Arthur Adams

Since the late 1950s, Arthur Adams has worked steadily as a recording artist, session specialist, and touring accompanist across blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, and pop. Although solo singles began appearing in 1961, his move to Los Angeles marked the point at which he secured regular sideman engagements while also stepping forward as a bandleader on the 1972 soul-blues landmark It's Private Tonight, the powerfully funky 1975 release Home Brew, and the sultry 1977 album Midnight Serenade. After issuing I Love Love Love My Lady in 1979, he would not release another album under his own name until Back on Track arrived in 1999. Soul of the Blues followed in 2004, and the widely praised Stomp the Floor appeared in 2009. The 2017 compilation Look What the Blues Has Done for Me gathered both archival and fresh material; it joined Here to Make You Feel Good from 2019 and Kick Up Some Dust from 2022 on the Cleopatra label.

Born on Christmas Day 1943 in Medon, Tennessee, Adams first studied music as a participant in his local church gospel choir. During his mid-1950s adolescence he acquired guitar technique from his mother by replicating her finger placements on both hands. Early influences ranged from B.B. King, whom he would later accompany, to the Dixie Hummingbirds' Howard Carroll, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James.

With his cousins he assembled his debut ensemble, the Gospel Travelers, and they performed throughout Tennessee and neighboring Arkansas until he enrolled at Tennessee State University to pursue formal music studies. While attending the school he performed with its resident jazz and blues ensemble and later led his own group at The Baron Club. Late in 1957 he was engaged by R&B vocalist Gene Allison as a backing singer and appeared on the charting single “You Can Make It If You Try.”

A 1959 tour left Allison’s band stranded in Dallas; Adams chose to remain and began working the city’s blues and R&B venues. He supported visiting artists such as Lowell Fulsom, Chuck Berry, James, and Houston’s Lightnin’ Hopkins. In 1961 he issued the solo single “If It Ain’t One Thing It’s Another”/“Willin’ to Die” on Jamie Records, followed by “I Had a Dream” on Dutchess and “The Same Thing”/“Tend to Your Business” on Valdot. He also contributed backup vocals and guitar to studio sessions with Sam Cooke.

Adams relocated to Los Angeles in 1964 and obtained session work for Vee-Jay Records. Steady employment followed with Quincy Jones and Hugh Masekela on Chisa, as well as Kent Records dates for the Bihari Brothers. He simultaneously established himself as a reliable live sideman and club headliner. Soundtrack and commercial dates soon supplemented his studio schedule, including projects for Lou Rawls under David Axelrod’s production and for Bobby Bryant. He recorded a cover of the Carter Family’s “Wildwood Flower” backed with the original “Beetle Bust Out” for the local Jetstar label and also produced blues and soul singles at Modern. With Edna Wright he cut the duet “Let’s Get Together” under the name Arthur & Mary. Early in his Los Angeles years Bobby Womack recommended him for the house band of The Rosey Grier Show; Grier, a former NFL defensive tackle and capable vocalist, benefited from Adams’s reputation for punctuality, rapid learning, and professionalism, which in turn generated abundant studio calls with the Jackson 5, Henry Mancini, Willie Hutch, Nancy Wilson, Kim Weston, and numerous others.

In 1967 Adams made a brief appearance in the television film The Outsider, performing “She Drives Me Out of My Mind,” later issued on Modern. That same year he directed Fulsom’s studio band for the Kent single “Push Me”/“Tomorrow.”

The following year he joined the South Central Avenue Municipal Blues Band as guitarist; the elite ensemble recorded The Soul of Bonnie and Clyde, featuring drummer Paul Humphrey, trumpeter Bobby Bryant, saxophonist Clifford Solomon, Crusaders trombonist Wayne Henderson, and pianist Joe Sample. Henderson became a close associate and introduced Adams to pianist and arranger Monk Higgins, who enlisted him for the classic Extra Soul Perception, also released in 1968. Bob Thiele subsequently hired Adams as guitarist for the Revolutionary Blues Band’s sole 1969 album and for the Plaster Caster Blues Band alongside Solomon and Bryant. Over the ensuing six years he contributed to numerous recordings, among them Masekela and Reconstruction by the South African musician, Bryant’s Swahili Strut, Jones’ Smackwater Jack, Letta Mbulu’s self-titled debut, Charles Kynard’s Woga, Hampton Hawes’ Universe, Axelrod’s The Auction, and several Crusaders titles.

