Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bruce Adams was born on July 3, 1951 in Glasgow, Scotland and was brought up in a musical family. His father Bob was a guitarist whose career extended back to the British dance bands of the 1930s and his mother was a dancer. His first real musical interest was the music of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli at the age of seven. His first instrument was the guitar but switched to trumpet on his eleventh birthday. Within five months he played his first gig on trumpet.

By twelve, Bruce was working three to four nights a week in the Glasgow area playing in small dance band residencies and performing in a cabaret act with his father. When he was fourteen he was sponsored on Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks by British trumpet legend Nat Gonella. The following year he left school and went on the road with his father playing theatres. They continued until 1973 when his father’s health led to disbanding the act.

From 1973 onwards Adams immersed himself in the Glasgow jazz scene by forming a jazz quintet with alto saxophonist Bill Fanning. Together they formed a big band. During this period he also played the Mecca Ballrooms, with Benny Daniels in the Plaza and Bill Patrick in Tiffany’s.

In the mid-eighties, Bruce worked with Harry Sweets Edison, Warren Vache, and Spanky Davis. Buddy Tate, Al Cohn, Benny Waters, Danny Moss, Bruce Turner, John Barnes, Bob Wilbur.  Dan Barrett, Roy Williams, George Chisholm, Bill Allred. Dave McKenna, Ray Bryant, Dick Hyman, Art Hodes, Johnny Parker, and Stan Greig.Milt Hinton, Ronnie Rae, Len Skeat, and Dave Green. Jake Hanna and Gus Johnson.

Adams played with Pete Long’s Echoes of Ellington, the BBC Big Band, and freelanced with Lennie Niehaus, Gerald Wilson, Patti Austin, and the Cuban Fire Concert with Horatio el Negra Hernandez and Giovanni Hidalgo.

He is a multiple British Jazz Awards Winner, with among his more than twenty nominations has received awards for Best Trumpet, Oustanding Soloist, and Trumpet Soloist. Trumpeter Bruce Adams continues to ply his trade encompassing jazz styles ranging from Louis Armstrong to the modern-day.

More Posts: bandleader,history,instrumental,jazz,music,trumpet