwy.

In Presenting Cannonball, Julian’s fine alto sax is ably supported by Nat’s cornet, backed by Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Kenny Clarke on drums. The younger brother’s cornet on That’s Nat leads the tenor sax (and flute on one number) of Jerome Richardson, the piano of Jones and drums of Clarke, and the bass of Wendell Marshall.

In the Cannonball album, Spontaneous Combustion explodes with the big sound of Julian, bellowing forth with his well-schooled alto and carefully thought ideas. In fact, he gives the reviewer the feeling that there is not enough room in one bar of music for all of his sound ideas. Brother Nat does a sparkling job on this one under the influence of Julian.

A Little Taste sounds more like the modern form of jazz. The bassist, talented Paul Chambers, does a nice job of pacing this one as he keeps pushing his big sound through and filling the chords with nice notes. This is not one of the best recording jobs, technically, that this reviewer has heard. It sounds like it is overcut.

Flamingo features Julian on a ballad and makes your reviewer wonder how such big notes come out of such a small horn. However, the treatment of this ballad by Julian is not in keeping with his good taste in the rest of the album. He produces too many notes and does not put enough emphasis on shading and phrasing.

Experts are saying that Julian is a candidate to wear the alto sax crown once worn by the late Charlie Parker. Let’s let him make his own crown and if this, his second album, is any indication, he will make it a larger one than the one “The Bird” wore.

That’s Nat is introduced by Nat Adderley playing tribute to his local boss in Porky. He blows his cornet nicely in a moderate jump tempo with a good bass line pushed forward by Marshall. In this number, particularly, Nat shows a new, fresh approach to jazz.

I Married an Angel, the second band on this side, is not the best thing that Nat does. He sounds as though he’s not really interested in the tune, perhaps because the tempo is too slow. But Jerome Richardson does nice work on this with a subtone tenor.

Ann Springs is probably the best in the album. Nat blows some sounds a la Dizzy Gillespie and that’s not bad. If you can only copy Diz you can call yourself a “real” musician.

Nat Adderley is just beginning his career in jazz, and, while he is not the equal of Gillespie, Conte Candoli, Shorty Rogers or Miles Davis, he’ll carve his niche in time. He has the feel of jazz and the eagerness it takes to get to the top. I believe you’ll hear more of this talented new cornetist.

The other numbers on Presenting Cannonball are Still Talkin’ To Ya and Caribbean Cutie, and in That’s Nat they are Big E, Kuzzin’s Buzzin and You Better Go Now.

The Adderleys, who live in northwest Ft. Lauderdale, are graduates of Florida A & M University at Tallahassee. Julian organized the crack Dillard High School band here when he joined the school’s faculty after graduation from college.

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Jazz Monthly (UK)
Charles Fox : 10/1956

New trumpet stars (to fall into sleeve-note prose) seem to pop up every week or so. Unhappily, their candle-powers vary a lot. Nat Adderley, a cornetist whose virtues might shine as a sidesman, cannot really stand up to being featured on a 12-inch LP. He will begin a solo with confidence, only to fall back upon commonplace phrases before reaching its end (Kuzzin’s Buzzin’ contains a good example of this). Jerome Richardson, a hard-toned tenor-saxophonist in the style of Frank Foster and Sonny Stitt, also seems uneasy in extended solos.

The Savoy house-pianist, Hank Jones, is the best man on this date. He plays delightfully on every track. Wendell Marshall and Kenny Clarke join him to make up a rhythm section which almost persuades a listener that the music is better than it sounds.

Big “E” (the finest track) has strong, virile playing from Adderley (although even here his ideas are uninspired). Ann Springs, a 12-bar blues, is another good performance. The only dull track, in fact, is I married an angel. Perhaps the truest criticism of Adderley and Richardson is that they perform the jazz of their decade — and do no more than that. It will seem pretty stale in ten years’ time.

