Quiet Christmas: Solo Piano

Solo piano holiday favorites

Born in Cave City, Kentucky, a small farming community of 1,400 residents, Beegie Adair (pronounced B-G) grew up avidly listening to music. At age four she started the ‘two-finger-hunt-and-peck’ system on the piano, but began actual lessons when she was five and continued studying piano through college at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green where she received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Music Education. Arriving in Nashville during the heyday of Country music allowed her the opportunity to accompany such legendary performers as Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton. Because Nashville was a hot bed of musical television tapings and live performances during that time, Adair also worked with such entertainers as Neil Diamond, Mama Cass Elliott, and Peggy Lee in her position as in-house pianist for The Johnny Cash Show for ABC-TV plus other television programs featuring Lucille Ball, Carol Burnette, and Dinah Shore. Adair serves as adjunct professor in jazz studies at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and currently teaches singers repertoire at the Nashville Jazz Workshop. Beegie credits as her main influences Jimmy Jones, George Shearing, Teddy Wilson, Tommy Flanagan, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, and Russ Freeman (the pianist who played with Chet Baker in the Fifties).

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