Steve Adams

Bio:

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Steve Adams is active both as a composer and as a performer on saxophones, flutes and electronics. Steve is best known as a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, with whom he has played for twenty years and released over twenty five recordings. Rova has been called "one of the most daring ensembles of any instrumentation to emerge in recent years" by Downbeat magazine. In addition to Rova, Steve also is a member of the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, the Matt Small Ensemble and the Bill Horvitz Band, as well as leading his own group, The Steve Adams Quartet. He has been a member of Composers in Red Sneakers, a Boston composer's collective, and the bands Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet. He has performed with Anthony Braxton, Sam Rivers, Dave Holland, Cecil Taylor, Roscoe Mitchell, John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Mark Dresser, Joan Jeanrenaud, Fred Frith, Tin Hat Trio, Willie “Loco” Alexander, Yo! Miles with Henry Kaiser and Wadada Leo Smith, Donald Byrd, Jaki Byard and Ted Nugent as well as many other jazz and rock groups. Steve has appeared on more than fifty recordings, and has five recordings as leader or co-leader on the 9 Winds and Clean Feed labels, the latest of them being "The Other Side of This" with bassist Ken Filiano...

Steve has performed the premieres of seven classical compositions, including "Prisoner of Love" by Robert Aldridge for soprano saxophone and piano, Thomas Oboe Lee’s "Saxxologie… A Sextet" for saxophone sextet and "Louie MCMLV" for saxophone quartet, and "Passing Time" by Jon Nelson for tenor saxophone and computer-generated tape. He performed Edmund Campion’s "Corail" for saxophone and computer generated electronics with the Berkeley Symphony and at the Ojai Music Festival. Steve has performed Darius Milhaud’s "Scaramouche" and Pauline Oliveros’ "Outline for Double Bass, Flute, and Percussion" at Mills College. He was a member of the 25th Anniversary performance of Terry Riley’s "In C", which was released on New Albion.

Steve has written many compositions, including more than fifty for saxophone quartet. His piece "Cage (for John Cage)" was performed at the 1993 Bang on a Can festival, and his piece "The Gene Pool" was performed at “The Works” festival presented by Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest in Minneapolis in 2002. His composition "Owed t'Don" was recorded by the violin/marimba duo Marimolin on their CD Phantasmata. In recent years, Steve has begun creating graphic scores, now numbering more than 40. Steve has also written for theater, having composed scores for seven productions at the California Shakespeare Festival. He received a California Arts Council Fellowship in 2000 and a Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest grant in 1993, and teaches at Mills College. Steve is a graduate of the School of Contemporary Music in Brookline, MA and studied composition with Alan Crossman, Christopher Yavelov and Thomas Oboe Lee, saxophone with David Birkin and Indian music with Peter Row and Steve Gorn.

Member Since:

October 21, 2008

Members:

usually Ken Filiano on bass and Scott Amendola on drums

Record Label:

Nine Winds, Clean Feed