Biographies
Boston, MA  ". . . "Patricia Adams is having fun.  She's taking more chances with it all, but not audacious, stupid chances.  She does things like increase the level of a syllable or shift the phrasing just a smidge.  Subtle stuff that holds the real meaning within an improvised translation of verse.  And the solid savvy remains.  For example, she retains her exemplary repertoire, mixing standards with wonderful songs that never quite make the "chestnut" category but should.  Hearing compositions that fly under the radar of most songbirds (such as "I Want To Be Loved" and "If You Could See Me Now") remains one of the great joys of catching Patricia Adams and friends at Ryles on the first Sunday of each month (and elsewhere around town).”  Stu Vandermark, CADENCE Magazine, March 2006
Patricia Adams
PATRICIA ADAMS
[Bandleader & Vocalist]

"How can a woman with this many years in middle management sound so warm and personable, and even a bit like Lena Horne?  .  .  .  Go! doesn't know, but she's got it."

– Amy Graves, Boston Globe, Arts & Nightlife, Go! column, December 31, 2004

"Ms. Adams brings to the stage a level of excitement, which she gives to her audiences freely and unselfishly. Her band members are versatile and extraordinary players, who have performed with many of the jazz legends. Patricia's personable demeanor is a part of her show. She goes into her own zone and feels the groove of each instrument and pours it all out in song.”
– Barbara Jonson, Unity First - Direct

      Patricia Adams, bandleader and vocalist, shuttles her renditions of standards from renaissance Harlem and Tin Pan Alley between Manhattan, Westchester, Hartford and Boston.
You can find her quartet at Ryles Jazz Club, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm singin' and swingin' to standing room only crowds, the first Sunday of each month, .
      Stepping onto a nightclub stage for the first time in 1992 at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, Adams segued to designated show opener there for the Frank Wilkins Vocal Showcase until 1996. Many open mics and pro bono gigs later, she took the plunge and traded her thirty-five year career in human resources management for life as a full time artist. Marketing press kits and phone calls, her venues now attract those who enjoy the jazz and blues standards of the 1930's and '40's. Her mailing list has grown from family and friends to thousands.  She plays with some of the world's renowned jazz artists, including Ray Santisi, Marshall Wood, Bob Moses, Joe Hunt, Bill Wurtzel,  John Repucci, Frank Wilkins, Fred Hunter, Ross Schneider, Joe Lovano and the late Jimmy Hill, so far.
     In addition to clubs, restaurants,  museums, libraries and other public venues, Adams plays to the continuing demand of a growing 'seniors' market.  Her one-woman-shows, singing live to  jazz and blues soundtracks make the rounds of area residences for seniors.  
     Adams brings her 35 years corporate experience to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with her business jazz jam for the entrepreneurial musician, Bandleader Toolkit© a collaboration with her music director, Berklee Professor Ray Santisi.  This two-hour workshop explores the nuts and bolts of prospecting, booking and managing gigs and venues.
      Earning BS and MBA degrees in the 1960's, Adams studied music theory, harmony, and improvisation at the New England Conservatory in Boston and at the Performing Arts School of Worcester in the 1990's.   She has studied with  Semenya McCord, Dominique Eade and Frank Wilkins in Boston and  with  Jim Carson, Jeannie Lovetri of Voice Workshop, Sheila Jordan and Kirk Nurock in Manhattan.   Read Adams' Tales From The Practice Room, Jazz Times Magazine  2005/2006 Education Guide, Page 60. 
          Discography includes Live @ Ryles Jazz Club (2005),  With Our Compliments ! (2004),   Out Of This World  (2001) which placed in four categories on the 2001 Grammy Awards ballot, Blue For You  (1998), and Raw Silk (1996).  Her recordings are available through North Country Distributors in Redwood, NY, Animazing Gallery, Hastings on Hudson, NY and on-line through cdBaby.com and Amazon.com.    Singles may be downloaded from AppleiTunes.com, Rhapsody.com and listened to on Napster.com and MusicNet.com, to name a couple of her 40 + digital distributors. 
