Musician Deserving Greater Recognition: George Adams

There’s a small group of musicians who occupy that difficult space between journeyman and artist.   They have all the tools and skills of the fully-fledged journeyman but also touches of true artistic power.  George Adams is one of these musicians; a tenor saxophonist of admirable skill, insight and authority, with an ability to project a unique musical lexicon.  It’s unfortunate he has been largely overlooked and his legacy obscured since his passing 15 years ago.  These musings on George Adams were produced by a recent trip through the aisles of Princeton Record Exchange (a plug?  yes, but they deserve it).

Quite some time ago I acquired an LP copy of Adams’ quintet album, PARADISE SPACE SHUTTLE (Muse), with Ron Burton on piano, Don Pate on bass, Al Foster on drums, and Azzedin Weston on percussion.  I listened, I liked it, but I didn’t give it more attention.  During my trip through PREX, I picked up the Don Pullen-George Adams quartet LP, BREAKTHROUGH (Blue Note, 1986), with the great Pullen on piano (of course), Cameron Brown on bass, and Dannie Richmond on drums, and the Adams-Pullen Quartet  LP CITY GATES (Timeless, 1983) (the name switch seems deliberate), also with Brown and Richmond. 

Lucky me, I also picked up Mingus’ CHANGES ONE and CHANGES TWO LPs (Atlantic, 1974), with Adams on tenor sax and Pullen on piano.  When I got home, I began to play through these albums, marveling at Pullen’s unique piano vision, and Mingus’ artistry.

What also comes through on all these albums is Adams’ extraordinary ability to play inside and out, often within the same measure.  What makes it even better is that Adams does so without the least sense of grandstanding or ostentation.   Instead, Adams’ playing is marked by naturalness, authority, a sense of confidence and, most importantly, a sense of artistic vision, an ability to get beyond simply playing the changes and to articulate a distinctive musical voice.   Adams’ playing with Mingus reminded me of Charlie Rouse’s playing with Monk.  Rouse and Adams do it so well because they are both able to grab on to that musical vision and ride it. 

My only reservation about Adams is his occasional penchant to sing (or perhaps better to call it vocalise), in a gruff, rough, gut-bucket blues voice.  Not bad, but not that good either; however, Mingus must have liked it, since he had Adams sing on “Devil Blues” on CHANGES ONE.   I love Adams on tenor, and his flute playing commands respect as well. 

If you can get your hands on PARADISE SPACE SHUTTLE, give it a listen.  I’ve listened to it a few times since PREX, and it grows on me, as all good jazz does, with each listen.   Taking these albums together, I feel as if I discovered an overlooked treasure.   I want to hear more.  Check out George Adams and discover (or rediscover) a unique voice on tenor sax.