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Beegie Adair
Once in a while a musician comes along with impeccable technique, deep understanding of the jazz repertoire, an innate tendency to swing and the rare ability to communicate the heart and soul of a tune to listeners. That musician is Beegie Adair.
About her music Adair says, “Falling in love with jazz is like falling in love with a person, except with jazz you never get over it.” About Beegie (say B-G) Adair, what do others say?
Jazz great Helen Merrill salutes her “inventive jazz sense, her wonderful sense of time and improvised melody.”
Christopher Louden of Jazz Times magazine says Adair is “an accomplished artist with a delicate touch.”
The Los Angeles Times calls her music “Elegant.”
Entertainment News writes, “Beegie Adair is one of the finest piano players in the world.”
Intrigued? So are thousands of jazz fans, who agree with critics about Adair’s sophisticated and listenable jazz performances, and who have made her recordings among the biggest sellers in the jazz world.
Citing George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner among her influences, Adair has recorded 24 CDs, ranging from Cole Porter standards to Frank Sinatra classics to romantic World War II ballads. Her 6-CD Centennial Composers Collection of tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael and Berlin became an instant collectible classic when it was released in 2002.
Kentucky born and raised, Adair lives and records in Nashville �" something of a surprise to people who associate the city solely with country music. In fact Nashville lives up to its “Music City” nickname by hosting a vibrant jazz scene, in which she has been a leading light for decades. A sought-after studio musician in her early days there, Adair accompanied such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash �" and also worked with Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Mama Cass Elliott and Peggy Lee.
Her guests on Improvised Thoughts, Beegie’s radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, included such greats as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland’s Piano Jazz show and has performed with Nat Adderley, Bill Watrous, Lew Tabackin, Terry Clarke, Urbie Green and Jim Ferguson, among many others.
When she’s not in the studio or appearing in clubs and concert halls around the country, Adair wears a variety of hats, from adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University to teacher and mentor at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Recently she co-wrote and scored an innovative theatrical production, Betsy, which in April 2006 premiered off-Broadway in New York.
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Remembering Pianist Beegie Adair: 1937-2022
by Mary Foster Conklin
The broadcast includes new releases from pianists Sharp Radway, Addison Frei, vocalists Giacomo Gates, Shawnn Monteiro and Wild Blue Herons, with birthday shoutouts to Lil Hardin Armstrong, Bettye LaVette, Ed Reed, Melody Gardot, Jen Allen plus a special remembrance for pianist Beegie Adair, a jazz master in the country capital of jny: Nashville for over sixty years . Thanks for listening and please support the artists you hear by purchasing their music during this time of pandemic so they can ...
read moreBeegie Adair: Monica Ramey and the Beegie Adair Trio
by C. Michael Bailey
The true beauty of any Beegie Adair recording is that it will be straight down the middle mainstream jazz. It is money in the bank. Adair's 50-year career has found her leading her jazz trio, writing advertising jingles and accompanying vocalists, as she does on the present Monica Ramey and the Beegie Adair Trio. Ramey, a native of the midwest, take a predictably conservative approach to the Great American Songbook. Her doing so does us the favor of reminding us ...
read moreBeegie Adair: An Affair To Remember: Romantic Movie Songs Of The 1950's
by Michael P. Gladstone
I really enjoyed Beegie Adair's Centennial Tribute to Richard Rodgers in 2002. On that album, her piano trio made the most of some of the best songs written during the golden age of the 1930s and '40s.
Her latest venture is also a most worthy effort to recall the grandeur of movie themes from the '50s (and how far we have come since then in today's cinematic environment). During those days, even a smaller film was expected to ...
read moreBeegie Adair: An Affair to Remember
by Jim Santella
With the Jeff Steinberg Orchestra accompanying her, pianist Beegie Adair remembers the love stories that came to us through the films of the 1950s. She portrays each theme as it was done in the original score, with lush strings and an emphasis on its recurring melody. A gentle spirit guides her through each warm melody effortlessly. The pianist's flowing keyboard motion swells and ebbs with each theme. They're memorable songs.
As Ellen Menking's oboe solo introduces “A Certain ...
read moreBeegie Adair: I'll Take Romance
by Jack Bowers
More late-evening mood music than jazz, I’ll Take Romance, the seventh album on the Green Hill label by Beegie Adair, showcases her warm piano stylings with a string-laden orchestra conducted by Jeff Steinberg. As Adair is based in Nashville, TN, hers may be a new name to many readers and / or listeners. Suffice to say that she’s an accomplished technician who can swing when the occasion demands, which in this instance is all too seldom (she is able to ...
read moreBeegie Adair Trio: Centennial Composers Collection
by C. Michael Bailey
A Superb Introduction to the Great American Song Book...
My first brush with what are commonly called “standards" in jazz parlance came when I devoured Linda Ronstadt’s Round Midnight with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. This was a collection of “jazz" vocals that was unthreatening, easily digested, and readily understood. Further, Ronstadt’s collection introduced the standards, their lyrics and melodies to my 40-something generation when that generation could not hear Ella, Billie, Sarah, or Betty.
Now, there is available an exceptional ...
read moreBeegie Adair: I'll Take Romance
by Jim Santella
What were you doing on September 11th?
Sadly, we'll always remember that day. Those who were at home had an opportunity to see it all in one fell swoop. What a day. Those who were traveling had to make other arrangements, and felt an immediate need to contact loved ones. Their prayers went out to those involved. Those of us who were at work managed, somehow. We kept informed, stayed in touch with our families, and still ...
read moreBeegie Adair: 1937-2022
Source:
JazzWax by Marc Myers
Beegie Adair, who was one of the busiest unbusy studio and lounge pianists in Nashville who recorded more than 100 albums, died on January 23. She was 84. Unbusy, because Beegie (born Bobbe Gorin Long) played simply with a straight-ahead style, adding a dash of jazz along the way. While not widely known outside of Nashville studio circles and among those who fancy the cocktail-piano sound, Beegie preferred playing the standards people liked to hear with a modicum of flourish ...
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Beegie Adair makes rare NYC appearance at Birdland with vocalist Monica Ramey, January 13, 6PM
Source:
Maxx Myrick
Monica Ramey makes NYC debut at Birdland with special guest Beegie Adair Monica Ramey's CD “Make Someone Happy," is receiving nationwide airplay on jazz radio, including Music Choice and DMX. She makes her New York City debut, January 13, 2011, at Birdland with special guest the legendary Beegie Adair, a 2010 Billboard Japan Jazz Artist of the Year, who Michael Feinstein calls “a marvelously understated player whose interpretations of standards are just brilliant," jazz great Helen Merrill salutes her “inventive jazz sense, her wonderful ...
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Pianist Beegie Adair Releases Centennial Composers 6-CD Box Set on Green Hill
Source:
All About Jazz
Roughly a century ago, six composers were born -- Irving Berlin, Hoagy Carmichael, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington and Richard Rodgers -- and they forever changed the style of popular music. To celebrate their awesome musical accomplishments, pianist Beegie Adair and her jazz trio have released a four-and-a-half-hour Centennial Composers six-CD box set with new renditions of a dozen or more of the best-known tunes by each songwriter.
With a full CD devoted to each composer, this expansive and ...
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Beegie Adair
Instrument: Piano
Born: December 11, 1937
Died: January 23, 2022
