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Greg Adams June 2010
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Photos by: Sharon Caren-Crimmen, Julie Gonzalez, Casey Larson,
Greg Adams, a very respected R&B and Jazz musician recently had a concert hear in San Francisco at Yoshis Nightclub with his new band East Bay Soul.
Being a working musician myself, it's not easy to get away and have a date with ... my wife but that's what happened. It was my first time at the club and we had dinner there. The food & the survice is GREAT!
Greg and his band put on a AWESOME show but a lot of folks around the country might know Greg better for being a founding member of the Bay Area Pop/R&B/Soul group Tower Of Power.
Tower Of Power charted eight singles on Billboard's Hot-100. The three biggest being:
"So Very Hard To Go" #17
"Don't Change Horses ( In The Middle Of A Stream ) #26
"You're Still A Young Man" #29
On the Billboard Album Charts they didn't do too badly either. They charted ten albums with their biggest album being the self titled "Tower Of Power" peaking at # 15 and earning a Gold Record Award.
The band charted as well on Billboard's R&B Charts with the most successful songs being:
"So Very Hard To Go" #11
"Don't Change Horses ( In The Middle Of A Stream ) #22
"You're Still A Young Man" #24
Billboard also has a "Bubbling Under" Chart. These are singles that just miss placement on the Hot-100. Tower Of Power had three singles on this chart:
"Sparkling In The Sand" # 107
"Only So Much Oil In The Ground" # 102
"Lovin' You Is Gonna See Me Through" # 106
My personal three favorite tunes by the band are:
"This Time It's Real"
"Soarkling In The Sand"
The last title earned the group a Grammy Award nomination
Greg mentioned during the show that "It's great to be home and see all these faces from Westmoor High School". It really was a reunion of sorts. Here's a copy of the 1970 Westmoor Rambler, the yearbook
Here I am with Sue Medina-Larson who was on the Westmoor High School "Anti-Reunion" committee. To her left, her husband Don Larson and daughter Casey
Okay, Greg was a senior at Westmoor High School when i was a Freshman. Here I are with some other Westmoor kidz and such. Casey took this one. Left to right, Don & Sue Medina- Larson, Sharon Caren-Crimmen (my fav), Me. Laurie & Russell Golub. Sue & Russ were class of 1972 at Westmoor.
Sharon, my wife, actually worked at the Bank Of America, the Eastmont Mall branch in the late 1960's - early 1970's and saw Greg and several other members of Tower Of Power regularly in the branch. She recalls, until they hit it big, they were always overdrawn. Ah....the life of a musician.
Here's the pics from the 1970 Rambler (Yearbook) of Sue & Russ L to R
Now Greg & Russ were in the school Jazz Band together and they went on, in 1970, to win the Reno Jazz Band competition and actually recorded an album too. Russ was quit the "Rock Star" at school and he with several of his friends were always jamming outside the little theater on their lunch hour. He was a BIG influence on me musicially....but don't tell him that K?
Bob Donati was also there at the concert. Bob was with me, Class of 1973.
I forgot the Bob was also in the Jazz Band that year
I just had to put this in. A pic from the 1970 Westmoor Year Book, the Rambler. Check out the price of gas. 36.9 cents for regular had to sell a lot of newspapars back then to fill up.
Russ was "Imortalized" on the cover of the next year's Rambler. The artist did a pretty good job of recreating Russ' Gibson ES-335.
Getting back to Greg, here he is after the show signing autographs.
Okay, I had to get into the spot light...a little ;-)
Okay, okay, I had to do it. From the 1970 Westoor Rambler, here's Greg as a Senior, and so Y'All won't "Bust My Chops" here I am as a Freshman. My pic is a little fuzzy but then again, I was a Freshman at the time.
Thanx Y'All
Dave