Skip to main content

Cannonball and Nat Adderly

I met Cannonball and Nat Adderley at the Colonial Tavern in 1969. Mickey Handy introduced me. Cannon and Nat became good friends and I was their Toronto buddy whenever they came to Toronto, we spent many days hanging out at the underground railroad, etc

I once cooked a seafood chowder dinner for them at Grossman's Tavern. Al let me use the kitchen and was the special of the day. It sold out quickly.

One night I took them to Gordon Rayner's Studio to watch an Artist's Jazzband rehearsal. they liked it but would not jam.

This was very much a "Black power time and they got invited to all the Black after-hours clubs. But they would not go without me. I knew most of the black clubs and we had a lot of fun.

I was on their permanent guest list at the Colonial and I got to listen to great jazz and meet their fabulous sidemen like  Louis Hayes, Ray Brown, Walter Booker, Bobby Timmons, Victor Feldman, Joe Zawinul.


One night I was late getting to the Colonial, they were halfway through the set and the bar was packed full. The only place for me to sit was at the staff table. They would not serve me unless I moved and there was nowhere else so i sat there drinkless till the set was over. They joined me at the end of the set and ordered us drinks. They still refused to serve me. So Nat called the manager over and told them they were not going to play until I was drinking. needless to say that never happened again.


After Cannonball's tragic death in 1975, Nat played Toronto regularly and he was always glad to see me. He embarrassed me on my birthday at the Montreal Bistro by dedicating almost every song to me all night long. Vincent Herring was with him.  I met his wife too and spent a few nights sitting with her.


Cannonball had never heard Paul Desmond's tribute to him until I told him.

Paul Desmond won the Evergreen Review's  Higgledy piggled contest with


Shubada Shubadee

Cannonball Adderley

Came on the scene with a belt of the blues.

His popularity

Coincidentally

Gives me more time

For women and booze.

: Paul Desmond 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Patrick McGoohan

I met Patrick in The 22 and asked him what he was doing? This was his answer. We chatted for a couple of hours. I think he had just finished Scanners. The Club 22 at the Windsor Arms was an amazing place in 70's & 80's. It was like the hub of movie business in Toronto. Every day there was an adventure of some kind. Robert Miller was a writer for McLean's Magazine and CTV and had recently turned to novels like Dreadlock and some movie biz with Bill Marshall. I had bravely written my first screenplay and had given a copy to Bill Marshall. So we are sitting at the producers table with a few cronies at the mostly empty Club 22 and Bobby says come here I want to talk to you. he leads me to the empty piano bar. He tells me he picked up my script at Bill's office and read it. He than told me I shouldn't be in the movie business and picked my script apart line by line. He was good, he had a photographic memory and a grounding in writing and English and literature that w...
4 comments
Read more

Elway Yost

  My sister Gaille was Elway Yost's secretary for a few years at TV Ontario. "I had the incredible opportunity to meet and engage in conversation with the talented Elwy on multiple occasions. On two separate occasions, I was even asked to be a stand-by guest for his show, Magic Shadows. Though I never had the chance to step in, just being considered by Elwy himself was an honor I will never forget. As a devoted fan of Magic Shadows from the very start, these moments were truly unforgettable.
Post a Comment
Read more

FARLEY MOWATT

I met Farley in the 60's we had the same Hair Stylist (Chris Beacom) and we had a few drinks at the Pilot and talked of Newfoundland. i remember one of his lines. I would like to go back to Newfoundland, maybe when Joey dies.
Post a Comment
Read more