If you were walking down Maplewood Avenue on Friday night between 8:30 and 11:30 p.m., you might have been unaware of the musical magic that was going down in town.

However, if you made the turn onto Highland Place and sauntered over to the HighlandPlace Steakhouse  you would have encountered music royalty in the form of the Nat Adderley Jr. Trio. 

This accomplished troika performed two sets of music drawing from the Adderley family catalogue as well as the Luther Vandross and Stevie Wonder song book.

Nat Adderley Jr., who makes his home in West Orange, will always be linked to the legendary Luther Vandross. Adderley served as Vandross's arranger and pianist as well as sharing songwriting credits with Vandross. Adderley has also worked with many other artists including the "Queen of Soul"—Aretha Franklin.

Adderley Jr. is the son of composer and musician Nat Adderley and nephew of  Cannonball Adderley. 

Rounding out the trio on Friday night were Maplewood's own Greg Jones on upright bass and West Orange's Greg Bufford on drums. Both men are accomplished in their own right.

Jones played for ten years with tap-dancing impresario Savion Glover and has worked with such industry legends as Ben E. King and Carly Simon. Bufford has been playing for well over 30 years and co-wrote and played on the Vaughan Mason & Crew 1979 classic record Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll.

A special surprise guest for the night—all the way from Lyndhurst, NJ—was tap dancer Andrew Nemr, who sat in (well, actually danced in) on several numbers. Nemr was mentored by and trained with the legendary Gregory Hines as well as Savion Glover. Friday night, he gave a command performance full of frenetic energy and boundless enthusiasm. 

The Nat Adderley Jr. Trio is a treasure that has been performing locally at HighlandPlace over the last year or more (as has been covered previously by Patch). More future dates are upcoming. We urge you to watch for dates and times and make it a point to see these legends in the flesh.