Once in a while a musician comes along with impecca… Read Full Bio ↴Beegie Adair Bio
Once in a while a musician comes along with impeccable technique, deep understanding of the jazz repertoire, an innate tendency to swing and the rare ability to communicate the heart and soul of a tune to listeners. That musician is Beegie Adair.
About her music Adair says, “Falling in love with jazz is like falling in love with a person, except with jazz you never get over it.” About Beegie (say B-G) Adair, what do others say?
Jazz great Helen Merrill salutes her “inventive jazz sense, her wonderful sense of time and improvised melody.”
Christopher Louden of Jazz Times magazine says Adair is “an accomplished artist with a delicate touch.”
The Los Angeles Times calls her music “Elegant.”
Entertainment News writes, “Beegie Adair is one of the finest piano players in the world.”
Intrigued? So are thousands of jazz fans, who agree with critics about Adair’s sophisticated and listenable jazz performances, and who have made her recordings among the biggest sellers in the jazz world.
Citing George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner among her influences, Adair has recorded 24 CDs, ranging from Cole Porter standards to Frank Sinatra classics to romantic World War II ballads. Her 6-CD Centennial Composers Collection of tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael and Berlin became an instant collectible classic when it was released in 2002.
Kentucky born and raised, Adair lives and records in Nashville – something of a surprise to people who associate the city solely with country music. In fact Nashville lives up to its “Music City” nickname by hosting a vibrant jazz scene, in which she has been a leading light for decades. A sought-after studio musician in her early days there, Adair accompanied such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton and Johnny Cash – and also worked with Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Mama Cass Elliott and Peggy Lee.
Her guests on Improvised Thoughts, Beegie’s radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, included such greats as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland’s Piano Jazz show and has performed with Nat Adderley, Bill Watrous, Lew Tabackin, Terry Clarke, Urbie Green and Jim Ferguson, among many others.
When she’s not in the studio or appearing in clubs and concert halls around the country, Adair wears a variety of hats, from adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University to teacher and mentor at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Recently she co-wrote and scored an innovative theatrical production, Betsy, which in April 2006 premiered off-Broadway in New York.
She has recorded eight projects for Village Square Records in Nashville; her most recent CDs are Sentimental Journey, a popular collection of World War II-era songs, and a solo piano recording, Quiet Romance.
She performs solo and with the Beegie Adair Trio, whose members include drummer Chris Brown, a veteran of the Maynard Ferguson ensemble, and bassist Roger Spencer, who has played with the Les Brown Band, Ray Conniff, the Page Cavanaugh Trio and Pete Jolly. They are, she says, “my main guys. They’re so tuned into the way I visualize music that it’s effortless to play with them.”
In clubs and concert venues from Los Angeles to New York, Beegie and her “main guys” win kudos from audiences and critics alike who appreciate her unique take on classic jazz. She fell in love with the music a long time ago, and indeed she’s never gotten over it -- a love affair the jazz world is much the better for.
I Concentrate on You
Beegie Adair Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And trouble begins to brew,
Whenever the Winter winds become too strong,
I concentrate on you.
When fortune cries "Nay! Nay!" to me
And people declare "You're through!",
Whenever the blues become my only song,
On your smile so sweet, so tender,
When at first your kiss I decline.
On the light in your eyes when I surrender,
And once again our arms intertwine
And so, when wise men say to me
That love's young dream never comes true,
To prove that even wise men can be wrong,
I concentrate on you.
These lyrics revolve around a person finding solace and comfort in thinking about their love interest whenever they are faced with challenging situations. The singer of the song reveals that whenever they encounter dark and trying times, they turn their attention to their lover. The role of their lover is significant in helping them navigate through their struggles, whether it be winter winds or fortune rejecting them.
The lyrics continue to reveal that the singer relies on the memory of their lover's smile, tender and sweet, to keep them motivated. They think of the light in their lover's eyes and the feeling of surrendering to their embrace. This helps them hold on to hope when wise men negate the possibility of love's young dream being fulfilled. In summary, the singer concentrates on thinking of their lover to weather any storms that life throws at them.
Line by Line Meaning
Whenever skies look gray to me
When I am feeling down or discouraged
And trouble begins to brew,
And when problems start to arise,
Whenever the Winter winds become too strong,
When the frigid winds of winter become unbearable to me,
I concentrate on you.
I turn my attention to thoughts of you.
When fortune cries "Nay! Nay!" to me
When luck seems to be against me,
And people declare "You're through!",
And others tell me that I have failed or that there is no hope left for me,
Whenever the blues become my only song,
When I am in a state of sadness that seems never-ending,
I concentrate on you.
I turn my thoughts to you as a source of comfort and nostalgia.
On your smile so sweet, so tender,
I think of your kind and nurturing smile,
When at first your kiss I decline.
Even if I had initially rejected your kiss,
On the light in your eyes when I surrender,
I remember the way your eyes lit up when I gave in and embraced you,
And once again our arms intertwine
And the feeling of being intertwined with you fills me with a sense of safety and comfort.
And so, when wise men say to me
And even when people of great knowledge try to convince me
That love's young dream never comes true,
That the idealistic visions of love that are common in youth do not actually materialize,
To prove that even wise men can be wrong,
To demonstrate that even knowledgeable people can be incorrect or misguided,
I concentrate on you.
I turn my thoughts towards you, as you are the one person who has brought me genuine happiness and comfort.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Cole Porter
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind