In the mid-’50s, he was hailed as “the new Bird.” In ’57, he brought his alto sax to the Miles Davis sextet, playing on seminal recordings such as Kind of Blue and Milestones. Still, you might not have heard of Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

Extending his career into the ’70s, he and his brother, cornet player Nat Adderley, fronted a groundbreaking quintet — yet they were two of the most underappreciated jazz musicians of their time. But thankfully, the brothers’ legacy isn’t lost on a group of Calgary musicians, who will perform a tribute on Thursday, August 26 at Beat Niq.

And for that, we have local sax player Gerry Heber and hornman Johnny Summers.

"I never get tired of listening to him, his voice," Hebert says of Cannonball. "Although (Cannonball is) somewhat over-styled compared to the music of today, exaggerative in the way he shaped phrases, the amount of vibrato . . . but I really like how he uses it, I like the tonal influences he had."

Summers, on the other hand, spoke more effusively of the Adderleys.

"He was completely underrated and under-appreciated in the jazz community," says Summers. "He blows my mind. When people think of jazz trumpet they automatically think Louis Armstrong, then they go to Miles Davis, then they go to Dizzy Gillespie . . . But Nat, he was the bomb."

But while the tribute intends to spotlight the importance of the Adderleys, Herbert and Summers cautions not to expect a note-for-note reproduction.

"We're not here to do a museum piece,” he says. “We’re not in 1969 or 1965, or any of those seminal times when a lot of recordings came out. I don't approach this as a replication. It's a tribute . . . with the discussion of the impact those musicians made.”

And with Calgary’s best jazz musicians on hand, it’s likely to capture the energy of those classic performances. Still, not any musician can play these gigs.

"We look at who are the best picks, people who would click . . . (and people that) would be able to play the style very well but also be really relaxed and fun to hang out with,” Summers says.

“You can't go wrong when you get great music and the best players you can find, the great players in the city . . . and put them together in a great room."

And he’s not kidding. The assembled group includes bassist Kodi Hutchinson, drummer Jon McAslin and pianist Stephen Fletcher — some of Calgary’s finest. But how do they feel about stepping into the shoes of jazz giants?

"I've done tributes to Louis Armstrong and all these greats,” says Summers. “Boy, if they heard me, they might like it, they might be flattered, or they might hate it. But at the end of the day, I'm just trying to love music and share that with people.”