The prodigal son recently returned home to Florida A&M University (FAMU). My pilgrimage from New York wasn’t for the annual feverish-exhilaration of homecoming or a big football game rivalry, no, this first visit in more than 50 years was much more significant: It was the naming ceremony of The Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Nathaniel “Nat” Adderley Music Institute in the Foster-Tanner Music Building.
Kind of ironic after all these years, it was jazz, that improvisational lady, who necessitated my return. The naming ceremony happened on a sunny spring day during “Jazz Appreciation Month” outdoors in front of the newly named building. A host of students, staff, and guests attended the ceremony.
Band arranger and FAMU Department of Music Chairman Lindsey B. Sarjeant stated, “Cannonball and Nat always credited FAMU for their musical development. Not only are we preserving their legacy here at FAMU, we are building a program to help prepare our students for successful careers as professional musicians and entrepreneurs just like the Adderley brothers.” Sarjeant was also instrumental in a project that renamed Cascades Park Amphitheater the Adderley Amphitheater at Cascades Park.
During his greeting, FAMU President Larry Robinson said, “Long before we came up with this slogan recently, I think the Adderley brothers indicated in a concrete sense that you can indeed get anywhere from Florida A&M University. They were doing it at a time when it wasn’t easy for African Americans, it didn’t matter what type of position you had whether you were a musician, lawyer, or physician, it was tough times. But they did it anyway. Their names will be a part of the FAMU story forever.”
The FAMU Student Jazz Combo, also known by insiders as the Room 104 group, performed during intervals. Their rendition of the Adderley’s tune “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy” and Lee Morgan’s “Sidewinder” were exceptional, swinging hard in the tradition of true hard boppers.
“My father was a student at FAMU high school [now known as Florida A&M University Developmental Research School]. This was their home, they would be incredibly honored for this distinction, as well as our entire family,” said Nat Adderley’s daughter Ann Adderley during her remarks.
The university’s board of trustees approved Julian “Cannonball” and Nat Adderley Music Institute as the program’s new name during a meeting held late last year. It marked the first time FAMU named an academic program after specific individuals. Music Industry Studies Director Darryl Tookes was significantly involved in advocating for the institute’s new name to become a reality.
“The Adderley’s name is synonymous with musical excellence and social progress,” Tookes noted. “Their name brings a global vision to our music program that will help change the world, especially from a musical perspective.”
The Adderley brothers moved to Tallahassee in the 1940s when their parents began teaching at FAMU. Following graduation from FAMU High School, they attended the university, where Cannonball studied band education and Nat chose sociology with a minor in music. They were both members of the yet-to-become-world-renowned Marching 100 band with Cannonball, the elder brother, playing the alto saxophone and Nat on cornet.
Cannonball’s reputation soared as a member of Miles Davis’ famous sextet that recorded the influential album “Kind of Blue” (Columbia 1959). The best-selling album in jazz history also featured John Coltrane, Wynton Kelly, and Jimmy Cobb. The brothers joined forces under the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, and their unique blend of blues and soul shook the jazz establishment for the better. Their compositions like “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “This Here,” “Work Song,” “The Jive Samba,” and “Walk Tall” are now jazz standards.
“We are so excited to honor the Adderley family in this way,” said Valencia E. Matthes, dean of the College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities during her closing remarks. “When we honor the Adderley’s, we are honoring FAMU.”
Following the unveiling of the official plaque of the Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Nathaniel “Nat” Adderley Music Institute, a reception ensued with a tribute concert at Lee Hall featuring special guest Nat Adderley, Jr., who flew in from New Jersey with his wife Alison, a FAMU alumna. Nat simply remarked, “I speak through my keyboards.”
Lee Hall Auditorium was the only building that was still recognizable to me on the inside, even with its renovated expansions and flat screens on each side of the stage. The sound was equivalent to that of Carnegie Hall. The FAMU Jazz Ensemble was simply magnificent, swinging on eight cylinders with a repertoire that continued to swing from the opening number “The Heat is On,” to “Stormy Weather” with the vocal stylings of student Zoie Mulkey, Horace Silver’s “Jody Grind,” Nat Adderley’s “One for Daddy-O,” and “The Old Country” featuring Nat with professor Tookes on vocals.
The prof was extremely entertaining with a captivating stage presence with humor (he is a noted singer, pianist, and composer, having worked with Quincy Jones, Leonard Bernstein, Roberta Flack, Sting, Bobby McFerrin, Luther Vandross, and Michael Jackson). Nat, Jr. also performed with special guests from the music faculty including; Brian Hall, Lindsay Sarjeant, George Fontenette, Joe Goldberg, Robert Griffin, and Dr. Longineu Parsons. Nat, Jr. has been playing everything from R&B to funk and jazz since the early days with his brother in Tallahassee—not to mention his decade with Luther Vandross and all those hits.
It was important for me to arrive on campus a few days prior to the naming ceremony to witness the many new developments that transpired in my absence. Upon stepping off the prop plane at the Tallahassee airport, joyful thoughts of yesterday’s FAMU danced in my memory bank as I attempted to merge new campus configurations shared by fellow alumni. Walking through the airport, I quickly stopped in my tracks at the sight of the FAMU waiting room (orange and green), very impressive and comfortable. Okay, now I’m hyped! I thought to myself.
My campus tour, guided by longtime friend, fellow FAMUIAN, and resident of Tallahassee, proved to be much more astonishing than I could have ever conceived. My little countrified smalltown campus with its few international students had blossomed into a booming Black metropolis, an intellectual reservoir that runs as deep as Langston Hughes’ poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.”
Like the other architecturally designed buildings, Coleman Library was completely renovated; no surprise there. It brought back memories of days working in the then-small library, running down to the stacks retrieving books at students’ request. Ms. Morris, the librarian, was always waiting for me at the top of the stairs, exclaiming, “Mr. Scott, your job is to bring the books upstairs as fast as possible, not try to read them all.”
The last evening of my visit, as my buddy Tootie and I walked to the parking lot after the fine music by the FAMU Jazz Ensemble at Lee Hall, I was still walking on air. That ensemble is ready for New York City’s Dizzy’s jazz club. As we walked on what used to be The Set—shhh, I could hear voices.
Was that Joel Elder shouting, “Hey, where you going man? I’m waiting for my girl to come out of Wheatley Hall, come on we going to HiFi.” Or maybe Jerome calling out from the cafeteria on a Sunday afternoon, “Come on man, we all going into town to Morrison’s for dinner.” And there were those nights we all piled into someone’s room with a record player and listened to John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, and Lee Morgan. Speedy told us his sister in Brooklyn was close friends with Morgan, so he immediately became our favorite jazz musician. My knowledge of jazz escalated at A&M, it was an incubator for all of us. The Marching 100 knocked me out; coming from New York City, I had never seen a live marching band before. I still get chills whenever I think about that band.
Often, while leisurely making our way to Sampson hall (freshman dorm), laughing with a devil may care attitude, not knowing where we would land but feeling certain that we were in the right place to make it happen. As the great orator Cannonball stated on his composition “Walk Tall”: “There are times when things don’t lay the way they supposed to lay but regardless, you suppose to hold your head up and walk tall, walk tall.”
And that is the lesson we learned at FAMU: Always be proud and walk tall regardless of any situation. FAMU shaped my moral being. Just as the Julian “Cannonball” Adderley and Nathaniel “Nat” Adderly Music Institute will be an inspiration to music students around the world.