Updated: March 6, 2024
Born: June 17, 1965
Reviewed by Kirpal Gordon (reprinted from Jazz Times), The killin’ist thing about Tony Adamo & the New York Crew is that everybody in the band, especially the dope rhyme sayer, has got big ears all the way back to New Orleans and ancient-forward into the ever-evolving Multi-New Thing. It’s big ears working together that’s keeping this CD in Jazzweek's Chart Top 200 List since its release, a totally unheard of phenomenon for jazz-spoken word collaborations. Although singing the talents and wonders of the giants who make this music immortal is nothing new, Adamo and the New York Crew pour out on these eleven tracks joyous lagniappes of praise, the song-cup running over with each additional solo. It’s one thing to express an artful appreciation of the Jazz Messengers, for example, in a song, but it’s a whole other monster of tribute when the band rocks Blakey’s sound so righteously.
Former Headhunter Mike Clark (drummer, co-writer and producer) swings beyond emulation into stratospheric celebration and the whole band follows as Adamo catalogues the great players who have graced the bandstand with Bu. Tony lays out, the alto sax and trumpet blend beautifully and piano, trumpet, sax all solo before he reappears and everyone trades eights. Like Sun Ra said, “Space is the place,” and Tim Ouimette, musical arranger, co-writer and trumpeter, masterfully spaces things so that each praise song layers in many textures and qualities. Bassist Richie Goods, pianist Michael Wolff and percussionist Bill Summers round out the rhythm section, all of whom have worked with the songwriting team of Adamo and Clark previously. The ease, grace and Old School range of the band is further enriched by Donald Harrison on alto saxophone, who brings his own Big Easy roots perspective to this praise-the-trad project. Indeed, the players deliver context, fusing the lyrical phrases of Adamo with the living musical tradition.
But the big ears thing with these first-call musicians really begins with the spoken word. Adamo, a Bronx paison, has fused many elements into his style beyond the obvious Gotham props to Gil-Scott Heron in the Seventies and the Beat and Black Art Movements of the Sixties. As for his inventiveness in the formation of phrases, there’s more than just a taste of Lester Young and Mezz Mezzrow musically and linguistically (the groove be the place) as well as philosophically, that is, it may now be considered hip to be hedonistic or narcissistic, but the code as manifested by Mezz and Prez spoke of the wheel of compassion, understanding, at-one-ment as well as the hard road of injustice. Adamo is walking this I’m You/You’re Me, Have Mercy talk. It’s a New York lineage that began with Walt Whitman and there’s no better company to keep.
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Tony Adamo: Soul Glide
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by Nicholas F. Mondello
"Soul Glide" is the latest offering from singer/composer and hipster nonpareil, Tony Adamo. The track is a slick R&B throwback with an Eddie Harris Listen Here" vibe and groove. It is an enjoyable listen and it has terrific momentum and bite. Over a solid rhythm bed from this spirited ensemble, Rob Sudduth's tenor opens the track with a tight Famous Flames"-like line that chants a musical you dig?" Adamo joins the party singing lyrics that are lathered ...
read moreTony Adamo: Sun Ra Throws a Brick Through a Jazz Window
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by Nicholas F. Mondello
When one listens to the work of Tony Adamo, there needs to be a self-understanding that Adamo's approach to jazz completely abolishes any pre-conceptions of what singing," vocalese," and storytelling" are. His efforts are a highly-stylized ultra-hip gumbo of these things, usually overlaid over a swinging, driving rhythmic platform. His is music intense and this track is. Sun Ra Throws a Brick Through a Jazz Window" is quintessential Adamo. In this track, we get a three-minute homage ...
read moreTony Adamo: Better Than Picasso At Midnite
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by Nicholas F. Mondello
When you listen to vocal artist Tony Adamo, it reminds of that 1960s' mantra from Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?" That's because Adamo is a brilliantly creative talent whose recordings are so hip, so singular that they're something that you don't just listen to; you experience them. From his past efforts, we know that he dwells in a world where words are sing-spoke," told with a heavy dollop of jazz names served up Cool. He's a griot whose game is ...
read morePopular Jazz Songs: 2020
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by Michael Ricci
All About Jazz tracks how often a featured song is heard, and the following represent the most popular in 2020. If you missed them the first time around, give them a listen now, and enjoy! Did Mark Murphy Believe In UFOS? Tony AdamoDid Mark Murphy Believe In UFOS? Ropeadope Featured: February 22, 2020 Cache-Cash Sal La RoccaShifted Igloo Records & El Negocito ...
read moreTony Adamo: Did Mark Murphy Believe in UFOS?