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Metronome
Bill Coss : December, 1955

According to quality of solos, this is Hank Jones’ album (that’s an old habit with this talented scene stealer) and he does well by every minute of it. Wendell Marshall, Kenny Clarke and Jerome Richardson (tenor and flute) all perform capably, too, but the sum total of all these credits just doesn’t weigh well against the debits—-the thin ensemble sound and the general lack of thought that seems to have gone into the writing and/or planning of the music. Nat is not really ready for this much spotlight and, except for parts of the pretty ballad, Angel, and You Better Go Now, which did have the required thought, he’s thoroughly inconsistent. And no amount of praise or promise, and he does show that, can make the record better.

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Down Beat : 11/02/1955
Nat Hentoff : 3.0 stars

That’s Nat is the first album of his own for Julian (Cannonball) Adderley’s younger brother. His quintet includes Jerome Richardson on tenor (and flute in Go Now) with a first-rate rhythm section of Kenny Clarke, Hank Jones, and Wendell Marshall. Since Savoy gives no composer credits here, I can’t tell you who wrote what originals, but none are memorable—just riff-built lines for blowing.

Of the two hornmen, Adderley is the more interesting conceptionally, though he has some distance to go and experience to gain before he can be compared with more important “newcomers” like Brown, Farmer, and Thad Jones. Richardson’s tenor is rhythmically sound, and his tone is big, but there’s not too much individuality as yet of style and ideas. His flute work is pleasant. The rating is also lowered because the lines of the “originals” are far too routine. Best soloist on the date is Hank Jones.

This is another example of an whole LP being given to a leader who is not yet ready for it, and the recording director is also to blame for allowing so much unchallenging material to be used.

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Liner Notes by Ozzie Cadena

Have you ever tried to picture in your minds eye, the musician’s musician? Have you tried to take some of the greatness of each of your favorites and put them together so as to have the super jazzman? You must have said to yourself, “Imagine hearing someone with DIZ’s technique, ROY’s drive, SHAVER’s fire, HACKETT’s tone and the soul of PREZ or BIRD.” Yes, it would be wonderful to listen to a man with all this talent but the question is when will he come along? I’m not trying to infer that I know of such a man, but I do say that I have heard a couple of newcomers that have the capabilities, if they don’t mind the struggle that it will take to achieve this “almost” perfection. I realize that to judge the capabilities of a man is at times difficult because it is always, only probable, but then again when someone is endowed with a certain gift of expression, his talent is usually recognized. The few that do recognize this talent begin to realize the aforementioned capabilities.

NAT ADDERLEY is one of the most capable musicians that I’ve heard in some time and, although I’ve recorded him on three separate occasions (Bohemia After Dark, MG-12017, Presenting Cannonball, MG-12018 and here), I feel that we have captured but a very minute part of his talent and that there is a lot more to come.

NAT was born in Tampa, Florida in 1931. He began to study Trumpet in 1945 and he switched to Cornet in 1951 and he majored in music at Florida A. & M. He switched to Cornet because he finds that he has more facility on that horn than on Trumpet. Upon first meeting NAT I questioned him about his horn, wondering whether it was a home made job or not and I wasn’t entirely kidding either. He answered, “I know the horn doesn’t look like too much, but for me it has “IT.” And I had to agree it sure has, as you will plainly hear.

NAT served for two years in the Army and while he was in, (1951-1953) he attended the Naval School for Music. He made one of the recent European tours with LIONEL HAMPTON’s band and is featured on various things recorded in Germany and France and as yet not released in the United States.

NAT’s collaborators on this date are: JEROME RICHARDSON-Tenor (he blows Flute on You Better Go Now), HANK JONES-Piano (he blows on all the sides), WENDELL MARSHALL-Bass (he walks, he runs, he swings), KENNY CLARKE-Drums (yeah!!)

Take time to listen to this quintet of tremendous talent, always exciting and always swingin’. You can’t help enjoying them whatever their mood and keep your ears peeled for many more fine sides by NAT ADDERLEY-Cornetist.