Originally published in Jersey Jazz - Reprinted by permission of the New Jersey Jazz Society
Like a fine Cabernet Sauvignon, Mindi Adair's music is deep, layered, nuanced, earthy, and can be appreciated by both demanding critics and casual listeners. Comparing Adair's music to fine wine is no coincidence; wine has become a significant part of her life and livelihood. The Grammy-nominated saxophonist and singer will blend her jazz stylings with a love of wine on August 17, 2024 at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, NJ.
“My husband," she explained, "is from Jefferson Twp., New Jersey, so I'm excited to play there. We'll do a wine tasting, which is my husband Eric Guerra's calling. It's been his job for 25 years, running wineries. And now he runs our company, WineandJazz.com. So, bringing my Jersey boy back to Jersey will be great, and we're bringing my full band. He's the wine, I'm the jazz, so we can have our place and be together in what we love.
"We now travel the world together," she continued. "We're going to do this pre-show wine and jazz tasting. We make eight different wines a year that are all music-centric with the artwork, and he has winemakers make us wine that no one else gets. I play music to pair with each tasting. So, it's all about pairing wine and music, and since that's our real lives, we hope that other people will like doing that as much as we do."
After playing with some of the biggest names in the world, Abair has earned the right to enjoy a glass of vino from time to time while creating the music she loves. Her musical journey began in St. Petersburg, FL. "My dad plays saxophone, keyboards, and bass," she said. "I grew up on the road with his band, The Entertainers, and we didn't have a house until I was five when the band broke up. So, we just traveled. Every childhood picture shows me packing the band truck or at a motel somewhere. It was a wild way to grow up, and I was basically raised by the awesome guys in the band.
"My grandmother was an opera singer with this beautiful coloratura soprano voice. She was everything stereotypically that you think of as an opera singer—just a big woman with a big personality. She was awesome. She'd come over and play Beethoven, then play an aria and sing it with me. My dad was off playing rock and roll, and I'd come home from school to find them recording drums in my closet. It was just nuttiness.
“I was a total pop kid. I listened to the radio and watched MTV, so it was simple who my influences were. I thought Heart was amazing. I loved Tina Turner and Springsteen. Clarence Clemons inspired me, and I was a huge fan and knew every solo. The first night I got to play his parts with Max Weinberg and then with Bruce Springsteen was something I never thought would happen. I was listening to a lot of rock, and I loved the energy and emotion of it."
When Abair was in high school, her father brought her to a David Sanborn concert. "The light bulb just went off," she said. "David's band was like a rock band, and David was the lead singer, but instead of using his voice, he played a saxophone. That made all the sense in the world because I couldn't sing like Tina Turner, but on a saxophone, I could scream like Tina Turner or whisper. It was fun to take what I had learned from the pop and rock world and move it into jazz.”
At the University of North Florida and then the Berklee College of Music, Abair remembers people asking her, "‘Do you listen to traditional or contemporary jazz?' I didn't even know what any of that meant. So, I started listening to the older (traditional) players like Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker, and John Coltrane, and just thinking, wow! There's this whole other world. But I came into it backward from most people. I remember having these conversations where people told me, ‘You're selling out if you're not playing traditional jazz.' I thought it through and realized I would be selling out if I played traditional jazz because contemporary jazz was the music that moved me and that I wanted to play.”
Following college, Abair moved to Los Angeles. “Some of us Berklee students," she recalled, "got a call from Barry Manilow who said, ‘I need a whole new band. I know you're at Berklee, and you know the cats—put a band of the cats together and come audition for me.' So, we flew to L.A. We rehearsed, and we did the audition. We were so wrong for him. I got drummer Abraham Laboriel Jr., who had his whole head shaved with a little ponytail on top. I had the sides of my head shaved with hair down to my butt. The percussionist looked like Tarzan. We were a bunch of misfits for someone like Barry Manilow. We were all good musicians, but we did not get the gig. But I was walking around L.A. and thought this is the place to be. So, I packed up everything in my little Civic and drove across the country.
