julian-cannonball-adderley.jpgFORT LAUDERDALE — The Old Dillard Museum and The Old Dillard Foundation are presenting the Cannonball Birthday Concert featuring pianist Nat Adderly Jr. on Saturday, Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. in the Amaturo Theater at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 S.W. Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale.

The concert celebrates what would have been the 84th birthday of his uncle, jazz great Julian “Cannonball” Adderly who once taught music and led the school band at Dillard High School.

Tickets are $25, $35 and $50 and available through the Broward Center’s AutoNation box office at 954-462-0222 or BrowardCenter.org

Nat Adderly Jr. is best known for writing and arranging songs for Luther Vandross including Stop to Love, Wait for Love and the Grammy Award-nominated Give Me the Reason.

He has also written, produced and arranged songs for Beyonce Knowles, Kirk Whalum, Natalie Cole, Johnny Gill and Aretha Franklin.

The concert celebrates what would have been the 84th birthday of acclaimed band leader, sideman and producer Julian Adderly.

Prior to finding fame, he taught music and directed the school band at Dillard High School, Fort Lauderdale’s first school for African-American students, once located at the current site of the Old Dillard Museum. 

He later taught at the school’s current location before moving to New York in the mid-1950s, where he established himself as a jazz great performing in the Miles Davis Sextet alongside John Coltrane, and creating his own music such as the hit Mercy Mercy Mercy.