Interview by Joe Montague
“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 longtime 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
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.
It would be selling short the creative genius of both Adams and Wirrick to
suggest that Cool To The Touch is only about horns as there are some other great
performances including Nick Milo’s keys magic on “One Night In Rio”. Johnny
Sandoval’s hand played percussion is outstanding and provides a Latin backbeat.
Sandoval resurfaces on a number of other tracks including the nostalgic sounding
“Life In The Key Of Blue”, but his best performance may be the Latin flavored
“Bongo Baby”.
Legendary drummer Vinnie Colaiuta who is featured on the March edition of Modern
Drummer is the keeper of the beats for “Felix The Cat”, the title track “Cool To
The Touch”, Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” and “It’s Only Love, Love”.
Colaiuta who Adams refers to as “a dear old friend” has toured and recorded with
artists such as, Herbie Hancock, Sting, Lee Ritenour, Joni Mitchell, Faith Hill
and Gino Vanelli.
Bass guitarist Leland Sklar, Paul Jackson Jr. (guitar), Carmen Grillo (guitar),
Brian Allen (bass), Evan Stone (drums), Joey Navarro (keys) and James Wirrick
(guitar, keys and harmonica), turn in other strong performances on Cool To The
Touch.
The forward thinking Adams took time during our conversation to explain why he
opted for a nostalgic black and white cover for Cool To The Touch. “We made a
jacket for the CD that looked like an old Blue Note record. It is so minimalist
and I think in that day it might have been the hip thing to do,” he says.
Reflecting further he adds, “There is nothing classier than a black suit or a
little black dress that Audrey Hepburn might have worn. It’s classic and that is
what we were going for.”
“We didn’t really want to use the word smooth so we opted for the words ‘cool to
the touch’ and (thought) we would branch out from the box a little bit more.
Sometimes a title can really pigeonhole you,” he says.
The reinventing of Greg Adams’ music continues with retro sounding titles such
as “It’s Only Love, Love”, “Life In The Key Of Blue”, “Hi-Fi” and “Bongo Baby”
set to modern arrangements.
The Sting tune “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” is the only song on Cool To The
Touch that was not either written or co-written by Adams. “First of all I am a
big fan of Sting and whenever I heard that song on the radio I would always perk
up my ears. Doing covers of songs is something that I began ten years ago with
Sade’s “Smooth Operator”. To cover “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” differently
was so difficult that we pretty well mirrored the (original) arrangement. We did
the voice with the trumpet and it was a bit of a stretch but I think it works.
It goes over great live,” he says.
The album draws to a close with the dreamy “When The Party’s Over” as Adams’s
trumpet laments having to say goodbye. There are many great tunes on this CD but
this Adams and Milo arrangement is the prettiest.
While Greg Adams’ Cool To The Touch may feature a cast of legendary artists, we
should not forget that he is a legend in his own right. His prolific charts
fueled Tower of Power to fourteen albums. His recording and performance career
has heard him share the stage and studio with a diverse plethora of artists
including, Linda Ronstadt, Luther
Vandross, Lyle Lovett, Eurythmics, Aaron Neville, Carlos Santana, Josh Groban,
Bonnie Raitt, The Rolling Stones, Quincy Jones, Elton John, Rod Stewart and
Wilson Pickett.
While the song may be named, “Felix The Cat” it is Greg Adams who is one cool
cat!