Beegie Adair with The Jeff Steinberg Orchestra

Beegie Adair (born in Barren County, Kentucky in 1937) is a jazz pianist. She studied piano at Western Kentucky University. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee where she did graduate work at Peabody College. She later went on to form the Beegie Adair Trio. Biography edit: Beegie Adair began taking piano lessons at age five. She continued to study piano throughout college, earning a B.S. in Music Education at Western Kentucky State College (later to become Western Kentucky University) in Bowling Green, Kentucky. During and after college, she played in jazz bands, and spent three years teaching music to children before moving to Nashville, where she became a session musician, working at WSM-TV and Radio. After 9 years at the station, she began freelancing studio work, in addition to TV orchestra work. She was rehearsal pianist and utility keyboard on the Johnny Cash Show on ABC from 1969-1971. She has many album credits with musicians all around the world, including John Stewart, John Loudermilk, J.J. Cale, Ronnie Milsap and Mickey Newbury. Her TV credits include shows with Peggy Lee, Mama Cass Elliott, Dinah Shore, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Carol Burnett, Lucille Ball. She has accompanied such artists as Urbie Green, Nat Adderley, Lew Tabackin, Perry Como, Wayne Newton, Steve Allen and Henry Mancini in live concerts. She and her husband also started a jingle company to write music for commercials. In 1982, she and saxophonist Denis Solee formed the Adair-Solee Quartet, which evolved into the Be-Bop Co-Op, a jazz sextet. She made her first album under her own name, Escape to New York, with a rhythm section consisting of Bob Cranshaw and Gregory Hutchinson. Adair has recorded and appeared in over 90 recordings (34 of which are recorded with her trio, the Beegie Adair Trio, which consists of bassist Roger Spencer and percussionist Chris Brown), 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 upon its release. Mrs. Adair cites George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson and Erroll Garner among her influences. In the late 80s, Beegie hosted Improvised Thoughts, a popular radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, featuring local and international jazz artists including such greats as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland's internationally-known Piano Jazz show twice. In 2002, Beegie joined one of the most exclusive rosters in the world when she became a Steinway Artist. An honor only bestowed upon 1,600 pianists in the world including Lang Lang, Diana Krall, Harry Connick, Jr., Michael Legrand, Billy Joel and the "immortals" like Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Arthur Rubinstein. She and her trio continue to play in jazz clubs and festivals around the world and was the top selling jazz artist in Japan in 2010. In January, Beegie received a very warm welcome from her fans in New York, making her debut appearance at Birdland, with Monica Ramey in January 2011. They made a second appearance at the historic jazz venue one year later. She currently lives in Franklin, Tennessee with her husband, Billy, who is an associate professor of jazz studies at the Blair School in Vanderbilt University. She is a Board & Faculty member of the Nashville Jazz Workshop and performs regularly in Nashville.