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Gene Adams, American Musician ...

Gene Adams was an American trumpeter and songwriter born in 1937. His discography includes A Lifetime Of Jazz, Been There, Done That, Still Doin’ It, Imp Ork Live at the Walker, and The Ear Train Anthology. He was a member of Badfit, Dick And Jane’s Big Brass Band, Red Beans & Rice, Imp Ork, The Jazz Police, Ear Train, and The Gene Adams/John Devine Quartet. He also recorded and/or appeared often with Minnesota songbirds Shirley Witherspoon and Connie Evingson.

Gene Adams was a major influence on the Twin Cities’ Jazz scene in the 1970s through the 2000s, founding several Jazz and Jazz Fusion groups as well as creating music education opportunities for budding musicians of all ages. He wrote, played, and taught most every style of Jazz and Jazz Fusion, from early New Orleans Jazz to Swing, Bebop, Blues, Gospel, Rock, Funk, and Avant-Garde. In his lifetime, Gene Adams was the recipient of a Minnesota Music Award, Black Music Award, and Jazz Musician Award.

Overview

A native Texan, Adams gained experience in Army bands with Eddie Harris and Don Ellis. Moving to the Twin Cities in 1970, Adams became the assistant band director at the old Lincoln Junior High in Minneapolis (during which time Prince was a student of his) and taught inner city youth at the Metropolitan Cultural Arts Center. He became a juvenile probation officer for Hennepin County, a job he held till his retirement in 2000. In his “free time,” and after retirement, Adams remained a musician and music educator.

Community Innovator and Educator

Gene Adams was instrumental in the 1980s and 1990s creating venues for Jazz to be seen and heard. Adams had a hand in starting many new Jazz performance, education, and appreciation opportunities in Minneapolis, Duluth, and the United States, including Music in the Forest, Pepito’s Jazz Series, The Twin Cities Jazz Festival, Jazz Workshop in McRae Park, Freedom Jazz Festival, Portraits in Jazz at The Walker Art Center, Augsburg College Gospel Praise, and How to Listen, sponsored by Harman International to bring music to elementary students. In 2004, Gene’s group Red Beans and Rice presented a series of instructional programs in Minneapolis and Stillwater elementary schools through a project supported by the Lincoln Center Jazz Program and Wynton Marsalis.

The Jazz Workshop in McRae Park was started by the late Sam Favors and Gene Adams in 1976 and has been operating continuously ever since. Sam's mission statement: "The Workshop is a community-based group, organized to develop activities and projects aimed toward increasing jazz music performance arts, business and artistic acumen. It is a place for musicians to practice the craft of jazz. The workshop is for all those who show up and play or listen."

Not only was Adams a fixture at the annual Twin Cities Hot Summer Jazz Festival from 1999 to 2004, but he and festival producer Steve Heckler (who was Executive Producer of Adams’ first record) were also the festival’s founders.

Recordings

A Lifetime of Jazz was released in 1997. On that recording, Adams performed his own compositions in the company of such local artists as Bobby Peterson, John Penny, Jay Epstein, Andre Broadax, and Ron Evaniuk. A second album, a collection of straight ahead jazz standards, Been There, Done That, Still Doin’ It, was released two years later.

Adams also appeared on myriad albums, including Live at the Walker by Imp Ork (1995), Sammy Choo-Choo: The Ear Train Anthology by Ear Train (1997), Magic & Love by Shirley Witherspoon (1999), Some Cats Know by Connie Evingson (1999), Hot Summer Jazz Sampler: Best of the Hot Summer Jazz Festival And the Global Harmonica Summit by Various Artists (2000), Hot Summer Jazz Festival by Various Artists (2002), and post mortem on Stupid Songs From The Basement And Beyond! by Jeff Siegfried, Roar of the Buffalo Horn (2011).

Adams’ Influence

Adams died of lung failure on April 11th, 2005 following complications from diabetes; he was 68. According to his wishes, a big jam session took place at Phelps Park in Minneapolis as a memorial service.

Fellow jazz player John Devine said, “Gene played the whole history of jazz, from Dixieland to Swing to Bebop to Funk to Avant-Garde. He played it all like he meant it. He was not only fluent, but played sincerely from his heart and soul. I’d be hard pressed to think of anyone else I could say that about.”

“Don’t be afraid to get out there and play,” was Gene’s message to hundreds of music students from the time he taught band at Lincoln Junior High in the 1970 to workshops and jazz classes and performances all over the United States through 2005. His advice was: “Do your thing. Learn from the other players and let them learn from you.”