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by Nicholas F. Mondello
The interrogative title of this fine track shares an interesting insight, as well as its supposition. Whether the late singer literally did buy into UFOs--a la Sun Ra who saw space as the place"--or he didn't is irrelevant. What is key is the fact that Mark Murphy has had a definitive and lasting impact on jazz vocalists today--and very much so on the High Prince of sing-speak, Tony Adamo who salutes Murphy on this infectious single. Further, the savvy integration ...
read moreTony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad
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by Nicholas F. Mondello
The translation of Adam" from Hebrew--from which the surname Adamo springs--means from the ground" or soil." It also derives from the Hebrew word for red, a la red clay." Perhaps that is why any work from Tony Adamo is rare earth--gritty, and flaming crimson. Was Out Jazz Zone Mad Adamo's latest, his first for Ropeadope, is all of those things and more.Adamo is the Heavyweight Champion of hipspokenword," wherein lingo meets vocalizing at the corner of jazz and ...
read moreTony Adamo: Was Out Jazz Zone Mad
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by Chris M. Slawecki
Some African cultures preserved their history not by the written but by the spoken word, kept by oral cultural historians known as griots. On Was Out Jazz Zone Mad, vocalist Tony Adamo aspires to serve in this same role, as a verbal historian of both official and unofficial African-American jazz and blues culture. This type of jazz jive might wear quickly thin but Adamo writes about jazz and jazz musicians with such detailed intimacy and vision that his words snap, ...
read moreAdamo Delivers Lyrics In A Style That Would Make Soul Train’s Don Cornelius Smile
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All About Jazz
“Soul Glide” is the single from Tony Adamo’s upcoming album of the same name, and by the sound of it, you might not need your ears as much as dancing shoes to appreciate. Adamo delivers lyrics in a style that would make Soul Train’s Don Cornelius smile, and which back in the day would make people line up to try out their latest dance steps. The funkified team of Mike Clark/dr, Richie Goods/b, Rob Sudduth/ts, Chris Pimentel/g and John McKay/org ...
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Giacomo Gates Sings The Song, Tony Adamo Writes The Music
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Tony Adamo
Jazz troubadour and terminal hipster Giacomo Gates just keeps getting better and better. Gates is one of the top male jazz singers around today. He's a talented, skillful, and a rock-solid professional. With his vocalese and bebop attitude, he sings, scats, dropping his swinging baritone voice into every lyric he sings. A few years ago, singer, spoken word recording artist Tony Adamo asked Gates to stop by and dig Adamo’s recording session for his CD, Tony Adamo And The New ...
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Jazz Journalist / Historian Scott Yanow Reviews 'Better Than Picasso At Midnite' By Tony Adamo
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Tony Adamo
Better Than Picasso At Midnite An inventive spoken word artist who also sings well, Tony Adamo loves jazz and always goes out of his way to champion the music in his lyrics. One can link him to Jack Kerouac and the hipsters of the 1950s, yet his approach is contemporary and usually utilizes a funky background. “Better Than Anything” was composed in 1963 with the music by David Wheat and lyrics by Bill Loughborough. Singer Irene Kral was the first ...
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Jazz Weekly Reviews Tony Adamo's 'Better Than Picasso At Midnite'
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Tony Adamo
Well, the blue-jeaned, floppy hat-wearing singing street preacher Tony Adamo is back with a new upcoming album. Here’s the first single from it, Better Than Picasso At Midnite, which is essentially polishing, refurbishing, new engine adding remake of the classic “Better Than Anything” and machine shopped, chopped, and hopped by Tony A. The original lyrics are weaved into a new stream of consciousness ones which include references and rhymes ranging from George Benson to Superfly. The music itself is a ...
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Tony Adamo's 'U Gotta B Fly' Featured On All About Jazz
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Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
The Shelf Life Of A Song On All About Jazz | Top Tracks 2021 The song, U Gotta B Fly" was a cut from Tony Adamo And The New York Crew CD released March 12, 2015. Man, that's like over six years ago. Jazz radio and beyond gave U Gotta B Fly" many spins and continues to spin other songs from that same CD. Adamo posted U Gotta B Fly" at All About Jazz on April 25, 2021. To date, ...
