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The ChronicleHerald.ca
With perfect pitch and deaf in one ear, music has been playing in sax man’s head, heart for 70 years
BUCKY ADAMS TURNS 70 today. One of Halifax’s favourite tenor saxophonists, his many fans, accumulated through decades of playing dances, clubs, lounges and solo gigs, are dedicated to his relaxed style, big sound and easy way around a tune.
Bucky celebrates his birthday tonight with a seven-piece band in the Harbour View Lounge at Northwood Manor. He has been volunteering his services that way at Northwood every Wednesday night for 10 years.
His vast repertoire of pop standards, which reaches back to the swing era when he was growing up, makes him a favourite with seniors and middle-agers. Born with perfect pitch, he says he remembers every tune he ever played.
"When I was nine or 10, my mother used to take me to movie musicals," he said during an interview in his comfortable, independent-living apartment in Northwood Manor last week. "I went home and could play all the music note for note. I seem to have total recall.
"Every tune I ever heard once, I could play, and still can," he said.
It’s a remarkable gift, considering that he was born deaf in one ear, and that, despite trying to learn how to read music, as late as when he went to St. F. X. in his 50s, he still can’t do it very well. He just never saw the need for it. But it meant he couldn’t play in big bands where reading charts is an essential skill. At least not in the sax section.
"Don Warner used to hire me to play solos, but I sat aside from the section," Bucky recalled.
When called on to play a solo, he never asked and never really knew what key the music he played was in. But his ear unfailingly nailed it. He played what he heard.
Bucky says music has been playing in his head his entire life. As a youngster he annoyed his teachers with his habit of tapping that music on his desk at school. "I only went to Grade 6," he said. "In two weeks they put me out. The rest of that stuff bored me."
At the age of six, Bucky got his first horn — not a sax, but a bugle. His father, Charlie Adams, a well-known dance-band multi-instrumentalist, was impressed with his playing on the bugle as a member of a sea cadet band. Adams gave him a trumpet when he was 11, showing him how to fit his fingers over the keys.
Bucky said he modelled his sound on that of his hero, Louis Armstrong. But his career on trumpet ended the day the aging instrument fell apart in his hands while he was playing a gig in his father’s band. "I borrowed my dad’s (tenor) sax — and fell in love with it," he said. "I borrowed it — but I never gave it back. You can get much more out of a tenor than a trumpet."
Actually he had been in love with the sax for some time. He used to practise it in the bathroom while his father was at work. "The sound was good in there," Bucky said, "like being inside a speaker. The original owner of the house was Rev. Thomas Maynard.
"Even on sax I tried to sound like Louis. I learned to play screech notes, and played Dixie (music) on it."
Bucky’s first of many bands was called Rockin’ Rebels. He met radio announcer Ron Roberts, who hosted the Under 21 Show on CJCH (TV) on which Bucky was a guest.
Other bands followed over the next four decades: Night Riders, Ambassadors, Pirates, The Musical Friends. But the band which earned him the largest following was called Bucky Adams and Basin Street. For three years in the ’80s Bucky ruled the Middle Deck in Privateers Warehouse in Historic Properties.
He would invite young musicians to sit in with him, teenage musicians like trumpeter Mike Cowie and drummer John Alphonse who have since gone on to make careers in music for themselves.
"While I was growing up there were only dance halls in Halifax, no bars or lounges. I played dances in Gerrish Street Hall, The Seagull, the Meadow. I saw the first lounge (in the city). I believe it was in the Lord Nelson Hotel. They closed at 12. I thought it was nice to play out in the audience instead of on a stage."
In 1983 Bucky described playing with Oscar Peterson on ATV’s Thrill of a Lifetime. Over the years he had opportunities to play with Louis Armstrong at the Lobster Trap and B.B. King at the Middle Deck.
Bucky’s band Generations was showcased on CBC Radio’s Identities in the early 80s. The program won a Gabriel Award from the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals for its ability to uplift and nourish the human spirit. The African Nova Scotia Music Association also honoured Bucky with their Pioneer Award in their inaugural year in 1997.
He played for a while with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, went on their Dallas trip in the early ’90s and played A Closer Walk With Thee with a 100-voice choir in tribute to the victims of Swiss Air Flight 111’s fatal plunge into the ocean in September 1998.
But he had to give up the Mass Choir gig because rehearsals conflicted with his Northwood nights.
"I’m not much for hustling gigs," he commented. "I was always a very shy person. I’m sort of religious. I pray and preach at the same time. I have always played for and through the spirit. It gets me through my shyness.
"Music has a real nice message to it," Bucky said. "A 92-year-old man came in — walked with a cane — he heard the music and put his cane down to dance. He never used it again.
"People with Alzheimer’s come in — one used to be a singer. She forgot her children’s names, but she could remember the words of the tunes. For a year she was there every week."
Bucky Adams still has music going on in his head all the time. You might say he is semi-retired. He practises in his room, cooks, takes walks, watches nature shows on TV, plays his weekly show in the Harbour View Lounge and occasionally plays an outside gig, like one coming up next month in Fredericton where a choir director asked him to come and play on a recording the choir is making.
His legacy is contained in a half-dozen recordings including In A Loving Way with Woody Woods on piano, Bucky and Corey Adams (his drummer son) Live at the Thirsty Duck, Bucky Adams and Basin Street at Privateer’s Warehouse, To Be Appreciated (Bucky Adams and the Botos Brothers featuring Corey Adams at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa) and two unpublished compilation albums.