     Adams is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences and served on the board of the New England Conservatory.  EMAIL: Patricia Adams
PRESS QUOTES !!!
“Ryles was having a private party 6/2 and wanted to follow that with a Jazz group. Patricia Adams, Ray Santisi and friends took up the challenge. Throughout the first set the audience did grow, and it was a lucky audience. Patricia Adams is supposed to be retired, but she’s offering the best singing of her life right now. Ray Santisi grabbed Dave Zox and Bob Savine to replace the regulars and two very interesting things happened. The three instrumentalists do not play with each other regularly, but they are all reliable veterans. And so we had the fine experience of hearing very good music during the first set and the group really came together during the second set. That’s what real pros can do. The other interesting development was the clinic that Ray put on. I’m not a piano player but even in my ignorance I found myself shaking my head in amazement. No doubt any piano player in the audience would have been inspired-or perhaps frightened into giving up the instrument. It was a master indulging in the sheer joy of tackling the possibilities (maybe the impossibilities of the instrument.” Stu Vandermark, CADENCE Magazine, August 2007
” . . . It happens every time I go there [Ryles Jazz Club]. Again, I ended up sitting at the bar during the 4/1 brunch because there was a twenty-minute wait for a table. And this was after noon. Later I was able to get a table down close because things settle down by 1:30. If you came for the piano, there was plenty of it in the form of Ray Santisi's trio featuring Greg Loughman and Gary Johnson . By now they really work as a team. But it is Patricia Adams' gig, and the focus is her singing (in conversation with an active piano, bass and drums). So, no matter what you show up to listen to, you get plenty of it, and it's all high quality stuff. I found Patricia's singing particularly convincing on that gig.” CADENCE Magazine, June 2007
“I went to Ryles 2/5 to check out the jazz brunch featuring the music of Patricia Adams, Ray Santisi and friends. It was one of the coldest days of the year; I figured I'd have an easy time getting a good seat. Much to my surprise people were lined up outside the club waiting to get in. I'm a coward. I abandoned the idea of getting a table and carried out an end run by having my meal at the bar. I was able to hear most of what was happening within the quartet above the din. It's easy to say that people show up Sunday mornings to get some food and chat; there is a lot of talking that goes on. But the audience seems to get bigger each time I show up. There has been no change to the menu. Some local convention may account for an occasional increase now and then,. But it would not account for the gradual increase in audience size over time. I doubt that the conversations are improving. Maybe it's the music. Maybe the audience is hearing it better and wants to hear more. I suppose that it's possible really good music could draw a crowd. Maybe that's what's going on . . .” CADENCE Magazine, April 2007
“10/1 brunch at Ryles . . . And then there's Ray, perhaps buoyed by the happy connection between bass and drums, dancing even more beautifully than usual (yes, it is possible). No wonder Patricia Adams sounded so upbeat throughout the last two sets that I caught. She had plenty to be happy about, not the least of which is the fact that more and more listeners are showing up. It's food for the ears.” CADENCE Magazine, December 2006
“ . . Ryles 8/5 turned out to be quite a highlight in August. In a town having more than its share of superb bass players John Repucci . . . was operating in a trio setting with Ray Santisi and Bob Moses, both performing up to their substantial reputations. . . backing up Patricia Adams who was telling stories to a very attentive audience. Oh if all audiences could be that good at the usually noisy club. But maybe they heard what I heard, a vocalist who has developed a rep and who keeps getting better anyway. A special evening.”, CADENCE Magazine, October 2006