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Tony Adamo Receives Permission To Rename And Write Lyrics To A Future Sun Ra Song
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Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
Tony Adamo wrote about and released music on Eddie Harris, B.B. King, Eddie Henderson, Art Blakey, James Brown, Mark Murphy, Eddie Gale, Jack Kerouac, and Sun Ra, the song entitled “Sun Ra Goes to Mars.” The Eddie Harris estate gave Adamo permission to write spoken word to his “Listen Here.” Adamo renamed it “Listen Here Listen Up.” Dave Davis and Michael Ray of the Sun Ra Arkestra have recorded music on Adamo's new soon to be released CD. Members of ...
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Jazz From Heaven…Tony Adamo: Angel Bop Reviewed By Jazz Weekly
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All About Jazz
Bay area vocalist Tony Adamo tells another jazz story in swinging Steinbeck fashion, this time from a heavenly viewpoint. Adamo sings out the role of a bebopping angel “in the heavens of my walk here on earth…digging on the new jazz”. With his late night dj of a voice, he’s backed by a mix of funk and snappy hip hop percussion’d grooves, coaxed on by guitar spicks by Chris Pimento that evokes tones from the cool strings of George Benson ...
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Tony Adamo Pays Tribute To Mark Murphy And UFOs By Chris Rizik for Soultracks
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Tony Adamo
First Listen: Tony Adamo pays tribute to Mark Murphy and UFOs (May 13, 2020) In 2015, we described singer and spoken word artist Tony Adamo as “a true anachronism: a performer who is authentically ‘cool’ in a timeless, almost reckless way that almost no popular artist today can match.” It’s five years later and the irrepressible Mr. Adamo is still doing his thing —his thing being a vocal / hipspokenword sound that is unlike anything else out there, with a ...
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Scott Yanow Reviews Tony Adamo's Latest Single 'Did Mark Murphy Believe in UFOs?'
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Jazz Vocalist and All About Jazz
Tony Adamo Did Mark Murphy Believe in UFOS?" Ropeadope The hippest of the spoken word artists and a fine singer too, Tony Adamo has long championed jazz. His recordings, which feature him improvising lyrics over a funky jazz rhythm section, have included tributes to such greats as Joe Henderson, Eddie Gale, Sun Ra, Eddie Harris, Mike Clark, and Art Blakey plus B.B. King and James Brown. Following on the success of his Ropeadope debut Was Out ...
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Kirpal Gordon And Benny Gottwald Review Tony Adamo's Was Out Jazz Zone Mad on Ropeadope Records
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Tony Adamo
Kirpal Gordon, adjunct associate professor of writing studies at Hofstra University, and Benny Gottwald, composer, arranger who works with spoken word artists, discuss Tony Adamo's Was Out Jazz Zone Mad. Gordon's prose poetry, fiction, journalism, alternate lyrics to the Great American Songbook and book/music reviews have been widely published. In 2011 he formed Giant Steps Press, a writer's cooperative. Kirpal Gordon: As a bassist, composer and arranger who has worked with spoken word artists and vocalists, what did you make ...
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5 STARS/ALLABOUTJAZZ "Tony Adamo and the New York Crew is a romp—a fascinating and swinging vision seen through the hippest and most talented of Ray-Bans. Double dig?" 5 STARS/AMAZON "For this album Tony and his Crew deliver what is essentially eleven short films, each one painting a stunningly visual portrait of a fascinating world and some of its most captivating and compelling denizens. Driven on a soundtrack of explosively spirited and utterly delightful music, the spectacularly imaginative screenplay is depicted through a prism that Tony Adamo calls Vocal/HipSpokenWord." 5 STARS/ IMPROVIJAZZATION "Tony & th’ players definitely know how to convey that PHONK & keep it from ever draggin’ ya’ down (no matter how blues it gets); my personal favorite, to be sure! Tony’s GOT that soul & ain’t afraid to pass it on to ya’…
Terje Lie
saxophoneJeff Kashiwa
saxophoneBradley Leighton
fluteEric Bolvin
trumpetEverette Harp
saxophoneRichy Kicklighter
guitarKJ Denhert
guitar, acousticNick Colionne
guitarChristine Spero
pianoLes Sabler
guitar, electricEuge Groove
saxophoneArtists who share similar musical characteristics to Tony Adamo.