“Bands
come and go. I just try to do my best for the audience whether it is a live
show or a recording. You are only as good as your last thing, your last
project or your last show. You want to leave people with wanting to talk
about you and having good things to say so they will come back to see the
next show or buy the next CD,” says Greg Adams who certainly needs no
introduction to jazz fans. Adams was speaking to me from his home in Los
Angeles on this Tuesday morning.
The trumpet virtuoso was the kingpin behind the prolific horns arrangements for Tower of Power and for more than twelve years has carved out a very successful solo career that began with the Hidden Agenda project. In 2006, Adams released Cool To The Touch and the CD, singles and the artist have recorded high marks with the smooth jazz charts. As you would expect from the trumpeter the album is dominated by horn melodies.
Featuring an all-star cast of brass players blowing some of the sweetest notes that you will ever hear “Felix The Cat” opens this songbook. Drawing upon a circle of close friends Adams is accompanied by Mindi Abair (alto sax), high school chum Johnnie Bamont (baritone sax), Eric Marienthal (alto sax). Tenor sax men Richard Elliot and Boney James also bring their reeds to this recording. “Felix The Cat”, released as a single from Cool To The Touch has been well received by smooth jazz radio. “Felix The Cat” takes its inspiration from a ‘cool cat’ that Adams performed with in Tahiti during 2006.
Adams refers to the musicians as a million dollar sax section and adds, “It’s crazy, and I am a lucky guy to know all of these great players.”
Adams recalls that Abair was so eager to be part of the project that she left immediately following a Hollywood television appearance and raced out to the San Fernando Valley to join the other musicians for the recording session.
Adams says, “Even though I have a formula for what I create I try to reinvent myself a little bit differently every time I do another CD for my own satisfaction and hopefully for the listener’s satisfaction.” Adams along with long-time friend, co-writer and co-producer James Wirrick detoured from Adams’ fondness for utilizing a horn section usually consisting of two trumpets, a trombone, a couple of tenor saxes and a baritone sax to feature the superbly talented saxophone quintet on Cool To The Touch.
“This time I thought a sax quintet juxtaposed to a muted trumpet could be very slick. Once again, we went back to a retro thing, instrumentally five-piece sax sections are the number in a big band. That harkens back to the sixties. Still when you open up the package (CD), it is totally today. It is not a big band sax section; it is kind of a big band funk sax section. These guys are so great and they are great friends. It was great to have them all in the room at the same time,” and you can hear by the inflection in Adams’ voice that he is beaming across the miles. It is difficult to imagine assembling this much talent for any recording these days with perhaps the exception of a tribute album to some legendary figure. The same players were ready to go when it came time to record the song “Cool To The Touch”. The songs “Felix The Cat” and “Cool To The Touch” only took a combined time of two hours to record serving as a further testament to the strength of the musicians.
