 This video is sponsored by Skillshare. The first thousand people to go to skl.sh slash polyphonic29 will get two months of learning absolutely free. I think that one of the most daunting kinds of music to approach, especially if you have no prior history with it, is jazz. It's a genre with a breadth in scope and a depth in history that are unmatched in popular music. Theoretically, it can be complex and esoteric and there's a cultural weight behind all of jazz music. Because of this, I think that there's something that many of us overlook when it comes to jazz. Sure, jazz is complex and sure it does have a rich history that's intrinsically tied to the cultural history of the United States, but for a lot of people that's not why you listen to jazz. The reason jazz was able to gain the popular appeal that it did, the reason it was able to push theoretical boundaries and entwine itself with our cultural history, is because of something very simple at its core. Because when you strip everything away and get down to the roots of jazz, it's a music built around joy. Joy is why Louis Armstrong took the world by storm. It's how Duke Ellington was able to change popular music forever, and even through his tortured life, the music of Charlie Parker exudes joy. But there's one musician who I believe exemplifies this joy more than anyone else in jazz, and his name is Cannonball Adderley. Let's take a closer look. Cannonball Adderley always liked to indulge in the joys of life. In fact, his nickname is a reflection of this very fact. In high school, Adderley was famous for his appetite. The vast quantities of food he could eat led to his friends lovingly dubbing him cannibal. Over the years that morphed into Cannonball, a nickname that proved fitting given the impact that Adderley would have on the jazz world. In 1955, Cannonball and his brother Nat Adderley moved to the center of the jazz universe, New York. Almost immediately, he became the talk of the town. Some even viewed Adderley as the successor to Charlie Parker, the revolutionary saxophonist who died the same year that Adderley arrived in New York. And it's easy to see why both had the ability to play at a fiery pace without sacrificing rhythmic or melodic creativity. Indeed, Parker was one of Adderley's biggest influences, but there was another aspect to Adderley that was essential. An influence that came from a very different side of jazz in the form of Benny Carter. Benny Carter is one of the great unsung heroes in jazz history, but he didn't work in the boundary pushing realm of bebop. Instead, he made his career on swing and other forms of popular jazz. Popular music is often scoffed at in jazz circles, but Adderley had none of that pretension. Adderley's great ambition was to share the joy of jazz with the world, and he knew that no matter how technically impressive a piece of music was, people wouldn't listen to it if it wasn't fun. So Cannonball made his music fun and accessible. One of the ways he did so was by mixing blues and soul into his jazz. You can hear this in the biggest hit of his career, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Taken from a 1966 live album, that song became a surprise hit for Adderley, climbing up to number five on Billboard's top 100 at a time when that kind of success for jazz records was exceedingly rare. The live nature of that recording is an essential part of Adderley's success. He was a musician meant to be experienced live, and that's because he wasn't just a musician. He was an educator and an entertainer. His live performances were marked by conversational raps where he would talk to his audience and teach them about the music he was playing. To really get a sense of this, I want to look at a series of recordings made at the Penthouse Jazz Club in 1966 and 1967. These are old recordings, but they've only just been released digitally for the first time as Swingin' in Seattle. These recordings were cut live as they were broadcast over the radio, meaning people would hear the recording in their car and have the option to drive over and drop into the club. And it's easy to see why someone might want to. Cannonball's wit and charm come through clearly in his banter. Listen to him introducing Sticks. Sticks is a piece that displays what makes Cannonball's music so magical. From the opening moments it brims with energy, and the blues song structure makes it easy to follow. But Sticks isn't by any means an easy song. It's propelled by a unique in-between shuffle drum beat and features incredible solo sections. The first solo on the song is performed on Cornet by Nat Adderley, Cannonball's brother and partner in crime. Cannonball and Nat played together for almost their entire career until Cannonball suffered a stroke and passed at the age of 46. Both on and off the stage they were a foil pair. Cannonball was the genial calm frontman, and Nat, his passionate feisty accomplice. Drummer Roy McCurdy described what Nat brought to the group. He had a fiery personality, he was outgoing, he did all the business for the band, and he paid everybody. Cannon just sat back and played. Nat was a little fiery guy who liked to give orders. On the bandstand you could hear his personality come out in his playing. While Nat and Cannonball would fight in the studio, their connection was at the very core of their group. Listen to the way they trade off solos on Big P. Part of the fun of Cannonball's music is listening to the dynamic chemistry between him and his brother. This often resulted in wild upbeat songs, but Cannonball's band was far from one note. Their take on the girl next door is smooth and calm with the smiling energy of a sunny day. And then there's somewhere, an emotional piece that's made all that much heavier by Cannonball's introduction. We're going to play a tune now that I just thought about playing. You see, this afternoon we had an opportunity to play for a lot of young people at the youth center on the supervision of the King County Juvenile Court, you know. It's kind of an interesting thing though, because a lot of kids are not sure about where they belong. And some of us sometimes share that feeling, you know, we're not quite convinced. So we're going to play this beautiful tune written by Leonard Bernstein, because I've been thinking a bit about that. It's called, There's a Place for Us, Somewhere, Somewhere. Beneath the twin horns of the Adderley Brothers, pianist Joe Zawinol lays down a lush foundation. Zawinol was a key part of the group as well. He was the one that wrote Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, and he also wrote 74 Miles Away, a song that shows off one of Cannonball's real strengths, his phrasing. Listen to the way he dots his phrases with quick staccato interjections and sneaks in runs and flourishes. All this gives Cannonball's music a playful, contagious energy. It's a kind of pure joy that you can't help but smile at. McCurdy said that playing with Cannonball was just as fun as listening to him. It was the greatest thing in the world. All you had to do was sit there and lay down the rhythm. They'd ride right on top of it. Playing behind Cannon, Nat, and the rest of the guys, it was almost like an out of body experience. It'd be as if you were looking at yourself playing. It was an amazing thing. Cannonball Adderley was a unique kind of figure in jazz history. He had the chops to keep up with legendary virtuosos like Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and indeed he did playing saxophone on some of Davis's most iconic albums. But in a lot of ways, he was different than his contemporaries. He had no qualms with making his music accessible and with showing the world how to love jazz. Cannonball's music is fun and welcoming. It's an expression of the freedom that comes with jazz. And most of all, it's overflowing with sheer joy and love of music. Something I've been working on lately is using the After Effects 3D camera tool in my videos. The 3D camera is a powerful tool, but it's also very complicated and difficult to use. If you want to try this tool out, a great way to get started is with Skillshare. William Patton's course on the 3D camera will teach you everything you need to know to get started with your own 3D projects. But that's just the beginning. Skillshare has host to thousands of videos on a variety of topics, including productivity, music, business, and more. One class that I recommend is Daniel Jose Older's Storytelling 101, as an aspiring author with a few projects on the go right now, I always like hearing from experts in the craft. Older's lesson breaks down one of his own short stories to explore some of the key components of storytelling. So if you want to learn something new or just improve your existing skills, you can start today by going to skl.sh slash polyphonic29. The first thousand people to follow that link will get two months of Skillshare premium absolutely free. And after that an annual subscription runs you less than ten dollars a month. More than just that, following that link also shows Skillshare that I sent you, which really does help me continue to make these videos. So check out the link in the description, get two months free, and start learning something new today. Oh, and thanks for watching!