Beegie Adair


Bobbe Gorin "Beegie" Adair, née Long, is an American jazz pianist. Beginning piano lessons at age five, she continued to study piano and received her B.S. in music at Western Kentucky University. She moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where she did graduate work at Peabody College and became a session musician working at WSM-TV and on "The Johnny Cash Show", where she accompanied such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Dolly Parton, Lucille Ball, Steve Allen, Dinah Shore, Mama Cass Elliott, and Peggy Lee. She formed the Beegie Adair Trio, which has sold over 1.5 million albums.

Biography

Adair has recorded and appeared in over 90 recordings, ranging from Cole Porter standards to Frank Sinatra classics to romantic World War II ballads to jazz covers of Christmas songs. In 2002, she released a six-CD centennial collection, entitled The Great American Songbook Collection, with tunes by Rodgers, Gershwin, Kern, Ellington, Carmichael, Berlin and other classic American composers. Adair cites Jimmy Jones, George Shearing, Bill Evans, Oscar Peterson, Erroll Garner, and Russ Freeman among her influences.
Adair lives in Franklin, Tennessee, her husband's hometown. Her husband, Billy Adair, was an associate professor of jazz studies at the Blair Music School in Vanderbilt University until his death in February 2014. Beegie was also an adjunct professor of jazz studies at the Blair Music School. She is a faculty and board member of the , and performs regularly in Nashville.

Discography