ADAMS, ARTHUR / JACKSON, MILLIE / C BRAND - GROOVIN BOOGIE CLASSICS

“I love the spirit in your guitar playing,” B.B. King told Arthur Adams at the beginning of their long musical association and friendship. Deep soul and a life force blazing with intensity yet inherent sweetness radiate in layer upon layer of the talents and musical genres through which Adams weaves his magic. Singer, songwriter, guitar-slinger and dynamic performer, Adams’s diverse life experiences and musical history have merged and matured into a unique style that expresses universal emotions through a highly individual lens. Arthur Adams entered the world on Christmas, 1940 in Medon, Tennessee, making his singing debut in church at the age of six. He started playing guitar on his front porch with a few chords his mother taught him — initially on a guitar his uncle had tuned to an arcane, barely-used scale. Adams copied songs he heard on the radio, adding licks as he toured Tennessee and Arkansas as a teenager in a short-lived gospel group. By 1959 he was playing in Nashville, where he joined tenor saxophonist Jimmy Beck’s band. They toured with Gene Allison, who was still coasting on his 1957 hit, “You Can Make It If You Try.” However, Allison ditched the band in Dallas following a dispute with a promoter. With customary resourcefulness, Adams remained in Dallas for several years, cutting some R & B singles and adding complex jazz melodies and rhythms to his prodigious guitar chops. Simultaneously, since early adolescence Adams had been nurturing his natural song-writing talent, seeing the first pressings of his efforts emerge during the Nashville years. In 1961, Sam Cooke recorded his song, “Somebody’s Gonna Miss Me.” Adams moved to Los Angeles in 1964. “I came out to play a few songs, some blues, some R & B and go home.” Instead, he became a sought-after session musician in a voraciously competitive work environment, quickly teaching himself to read sheet music while sitting among formally trained musicians. Adams’ horizons stretched to encompass an array of musical styles for movie and television soundtracks, and for musicians as diverse and demanding as Lowell Fulson, Henry Mancini, Nancy Wilson, Hugh Masekela and Jerry Garcia. He continued to record singles and write songs for top artists, including “Love and Peace,” recorded by Quincy Jones in 1969 on the Grammy-winning album, Walking in Space. The ‘70s saw Adams’ first four albums, It’s Private Tonight, co-produced by Bonnie Raitt and Tommy Lipuma, followed by Home Brew, Midnight Serenade and I Love Love Love My Lady. During that era he also co-wrote “Truckload of Lovin’” for Albert King. Adams continued to expand his musical vistas, in 1985 teaching himself to play bass in order to accompany Nina Simone on tour in England. In 1991 Adams wrote two songs for B.B. King’s album, There is Always One More Time. There would be many more times, with King appearing on Adams’ 1999 CD, Back on Track, and Adams spending a decade as house bandleader at B.B. King’s Blues Club in Universal City, California. Today, in large festivals and small clubs alike, Adams continues to blow away audiences as he walks among them, revving them up with soaring guitar solos and melting ‘em down with his liquid honey voice. Adams’ versatility, deep soulfulness and wide influences are distilled into a smooth but heady cocktail in the new Delta Groove release, Stomp the Floor. It is also the result of a long relationship with the label and its founder, Randy Chortkoff, whom he met before the birth of the label through their mutual passion for blues. (Adams’ musical presence graces a number of Delta Groove recordings, including the first Mitch Kashmar CD. He also toured with The Mannish Boys.) Adams says of Stomp the Floor, “I’ve done it exactly the way I feel it. It’s all me; not all traditional blues, not all R & B, not all jazz, but a little of all of it.” The way Adams feels and plays it is the spirit of a man born to express himself through music that has been forged and shaped by a lifetime of creative ingenuity, vast experience, and most of all, formidable talent. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944), better known as Millie Jackson, is an African-American R&B and soul singer-songwriter and actress whose music has also explored disco, hip-hop, pop, rock and even country. Her powerful vocal performances are also distinguished by long, humorous, and explicit spoken sections in her music; her work from the 1970s and 1980s, is often cited as an influence on female rappers. She is the mother of contemporary R&B singer, Keisha Jackson. Born in the small town of Thompson, Georgia, Jackson was the daughter of a sharecropper. Jackson's mother died while she was still a child, and subsequently, she and her father moved to Newark, New Jersey. By the time she was in her mid-teens, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, and lived with an aunt. Jackson occasionally worked as a model for magazines like Jive and Sepia. Her career is said to have begun on a dare to enter a 1964 Harlem nightclub talent contest, which she soundly won. Though Jackson first recorded for MGM records, she soon left and began her long association with Spring records. Among her early hits was Hurts So Good which was featured in the blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones. During the 1970s, she travelled the Southern club circuit along with other bands like The Mighty Majors. Jackson is a former Grammy Award nominee for If Loving You is Wrong (I Don't Want to Be Right) from the album Caught Up. On that album, the follow-up Still Caught Up, and others, she was backed by the renowned Muscle Shoals rhythm section. Her voice is frequently compared to Gladys Knight's. Jackson's chart success continued into the 1980s. Two of her largest hits during this period include "Hot! Wild! Unrestricted Crazy Love" and "Love Is A Dangerous Game". Both songs reached the Top 10 of R&B chart. Jackson wrote and starred in the touring play "Young Man, Older Woman," based on her album of the same title. Two more albums followed, 1994's Rock N' Soul and 1995's It's Over. Jackson now runs her own record label, Weird Wreckuds. For the past several years Jackson has had her own radio show in Dallas, Texas. Broadcasting via remote from her home in Atlanta, Jackson can be found working during the afternoon drive time from 3-6 p.m. on KKDA 730 AM. In 2000, Jackson's voice was featured in "Am I Wrong" by Etienne de Crecy, sampled from her performance in "If Loving You is Wrong". In 2001, Jackson issued her album, Not For Church Folk! on her own label, Weird Wreckuds. It includes the single, "Butt--A-Cize." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.