Adams issued his solo debut, It's Private Tonight, on Blue Thumb in 1972; the sessions included Humphrey, Sample, Wilton Felder, Ernie Watts, Phil Upchurch (on whose 1972 album Darkness, Darkness Adams had also appeared), Clydie King, and Vanetta Field. After touring he resumed backing soul and jazz artists, notably the Crusaders, whose albums he frequently augmented, and participated in the recordings that produced Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia’s second solo album, Garcia.

In 1975 Adams appeared on Al Jarreau’s debut We Got By (and on the subsequent year’s Glow) while releasing his own sophomore album, Home Brew. Produced by Henderson and featuring Sample, Ronnie Laws, and Funk Brothers guitarist Dennis Coffey and bassist James Jamerson, the set earned broad critical praise in the United States, Japan, and Europe. Following another tour Adams rejoined Henderson and an elite cast that included pianist and keyboardist Bobby Lyle to arrange every track on 1977’s Midnight Serenade for Fantasy. He next recorded I Love Love Love My Lady in 1979 with producer Stewart Levine; contributors included Neil Larson, Harvey Mason, and the Seawind Horns. The single “You Give Me Such Good Feelin,” on which Adams sang lead, attracted international soul audiences. Although he continued writing, producing, session work, and touring, two decades would pass before another album appeared under his own name.

Adams performed on the Crusaders’ funky disco hit Street Life in 1979 and, throughout the following decade, contributed to albums by Felder, Axelrod, Marlena Shaw, Larry Graham, Nina Simone (whose road band he also joined), and Bonnie Raitt on the multi-platinum Nick of Time.

By 1987 Adams had assembled a blues band for club dates and begun writing material for other artists, including “Mean and Evil” and “Something Up My Sleeve.” B.B. King heard the group from the front row at The Mint Club, admired their performance, and quickly formed a friendship with Adams. King subsequently featured him on 1991’s There Is Always One More Time and recorded both songs. In 1994 Adams became bandleader at King’s Los Angeles club, a post he held for decades; his drummer was James Gadson. For the 1997 Town & Country soundtrack Adams covered Ann Peebles’ brooding soul classic “I Can't Stand the Rain.” Two years later he released the self-produced Back on Track on Blind Pig, employing his own band, writing or co-writing eight of its eleven tracks, and enlisting King to share vocals on “Get You Next to Me” and “The Long Haul,” both co-written with Will Jennings. After an international tour that reached the Netherlands, Adams resumed studio activity, assisting the Crusaders on Rural Renewal, Masekela on Still Grazing, and Simply Red on Home.

In 2001 Adams and Jennings co-produced and contributed “Get You Next to Me” to Here and There: The Uncollected B.B. King. Adams issued his own Soul of the Blues in 2004, again co-written and co-produced with Jennings. Following another tour he returned to King’s Los Angeles club. In 2009 he reemerged with Stomp the Floor on Delta Groove Music; he produced the album, wrote or co-wrote all twelve songs, and assembled sidemen that included Gadson, bassist Reggie McBride, keyboardist and arranger Hence Powell, and a horn section of saxophonist David Woodford, trumpeter Lee Thornberg, and trombonist Garrett Adkins.

That same year Adams joined the Mannish Boys, Delta Groove Music’s house band, as lead guitarist and vocalist; they released Shake for Me in 2010. In 2012 he issued the EP Feet Back in the Door, produced by Keb’ Mo’, and performed alongside zydeco accordionist C.J. Chenier and guitarist Ray Parker, Jr. on Sample’s Creole Joe Band. While continuing to focus primarily on club work, Adams returned to Cleopatra for 2019’s Here to Make You Feel Good, featuring bassist Freddie Washington, Gadson, and Powell along with session players that included Thornberg, McBride, and Bruce Fowler.

After the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, Adams and his band located club stages on which to perform. In February 2023 he released Kick Up Some Dust, a self-composed and produced soul-blues recording timed for his eightieth birthday; the album showcased his working quartet of Powell, Washington, and Gadson together with longtime associates the Waters Sisters on backing vocals.