Born September 24, 1957, New Orleans, Louisiana

Played with: The Tornado Brass Band, The Olympia Brass Band, New Birth Brass Band, Leroy Jones & His Hurricane Brass Band

Adams is a veteran of the New Orleans music scene, with deeper credentials in the marching band community than many musicians of greater age. At six years old he began taking saxophone lessons from his mother. His natural ability to improvise quickly developed along with this formal training allowing him to work professionally on the road at an early age. His forte, in those days was, rhythm & blues; opening for bands like the Meters and the Fabulous Phantoms, he was a show-stealing prodigy with music born into his blood. At age thirteen, when he was conscripted into banjo legend Danny Barker's famous Fairview Baptist Church Brass Band, Adams shifted quickly toward jazz, beginning with the fundamentals and pushing, eventually, toward more progressive styles. Every step in his evolution, from his apprenticeships to the acclaim he would win as founder of the Tornado Brass Band, fell on the foundation of the classic New Orleans Brass Band second-line beat. A regular for years at the Olympia Band's Sunday night sets in Preservation Hall, he was scheduled to make his debut with the house band just days after Hurricane Katrina hit.

"When I started the Tornado Brass Band, we were oddballs because we did stuff that wasn't traditional – squeezing R&B licks into the music and, but I never forgot what the old men used to say, and it's true to this day: If you don't learn the traditional music, you won't know where to go. You'll only be guessing. That's why it's always been my dream to play with the Preservation Hall band; through everything I ever did, that was always in the back of my mind."

"I'm an old Boy Scout, so I just went into survival mode (after Hurricane Katrina). My sister and I even came back into town and found a place to rent; we've been there ever since. It's like the music business: You just have to use your head. You do what you have to do to get the gig. That's why I tell young musicians they've got to learn the tradition. Maybe they will, but I can also see that ten years down the line the only traditional music you might hear will be in just one place: Preservation Hall."

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