“When I got to Los Angeles, I realized it has amazing saxophone players. They don't need you. So, I had to find my way, start my band, and just go for it. I would play anywhere they let me. I played on the steps of the Capitol building, in the men's underwear department at Macy's, in hotel lobbies, and on the street down by the beach, just putting out my case and playing. One day, (keyboardist) Bobby Lyle walked by and literally stuck around and said, ‘You're really good. Would you want to play on my new record and go on the road with me in my band?' His band was just amazing! It was Alfonso Johnson on bass and Al McKay from Earth, Wind & Fire on guitar. These guys took me under their wing and showed me how to be a pro. I toured everywhere with them. Bobby Lyle took me on the road for probably five or six years. Then I went out with Jonathan Butler and Teena Marie."
From these experiences, Abair began playing with mega-stadium acts. "The Backstreet Boys called, and I saw the world like a rock star for a couple of years, with pink, blue, and purple hair. It was amazing. Then, I got to work with Adam Sandler. Waddy Wachtel was his music director, and he's incredible. They wanted someone who could sing and play sax, and I got the job. Those things happened out of nowhere while I was trying to be a solo artist. Finally, when I was on the road with Duran Duran for their comeback tour to America, I told John Taylor (Duran Duran's bass guitarist), ‘I got to go be me and give my solo career a real shot,’ and he understood.”
Abair’s solo career has been impressive, and she has used her many famous contacts to enhance her work. “I’ve had a great career in contemporary jazz, and by the time I made my record Wild Heart (Heads Up Records, 2014), I had this very cool contemporary jazz career, but I was moonlighting all the time, playing with blues and rock stars.. At a certain point, I thought, okay, I have to reach out to my friends I play for and ask them for help to bring it into my world. So that's what I did. I went to Greg Allman’s house for three days, and we got this beautiful song out. The same thing happened with Max Weinberg—we had become such good friends. I have Joe Perry and Booker T on my record, who I didn't know but was a fan of. We've written three songs together. I also asked Keb’ Mo’ because we had been musical partners and Trombone Shorty because we ran in the same circles."
When Wild Heart was released, Jazz Weekly's George W. Harris wrote: "Abair's sax growls, grunts, and grinds like it's a smoky joint in Lafayette, Louisiana, with more gristle than a T-Bone steak at The Pantry." AllMusic's Thom Jurek added that the album had "gritty, raucous spirit, and exceptional creative imagination."
While Abair’s primary focus continues to be her solo projects, she has not abandoned being the saxophonist to the stars. “The bands that I've toured with of late, it's like a summer vacation. Like when Steven Tyler asked me to go on the road with Aerosmith, I'll do those things here and there, but you know, it's my band all the time.”
Abair’s current tour involves traveling worldwide, and she shows no signs of slowing down. “We are doing a bunch of tour dates this year, and it's been all over the map. I just finished opening for Kool and the Gang a couple of nights ago, and that was awesome. We're doing Summerfest, a big festival, and playing the Catalina Island Jazz Festival. I continue to do Mindi Abair’s Wine and Jazz Adventures. We finished two in Napa, and we're doing two weeks of them in Tuscany. My husband will curate wineries and Michelin-starred restaurants, and I’ll play concerts daily." There is also a Christmas tour and a New Year's Eve show in San Diego. "Most of the material is the jazz songs I have recorded over the last 22 years, and then we'll throw in a couple of cool covers that I love. I do a different set list every night.”
The New Jersey Jazz Society is a non-profit organization of business and professional people, musicians, teachers, students and listeners working together for the purpose of advancing jazz music. Their mission is to promote and preserve America’s original art form – jazz. The Society seeks to ensure continuity of the jazz art form through its commitment to nurture and champion local talent, along with showcasing outstanding national and international artists providing for the younger generation via arts education programs.