With perfect pitch and deaf in one ear, music has been playing in sax man’s head, heart for 70 years
BUCKY ADAMS TURNS 70 today. One of Halifax’s favourite tenor saxophonists, his many fans, accumulated through decades of playing dances, clubs, lounges and solo gigs, are dedicated to his relaxed style, big sound and easy way around a tune.
Bucky celebrates his birthday tonight with a seven-piece band in the Harbour View Lounge at Northwood Manor. He has been volunteering his services that way at Northwood every Wednesday night for 10 years.
His vast repertoire of pop standards, which reaches back to the swing era when he was growing up, makes him a favourite with seniors and middle-agers. Born with perfect pitch, he says he remembers every tune he ever played.
"When I was nine or 10, my mother used to take me to movie musicals," he said during an interview in his comfortable, independent-living apartment in Northwood Manor last week. "I went home and could play all the music note for note. I seem to have total recall.
"Every tune I ever heard once, I could play, and still can," he said.
It’s a remarkable gift, considering that he was born deaf in one ear, and that, despite trying to learn how to read music, as late as when he went to St. F. X. in his 50s, he still can’t do it very well. He just never saw the need for it. But it meant he couldn’t play in big bands where reading charts is an essential skill. At least not in the sax section.
"Don Warner used to hire me to play solos, but I sat aside from the section," Bucky recalled.
When called on to play a solo, he never asked and never really knew what key the music he played was in. But his ear unfailingly nailed it. He played what he heard.
Bucky says music has been playing in his head his entire life. As a youngster he annoyed his teachers with his habit of tapping that music on his desk at school. "I only went to Grade 6," he said. "In two weeks they put me out. The rest of that stuff bored me."
At the age of six, Bucky got his first horn — not a sax, but a bugle. His father, Charlie Adams, a well-known dance-band multi-instrumentalist, was impressed with his playing on the bugle as a member of a sea cadet band. Adams gave him a trumpet when he was 11, showing him how to fit his fingers over the keys.
Bucky said he modelled his sound on that of his hero, Louis Armstrong. But his career on trumpet ended the day the aging instrument fell apart in his hands while he was playing a gig in his father’s band. "I borrowed my dad’s (tenor) sax — and fell in love with it," he said. "I borrowed it — but I never gave it back. You can get much more out of a tenor than a trumpet."
Actually he had been in love with the sax for some time. He used to practise it in the bathroom while his father was at work. "The sound was good in there," Bucky said, "like being inside a speaker. The original owner of the house was Rev. Thomas Maynard.
"Even on sax I tried to sound like Louis. I learned to play screech notes, and played Dixie (music) on it."
Bucky’s first of many bands was called Rockin’ Rebels. He met radio announcer Ron Roberts, who hosted the Under 21 Show on CJCH (TV) on which Bucky was a guest.
Other bands followed over the next four decades: Night Riders, Ambassadors, Pirates, The Musical Friends. But the band which earned him the largest following was called Bucky Adams and Basin Street. For three years in the ’80s Bucky ruled the Middle Deck in Privateers Warehouse in Historic Properties.
He would invite young musicians to sit in with him, teenage musicians like trumpeter Mike Cowie and drummer John Alphonse who have since gone on to make careers in music for themselves.
"While I was growing up there were only dance halls in Halifax, no bars or lounges. I played dances in Gerrish Street Hall, The Seagull, the Meadow. I saw the first lounge (in the city). I believe it was in the Lord Nelson Hotel. They closed at 12. I thought it was nice to play out in the audience instead of on a stage."
In 1983 Bucky described playing with Oscar Peterson on ATV’s Thrill of a Lifetime. Over the years he had opportunities to play with Louis Armstrong at the Lobster Trap and B.B. King at the Middle Deck.
Bucky’s band Generations was showcased on CBC Radio’s Identities in the early 80s. The program won a Gabriel Award from the Catholic Academy for Communication Arts Professionals for its ability to uplift and nourish the human spirit. The African Nova Scotia Music Association also honoured Bucky with their Pioneer Award in their inaugural year in 1997.
He played for a while with the Nova Scotia Mass Choir, went on their Dallas trip in the early ’90s and played A Closer Walk With Thee with a 100-voice choir in tribute to the victims of Swiss Air Flight 111’s fatal plunge into the ocean in September 1998.
But he had to give up the Mass Choir gig because rehearsals conflicted with his Northwood nights.
"I’m not much for hustling gigs," he commented. "I was always a very shy person. I’m sort of religious. I pray and preach at the same time. I have always played for and through the spirit. It gets me through my shyness.
"Music has a real nice message to it," Bucky said. "A 92-year-old man came in — walked with a cane — he heard the music and put his cane down to dance. He never used it again.
"People with Alzheimer’s come in — one used to be a singer. She forgot her children’s names, but she could remember the words of the tunes. For a year she was there every week."
Bucky Adams still has music going on in his head all the time. You might say he is semi-retired. He practises in his room, cooks, takes walks, watches nature shows on TV, plays his weekly show in the Harbour View Lounge and occasionally plays an outside gig, like one coming up next month in Fredericton where a choir director asked him to come and play on a recording the choir is making.
His legacy is contained in a half-dozen recordings including In A Loving Way with Woody Woods on piano, Bucky and Corey Adams (his drummer son) Live at the Thirsty Duck, Bucky Adams and Basin Street at Privateer’s Warehouse, To Be Appreciated (Bucky Adams and the Botos Brothers featuring Corey Adams at the National Art Gallery in Ottawa) and two unpublished compilation albums.