ABOUT

Andy Adamson Bio

Andy Adamson is a self-taught composer and musician native to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since beginning his musical journey in sixth grade, Andy has composed original music for all of his independent bands, culminating in a vast catalog of innovative modern jazz compositions, along with many R&B, funk and popular vocal tunes. Andy has played keyboards continuously for over 50 years now, and aside from being with his family, Andy is happiest when he’s playing the keys.

In his adolescence, Andy performed with multiple bands while attending Slauson Junior High and Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, learning an impressive variety of popular songs by ear. As an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, Andy played fraternity parties and an assortment of other gigs before graduating with a BS in Biology in 1975. Rather than pursuing a career in biology, Andy pursued his passion, playing music full time throughout the Metro Detroit Area.

In 1986, Andy quit the Detroit club scene and began playing weekend weddings while he went back to college. He graduated with a Masters in Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1991. Shortly after, Andy was hired as a System Research Programmer by the Center for Information Technology and Integration (CITI) to do distributed file system and computer security research, writing code for the Linux Kernel. Andy was promoted to a Research Investigator position at the University and was appointed Assistant Director of CITI in 1997, where he was part of a team that successfully proposed research projects to companies and government agencies. Andy was the Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator, hiring students and running many such computer science research projects. Andy left the University in 2008 to work from home for NetApp, a California based computer company where he continued writing Linux Kernel code, until he retired in 2017. Andy's computer resume

Andy remained very active in music throughout his entire computer career, continuously performing, practicing and writing compositions. Over the years, Andy played a wide range of musical styles, including jazz standards in solo and trio settings, cuban folk music with Melodioso, rockabilly swing with Dick Siegel’s Ministers of Melody, funk and Motown with Norma Jean Bell and the All Stars, disco and rock with multiple Detroit based club bands, rhythm and blues with the Ann Arbor band F.U.B.A.R. and Rock & Roll with the Ann Arbor band Medicine Men and the Westside Girls.

Andy Adamson’s latest original jazz band has been together as a quartet since 2014 and as a quintet since 2017. They released A Cry For Peace as a quartet in 2015, First Light as a quintet in 2017 and Live at Cliff Bell's in 2019. Andy truly values the friendship and musicianship of his band mates Brennan Andes, Dan Bennett, Johnathan Taylor and Ross Huff. Together they have created a common vision that drives the arrangement and production of Andy's compositions.

The Andy Adamson Quintet recently finished their upcoming album A Coincidence of Cats, which features a diverse collection of fusion and traditional jazz compositions. The record is set to be released later this year, in August 2022.

MEET
THE PLAYERS

Dan
Bennett
Saxophonist, multi reed player, and composer

Dan
Bennett


Saxophonist, multi reed player, and composer

Dan Bennett is a saxophonist and composer who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He plays Tenor, Baritone, Alto, and Soprano saxophones. In 2004, Dan received BFA in saxophone performance/jazz studies from the University of Michigan. Long term collaborators include the bands Nomo and the Paxton/Spangler Septet. Recent releases include IGQOZI (Paxton/Spangler Septet), Sorrow (Colin Stetson), and Open Water as a Child (Tim Haldeman). He plays extensively in the Ann Arbor/Detroit area and internationally with the aforementioned groups.

Photo by Misty Bergerone 2022

Jonathan
Taylor
Drummer, composer and percussionist

Jonathan
Taylor


Drummer, composer and percussionist

Jonathan Barahal Taylor is a Percussionist, Composer, and Improviser based in Detroit. An avid collaborator, He co-leads a number of diverse projects, Including the art-rock quartet saajtak, the electro-acoustic duo Says Things, Teiku, which reimagines aurally transmitted ancestral Jewish melodies in a Creative Music context, and his own band Mover, which performs a constantly shifting modular suite of Taylor’s compositions and graphic scores.

Taylor has played with some of the most revered names in Jazz and Creative Music, Including Wadada Leo Smith, John Lindberg, Tomeka Reid, Angelica Sanchez, Dave Liebman, Michael Formanek, Karl Berger, and Jaribu Shahid, and has performed at the DC Jazz Festival, EdgeFest, The Jazz Gallery In New York, the Detroit Jazz Festival, The Toronto Jazz Festival, The International Association of Schools of Jazz Conference in Cape Town, South Africa, and in 2019 toured Japan with the art-rock band Throwaway. He attended the Banff Centre’s International Workshop for Jazz and Creative music under the direction of Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey in 2013 and 2018, and maintains studies in Tabla and Hindustani Music with Sri Souma Kanti Mukerjee, disciple of the late master of the Benares Gharana, Pt. Chhote Lal Mishra. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he earned a BFA in Jazz and Contemplative Studies, studying with Geri Allen, Andrew Bishop, Ellen Rowe, Evan Chambers, Mark Kirschenmann, Michael Gould, Stephen Rush, and Sean Dobbins.

Jonathan Barahal Taylor Drummer-Composer-Improviser-Educator www.jontaylormusic.com

Brennan
Andes
Bass and composer

Brennan
Andes


Bass and composer

Brennan Duncan Andes has been a force within the Midwest music scene for over two decades now. Native to Ann Arbor, Brennan is the founding member of The Macpodz. Over the years, he’s also had the pleasure of playing and creating music with a plethora of different artists, spanning a very wide variety of musical genres. Years of touring both nationally and internationally have made him aware of the importance of community and connection, especially through music.

Brennan strives to continue performing and collaborating with other musicians regularly, while also working on his teaching career an eventual solo projects. Overall, having balance in music, family and friendship is most important to him in life. When not on tour, you can see Brennan play weekly in Ann Arbor at The Last Word along with several other local spots in the area.

Photo by Misty Bergerone 2022

Ross
Huff
Trumpet and composer

Ross
Huff


Trumpet, flugelhorn

Trumpeter and flugelhornist Ross Huff performs with a half-dozen diverse ensembles and maintains a docket of horn section collaborations in every style of contemporary music, as well as several antiquated ones. Ross is a recording artist, arranger, and music instructor as well as an experienced composer, producer and bandleader. He has previously worked as an essayist and editor. Huff has given up keeping score at baseball games and is in search of a new pastime. Ross is a 2004 BFA graduate with Honors from the University of Michigan School of Music Jazz and Contemplative Studies.