Johnny Adams (3)

JOHNNY ADAMS - SINGS DOC POMUS: THE REAL ME (1991)

1. Imitation of Love    
2. Still in Love    
3. There Is Always One More Time    
4. My Baby's Quit Me    
5. She's Everything to Me    
6. I Underestimated You    
7. Blinded by Love    
8. Prisoner of Life    
9. The Night Is a Hunter    
10. No One    
11. The Real Me

"You loved me and you left me / Now you're laughing 'cause I'm still in love with you." That simplicity and directness runs through all of Doc Pomus's songs; the soulful and anguished voice of Johnny Adams does the rest. Recorded soon after Pomus's death in 1991, The Real Me brilliantly illustrates how elemental songwriting can shine brightly in the hands of an emotionally vibrant singer. Pomus's compositions become malleable lumps of clay as Adams shapes them into jazz, blues, soul, R&B, and gospel creations. Adams slips into these timeless, deeply-personal-yet-universal songs as if they were tailor-made for him. Sensitive accompaniment from Crescent City regulars, including Dr. John, Duke Robillard, and Alvin "Red" Tyler, provides the framework. --Marc Greilsamer

JOHNNY ADAMS - GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE (1993)

1.You Don't Know What Love Is
2.I Just Found Out About Love     
3.Don't Go to Strangers     
4.Jealous Kind     Charles     
5.I Hadn't Anyone Till You
6.Come Rain or Come Shine     
7.Teach Me Tonight     
8.Good Morning Heartache     
9.Back to Normal     
10.But Not for Me

This is billed as New Orleans legend Adams' first jazz album, which isn't 100% accurate if you count the fourth track, "The Jealous Kind." A great '60s Memphis soul ballad by first generation rock songwriter Bobby Charles, it's stylistically very similar to any number of things Adams has recorded over the years, and by no stretch of the imagination jazz. The rest of the album, however, lives up to the claim, with Adams fronting both a small group and a big band and sounding great in both settings, whether delivering "You Don't Know About Love" with a heartbreaking, hushed intensity, or swinging like mad through Sammy Cahn's "Teach Me Tonight."

Personnel: Johnny Adams (vocals); Walter "Wolfman" Washington (guitar); Joe Saulsbury, Jr. (alto saxophone); Tony Dagradi, Ralph Johnson (tenor saxophone); Edward "Kidd" Jordan (baritone saxophone); Clyde Kerr, Jr. (trumpet, flugelhorn); Jamil Sharif (trumpet); Maynard Chatters (trombone); David Torkanowsky (piano, keyboards); James Singleton (bass); Johnny Vidacovich (drums).

JOHNNY ADAMS - HEART & SOUL (1969)

1.Georgia Morning Dew
2.In A Moment Of Weakness
3.Real Live Living Hurtin' Man
4.Lonely Man
5.I Won't Cry
6.Release Me
7.Proud Woman
8.I Can't Be All Bad
9.Losing Battle
10.Living On Your Love
11.Reconsider Me
12.You Made A New Man Of Me
13.I Want To Walk Through This Life With You
14.If I Could See you One More Time
15.South Side Of Soul Street
16.Too Much Pride
17.I Don't Worry Myself
18.Kiss The Hurt Away

Laten John Adams (January 5, 1932 – September 14, 1998), known as Johnny Adams, was an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, known as "The Tan Canary" for the multi-octave range of his singing voice, his swooping vocal mannerisms and falsetto. His biggest hits were his versions of "Release Me" and "Reconsider Me" in the late 1960s.