Terry Adams

Without the adjective eclectic, a comparable expression would need to be invented to characterize the sound of Terry Adams. He is principally recognized as the keyboardist and originator of NRBQ, one of the most overlooked American rock ensembles of the 1970s and 1980s. The group earned renown for traversing numerous musical routes, and Adams’s independent recordings reveal an equal disinclination to restrict himself to a single idiom while rendering rock, blues, jazz, and experimental works—frequently in tandem—through his characteristically playful approach.

Terry Adams entered the world in Louisville, KY, on August 14, 1948. An early musical omnivore, the adolescent Adams preferred television theme songs and boogie-woogie piano until encountering Thelonious Monk at age fourteen, an experience that launched a lifelong pursuit of unconventional musical forms. By 1967 he had relocated to Florida, where he and guitarist Steve Ferguson sought to assemble a band. There they met bassist Joey Spampinato and vocalist Frank Gadler, recently departed from the Seven of Us, and with drummer Tom Staley the ensemble became NRBQ, an abbreviation widely understood to signify the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet even though the members themselves declined to endorse any definitive expansion.

In 1969 NRBQ secured a contract with Columbia Records and recorded a debut album that juxtaposed interpretations of Sun Ra, Eddie Cochran, and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee alongside vigorous original material from Adams and Ferguson. That release initiated one of rock & roll’s most extended and unconventional trajectories; although personnel shifted during the opening years as Staley, Ferguson, and Gadler departed and guitarist Al Anderson plus drummer Tom Ardolino arrived, by 1974 NRBQ had stabilized around a configuration that endured for the subsequent two decades.

Eventually the band, by then implicitly the New Rhythm and Blues Quartet, settled in New England and acquired a reputation as America’s foremost bar band, delighting in its capacity to perform virtually any composition with precision, appeal, and distinctive wit. Not only did NRBQ accept audience requests, but on certain evenings the group featured the Magic Box onstage, inviting patrons to submit titles on slips of paper regardless of prior performance history; the musicians would draw requests at random and attempt the selections on the spot. In 1994 Anderson exited to pursue a successful career as a Nashville songwriter and session guitarist; Johnny Spampinato assumed the guitar chair, and the quartet persisted in recording and touring.

Outside NRBQ commitments, Adams collaborated with an unsurprisingly broad spectrum of artists. He toured and recorded with jazz composer Carla Bley, produced multiple albums for zydeco legend Boozoo Chavis, contributed to the Young Fresh Fellows’ The Men Who Loved Music, supported Lovin’ Spoonful founder John Sebastian on the solo album Tar Beach, produced a rare solo outing by Chuck Berry pianist Johnny Johnson, and supplied keyboards for sessions by Jad Fair and Half Japanese. Through NRBQ’s Red Rooster Records imprint he also reissued the singular Philosophy of the World by outsider girl group the Shaggs, and producer Hal Willner enlisted him for the ensemble backing vocalist Annie Ross in Robert Altman’s film Short Cuts. In 1995 Adams issued his long-awaited solo debut, wryly titled Terrible.

In 2004 NRBQ released the album Dummy on its own Edisun Records label; following a Swedish tour later that year the members discreetly disbanded. Since NRBQ’s conclusion Adams has, predictably, remained active across multiple projects. He assembled the Terry Adams Rock & Roll Quartet featuring guitarist Scott Ligon, bassist Pete Donnelly, and drummer Conrad Choucroun, and the unit toured extensively after the breakup. He simultaneously directs the more jazz-focused Terry Adams & His Crazy Trio, reuniting him with former NRBQ drummer Tom Staley alongside Scott Ligon on guitar and Gene Oliveri on saxophone. After producing a comeback album for former bandmate Steve Ferguson in 1996, Adams joined Ferguson to record Louisville Sluggers in 2006. Saxophonist Marshall Allen assumed leadership of the Sun Ra Arkestra following the interstellar pianist’s death in 1993; Adams produced the group’s Song for the Sun in 1999 and later collaborated with Allen on the 2005 duo album Ten by Two. After establishing his own Clang Records imprint, Adams has issued a consistent sequence of solo releases—Rhythm Spell in 2007, Love Letter to Andromeda in 2008, and Holy Tweet in 2009—together with archival NRBQ material and recordings by Chris Ligon and the Japanese rockabilly band the Hot Shots.