When M.P. and I are enjoying our Sunday dinners, or any other time we want soothing sounds, we often listen to Mantovani and the like on Pandora or YouTube. Lately, a lot of soft jazz recordings by pianist Beegie Adair have been showing up in my YT feed, and I finally got around to looking up this woman I never heard of before. (Country boy here is not a fan of amorphous pure jazz per se, but I can enjoy the "easy listening" variety based on old standards.)
Come to find out, Adair was something of a star of the Nashville music scene, where she began her career as a session musician in 1961, and over the years played on recordings by many famous singers, country-western or not. Wikipedia says she recorded over 100 albums in her lifetime, 35 of them with her Beegie Adair Trio, consisting of herself, bassist Roger Spencer, and percussionist Chris Brown. She was also an adjunct professor of jazz studies in the school of music at Vanderbilt, one of the most prestigious private universities in the South. Her late husband was an associate professor of music there.
Adair died in January 2022, leaving a huge legacy of wonderful recordings for us and future generations to enjoy. Here's a sample.
"Fly Me to the Moon":
"Someone to Watch over Me":
"Make the World Go Away":
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2 comments:
Never heard of Beegie Adair but I like her music, especially with the trio. I will look for it on Ytube.
Yeah, she's great, isn't she? A past master of piano. YT has lots and lots of her recordings. See also Jack Jezzro, a guitarist and arranger who worked with her a lot.
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