[1] Adderley's composition "Work Song" (1960) is a jazz standard, and also became a success on the pop charts after singer Oscar Brown Jr. wrote lyrics for it.

Shortly before Adderley was expected to begin student teaching, Lionel Hampton played a concert at Florida A&M.

The brothers stopped by the Café Bohemia in Greenwich Village when bassist Oscar Pettiford was playing.

[5] The brothers moved to New York City, founding the bop group Cannonball Adderley Quintet in 1956.

Nat played for trombonist J. J. Johnson for a couple of years and ended up in the Woody Herman sextet.

Cannonball gained a higher profile and joined the Miles Davis sextet alongside John Coltrane in time to record the album Kind of Blue.

The quintet also played hard bop, as everyone in the group had been influenced by bebop and wanted to continue a virtuosic tradition.

Soul jazz kept the group popular, while hard bop gave the musicians a chance to challenge themselves and demonstrate their abilities.

[8] While he was an integral part of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet, this was not the only project occupying his time in his career as a professional jazz musician.

[7] He toured Japan, then returned to the U.S. and taught courses at Harvard while performing and recording with his quintet, which included Walter Booker, Jimmy Cobb, and Vincent Herring.

Shout Up a Morning, after having a concert performance in Carnegie Hall shortly after Cannonball's death, was staged in several locations around the United States in 1986.

[8] Adderley became involved in several other ensembles over the next decade, including the Paris Reunion Band and a group called the Riverside Reunion Band (after the Riverside label), a bop group that formed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1993 and then toured Europe in 1994.

[13] Nat Adderley died as a result of complications from diabetes at the age of 68 in Lakeland, Florida.

He was survived by his wife, Ann; a son, Nat Adderley Jr. of West Orange, N.J.; a daughter, Alison Adderley-Pittman of Palm Bay, Florida; and five grandchildren.

He also enjoyed the cornet's historic quality, reinvigorating the instrument played by early jazz musicians.

This style is characterized by simple harmonies, a heavy blues feel, catchy riffs, and a presence of the church.