". . . Ray Santisi, Marshall Wood and Bob Moses opened the set with a romp through the music of George Gershwin, mostly but not exclusively Porgy and Bess material. Of course, it was more than a romp. They played the dickens out of it upside, downside, sideways - and always with a thoughtful understanding of the material. What a joy it is to hear Mr. Santisi let loose on an acoustic piano and with such challenging prodding percussion from Mr. Moses. Two masters giving lessons once each month with an emphatic bass player, usually (as in this case on 6/5) with Mr. Hand-in-glove Bull Fiddler. New York (and off-and-on-Boston) has Monday Night sessions at clubs where big bands shout and master improvisers - Les Paul comes to mind - hold court every week. Students and young journeymen show up to study at the feet/feats of the masters and walk away, shaking their heads and determined to put in more hours. Where is the Monday Night session for this trio in Boston, the Music School Capital of the Universe? You can learn just so much from books and jams and practice. There comes a time when witnessing a living, creative encyclopedia of the art in action is needed to challenge and inspire. And here it was on a Sunday afternoon, "just" an opener for another set of music by Patricia Adams and Friends. There should be several sets of this trio every Monday somewhere conducive. Until then the people who love the great jazz mainstream have to wait for the first Sunday of every month for the "brunch lesson". That's a long wait but the students also get the bonus of seeing how the best musicians help make a fine Jazz vocalist's work seem effortless. That's quite a bonus because you see the support, the heads, the solos, and the give-and-take in classic, evolving form. Patricia Adams has the gig and she knows what to do with it - with the words, with the charts, with the sequencing of events. She knows, for example that sometimes a vocalist with trio can be a duo that leads into another level of four voices. Also she sings as much for the band as she does for the audience, and everyone in the room gets more from each piece that way. The four of them are there on the first Sunday of every month from 10 in the morning to 2:30 (but most serious listeners show up after 12) at Ryles (617 876 9330)" .  CADENCE Magazine, August 2005
Boston, MA  ". . . A question for all you cynical, sarcastic Jazz fans: What is the last thing you'd expect to run into at a Jazz brunch?  Yes.  Jazz.  But not so fast.  I sat down for brunch 2/6 at Ryles and caught Ray Santisi (on acoustic piano!), Marshall Wood and Bob Moses doing what they know how to do superbly.  Vocalist Patricia Adams had the good taste to bring along that fine trio and put them to work.  It did work.  There was plenty of room for them to solo, support and interact.  And nobody got in the way of the words.  Good thing, too, because Ms. Adams knows about words.  The young vocal starlets of the Jazz world today seem to pick up the chestnuts for the first time out of the fake book.  But Patricia Adams had these items for breakfast and lunch as a child, living and breathing before some of those tunes saw sunlight.  And so when she offers "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye", the patina of World War II comes with it.  No gimmicks.  Just really good music.  She's there every first Sunday of the month."  CADENCE Magazine, April 2005
"STANDARD ISSUE This ficklest of holiday weekends can go one of two ways, leaving us with either a blockbuster hangover or a Blockbuster free DVD rental. But we can always count on Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, and the Duke, among others. Of course, we mean jazz standards, which Patricia Adams sings as if she's been entertaining audiences all her life. In fact, she didn't get started until 1992, when she took the Scullers stage for a few minutes, got hooked, and left a 35-year career in human resources. How can a woman with this many years in middle management sound so warm and personable, and even a bit like Lena Horne? Go! doesn't know, but she's got it. She brings her quartet for brunch gigs at Ryles today and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Adams and band will use the brunch gigs as live recording sessions, so we predict a knockout of a show. No cover. 212 Hampshire St., Inman Square, Cambridge, 617-876-9330."  The Boston Globe , 2004
"About 10 years ago, Patricia Adams began taking singing lessons for fun.  Though she worked as a human resources executive and was in her mid-50's, she eventually became convinced "the universe thought it was time" for her to change jobs.  It was hard to give up some of the lessons she'd learned.  Now firmly ensconced in the music world, Patricia sings at Chez Suzette November 15."   Hot House Magazine, 2003
“Ms. Adams brings to the stage a level of excitement, which she gives to her audience freely and unselfishly. Her band members are versatile and extraordinary players, who have performed with many of the jazz legends. Patricia's personable demeanor is a part of her show. She goes into her own zone and feels the groove of each instrument and pours it all out in song.”  Unity First, 2001