Beegie Adair

Bobbe Gorin "Beegie" Adair (born December 11, 1937) is an American 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.

Adair was born as Bobbe Gorin Long on December 11, 1937, in Barren County, Kentucky. She began taking piano lessons at age five. She continued to study piano throughout college, earning a Bachelor of Science degree 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 nine 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 to 1971. She has many album credits with musicians all around the world, including John Loudermilk, J. J. Cale, Ronnie Milsap and Mickey Newbury and has performed with such artists as Peggy Lee, Cass Elliot, Dinah Shore, Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Carol Burnett, and Lucille Ball. She has also accompanied Urbie Green, Nat Adderley, Lew Tabackin, Perry Como, Wayne Newton, Steve Allen and Henry Mancini in 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. She has released a six-CD Centennial Composers Collection of tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael and Berlin. Adair cites George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner and Russ Freeman (Chet Baker's pianist) among her influences.

In the late 1980s, Adair hosted Improvised Thoughts, a radio talk/music show on the local NPR affiliate, featuring local and international jazz artists including such musicians as Tony Bennett, Joe Williams, Marian McPartland, Benny Golson and Helen Merrill. She has guested on McPartland's Piano Jazz show twice. In 2002, Adair became a Steinway Artist.

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. Adair made her debut appearance at Birdland, with Monica Ramey in January 2011. They made a second appearance at the jazz venue one year later.

She lives in Franklin, Tennessee. Her late husband, Billy, was an associate professor of jazz studies at the Blair School in Vanderbilt University until his death in February 2014. She is a board and faculty member of the Nashville Jazz Workshop and performs regularly in Nashville.

• 1997 Frank Sinatra Collection: A Musical Tribute (Green Hill)
• 1998 Nat King Cole Collection: A Jazz Piano Tribute (Spring HIll)
• 1998 Escape to New York (Cap Records)
• 1999 Jazz Piano Christmas (Green Hill)
• 2000 Love, Elvis (Beegie Adair Trio) (Spring Hill)
• 2001 Dream Dancing: Songs of Cole Porter (Spring Hill)
• 2002 I'll Take Romance (Spring Hill)
• 2002 Centennial Composers Collection (Green Hill)
• 2003 Days of Wine and Roses (Village Square)
• 2004 Embraceable You (Green Hill)
• 2004 Quiet Christmas (Village Square)
• 2004 Sentimental Journey (Village Square)
• 2004 The Way You Look Tonight: The Romantic Songs of Jerome Kern (Green Hill)
• 2005 An Affair to Remember: Romantic Movie Songs of the 1950s (Green Hill)
• 2005 The Nearness of You (Spring Hill)
• 2005 Sinatra on Sax (Beegie Adair Trio and Denis Solee) (CD Baby re-release 2012)
• 2005 Bon Appetit (Rivercrest Music)
• 2005 Christmas Cocktail Party (with Denis Solee, Chris McDonald, and David Huntsinger) (Rivercrest Music)
• 2006 Cheek to Cheek (Spring Hill)
• 2008 Dream Dancing (Spring Hill)
• 2008 Dancing in the Dark: A Tribute to Fred Astaire (Green Hill)
• 2008 Dinner Music: Light Jazz (Green Hill)
• 2008 In a Sentimental Mood (Green Hill)
• 2008 My Romance: Romantic Songs of Richard Rodgers (Green Hill)
• 2008 Yesterday: A Solo Piano Tribute to the Music of the Beatles (Green Hill)
• 2009 Moments to Remember: Timeless Pop Hits of the 1950s (Green Hill)
• 2009 Parisian Café (with David Davidson) (Green Hill)
• 2009 Winter Romance (Green Hill)
• 2009 Jazz Piano Christmas (Chordant Music Group)
• 2010 Swingin' with Sinatra (Green Hill)
• 2010 Christmas Jazz: Instrumental Jazz for the Holidays (Green Hill)
• 2011 Cocktail Party (Green Hill)
• 2011 I Love Being Here with You: A Jazz Piano Tribute to Peggy Lee (Green Hill)
• 2011 Into Somethin' (Green Hill)
• 2011 Love Letters: The Beegie Adair Romance Collection (Green Hill)
• 2011 Piano Music for Quiet Moments (Spring Hill)
• 2012 After the Ball (with Jaimee Paul) (Green Hill)
• 2012 Christmas and Cocktails (Green Hill)
• 2012 Christmas Elegance: Elegant Holiday Instrumentals Featuring Piano and Violin (Green Hill)
• 2012 Cocktail Party Piano: Elegant (Green Hill)
• 2012 Jazz and the Movies (Green Hill)
• 2012 Jazz for the Road (Green Hill)
• 2012 Trav'lin' Light: Instrumental Jazz for the Open Road (Denis Solee and the Beegie Adair Trio) (Burton Avenue Music)
• 2012 Days of Wine and Roses: Songs of Johnny Mercer (Green Hill)
• 2012 Piano Music for Moms: Mother's Day Music Collection (Green Hill)
• 2012 Piano Music for Weddings (Green Hill)
• 2012 Save the Last Dance for Me: A Jazz Trio Salute to Timeless Pop Hits of the 1960s (Green Hill)
• 2012 The Real Thing: Live (Green Hill/Adair Music Group)
• 2013 As Time Goes By: Silver Screen Classics From The Golden Age Of Cinema (Green Hill)
• 2013 A Time for Love: Jazz Piano Romance (Green Hill)
• 2013 Jazz on Broadway (Beegie Adair Trio with Jack Jezzro) (Green Hill)
• 2013: Sentimental Journey: Saluting the Greatest Generation With Classic Gems of the World War II Era (Green Hill)
• 2014 The Good Life: A Jazz Piano Tribute to Tony Bennett (Green Hill)
• 2014 Vintage Jazz (Green Hill)
• 2014 By Myself (Green Hill)
• 2015 Too Marvelous for Words (with Don Aliquo) (Adair Music Group)
• 2015 Quiet Christmas: Solo Piano (Green Hill)
• 2016 Some Enchanted Evening (with Monica Ramey) (Green Hill)
• 2016 Jazz Romance (Green Hill)
• 2017 By Request (Green Hill)
• 2018 Gershwin on Sax (Beegie Adair Trio and Denis Solee) (Green Hill)
• 2019 Grover's Hat Project (CD Baby)