Oleta Adams

Oleta Adams (l.) At the Pure Jazz Festival in The Hague 2007

Oleta Adams (* 4. May 1953 in Seattle , Washington ) is an American Soul - and jazz - singer and pianist , the cooperation with the British new wave - band Tears for Fears provided the springboard for a solo career.

Life

Oleta Adams is the daughter of a preacher and grew up listening to gospel music . She was six years old when her family moved to Yakima , Washington - Yakima is incorrectly listed as her place of birth in several biographies.

As a child, she sang gospel at the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, her father's parish church, learned to play the piano, and led four gospel choirs when she was eleven. At 18, Adams decided to become a professional musician. In the early 1980s she moved to Kansas City , where she worked as a bar pianist in hotels and showrooms. During this time she released two self-financed, but not very successful albums.

In 1985, Adams was discovered at a gig in a hotel bar in Kansas City by Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal of the band Tears for Fears , who were performing in town that evening and visiting the bar after the concert. Both invited Adams to work as a singer on their next album, The Seeds of Love . The record was released in 1989 and the song Woman in Chains was decoupled from it with Adams as the second single. Also on the later Tears for Fears album Raoul and the Kings of Spain , Me and My Big Ideas, a song sung by Adams could be heard.

1990 produced Roland Orzabal and Dave Bascombe , the producer of The Seeds of Love , in return, the first solo album of Oleta Adams, Circle of One . The cover version of the song Get Here , which was originally written by Brenda Russell , was released as a single and reached a top 5 position in the American Billboard charts - not least because this very sentimental song became the anthem for those American ones Families whose fathers had to move to the Gulf War as soldiers .

The first album is Oleta Adams' most successful album to date, which the two successors Evolution and Moving On could not follow despite good sales figures. The longplayer Come Walk with Me , released in 1997, contains exclusively gospel pieces as a trip into the past and was in the crossfire of criticism. The 2001 album All the Love represented the return to R&B and cuddly soul (this album was re-released in 2004 with the new title I Can't Live a Day without You and a new cover).

In winter 2006 the Christmas CD Christmas Time with Oleta was released in the USA and Canada. In 2009 the studio album Let's Stay Here followed . Another album followed in 2017, Third Set , which mostly contains standards.

Together with the ZO! Gospel Choir and Baaba Maal , Oleta Adams performed in September 2014 in the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam at a concert as part of the worldwide Masterpeace events. She was accompanied by the hr big band at the Frankfurt Musikmesse Festival 2017 .

Quotes

" After years of longing for a great pop singer with a vision, it looks like we may have finally found one. (After years of searching for a pop singer with a vision, it looks like one has finally been found.) "

- Los Angeles Times

" Adams' exquisite voice is an instrument whose high end vibrated in stunning clarity and whose bottom range resonates richly. (Adams' exquisite voice is an instrument whose highs vibrate with astonishing clarity and whose low ranges vibrate richly.) "

- Rolling Stone Magazine

" She performs within the pop lexicon without letting it transform or cheapen her talents. Her classically trained voice is nuanced, and she coaxes quiet tears from her listeners as often as she inspires spontaneous, one-person standing ovations. She dares to be overtly inspirational, vulnerable and loving. (She speaks within the pop lexicon without having her talents diluted or lowered. Her classically trained voice is nuanced and she elicits silent tears from her listeners as often as she provokes spontaneous one-man ovations. She dares to be openly inspiring, vulnerable and to be loving. "

- The New York Times

“ When the music is so good that it makes you swoon; when the lyrics are so real that they make you cry; when the voice is so rich and so passionate that all you can do is wave your hands, close your eyes and shake your head, you know it's Oleta. (When the music is so good that you rave; when the lyrics are so real you cry; when the voice is so rich and passionate that you can only wave your hands, close your eyes and rock your head, know one that it's Oleta.) "

- Tafrija Magazine

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US	R&B
1990	Circle of One	DE37 (18 weeks) DE	-	UK1 gold (26 weeks)UK	US20th gold (44 weeks)US	R&B11 (53 weeks) R&B	First published: August 1990 Producers: David Bascombe, Roland Orzabal
1993	evolution	DE37 (12 weeks) DE	CH25 (4 weeks) CH	UK10 (7 weeks) UK	US67 (13 weeks) US	R&B20 (26 weeks) R&B	First published: August 1993 Producer: Stewart Levine Recording: Andora Studios, Los Angeles
1995	Moving on	-	-	UK59 (1 week) UK	US194 (1 week) US	R&B49 (4 weeks) R&B	First published: November 1995 Producers: Vassal Benford, Michael J. Powell, Scott Mayo, Oleta Adams

More albums

• 1982: Untitled (self-financed)
• 1983: Going On Record (self-financed)
• 1991: Get Here
• 1997: Come Walk with Me
• 2001: All the Love
• 2006: Christmas Time with Oleta
• 2009: Let's Stay Here
• 2017: Third set

Compilations

• 1996: The Very Best of Oleta Adams
• 1998: The Very Best Of
• 2004: The Ultimate Collection (3 CDs)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	CH	UK	US	R&B
1989	Woman in Chains The Seeds of Love	DE45 (11 weeks) DE	-	UK26 (9 weeks) UK	US36 (14 weeks) US	-	First release: November 1989 Tears for Fears feat. Oleta Adams Author: Roland Orzabal
1990	Rhythm of Life Circle of One	-	-	UK38 (8 weeks) UK	-	R&B9 (15 weeks) R&B	First published: March 1990 Authors: Nicky Holland, Roland Orzabal Arranger: William Orbit
	Circle of One Circle of One	-	-	UK73 (2 weeks) UK	-	R&B27 (9 weeks) R&B	First published: July 1990 Authors: David Bascombe, Roland Orzabal
	Get Here Circle of One	DE80 (1 week) DE	-	UK4 (13 weeks) UK	US5 (23 weeks) US	R&B8 (24 weeks) R&B	First published: October 1990 Producers: Dave Bascombe, Roland Orzabal Original / Author: Brenda Russell , 1988
1991	You've Got to Give Me Room / Rhythm of Life Circle of One	-	-	UK49 (3 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: April 1991 Author (A-Side): Oleta Adams
	Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me Two Rooms - Celebrating the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin	-	-	UK33 (5 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: September 1991 Authors: Elton John , Bernie Taupin Producer: Roland Orzabel Original: Elton Jahn, 1974
1993	I Just Had to Hear Your Voice Evolution	-	-	UK42 (3 weeks) UK	-	R&B97 (2 weeks) R&B	First published: June 1993 Authors: Allan Rich, Jud Friedman
	Window of Hope Evolution	DE51 (12 weeks) DE	-	-	-	-	First published: October 1993 Author: Oleta Adams
1995	Never Knew Love Moving On	-	-	UK22 (3 weeks) UK	-	R&B60 (9 weeks) R&B	First published: September 1995 Authors: Kathy Wakefield, Oleta Adams, Vassal Benford
1996	We Will Meet Again Moving On	-	-	UK51 (2 weeks) UK	-	-	First published: January 1996 Authors: Allan Rich, Brenda Russell

More singles

• 1994: We Will Find a Way (with Brenda Russell , from the movie Corrina, Corrina )
• 1994: Easier to Say Goodbye
• 1994: My Heart Won't Lie
• 1995: Life Keeps Moving On
• 2001: When You Walked into My Life
• 2003: Get Here (BCD Project vs. Oleta Adams)
• 2004: I Can't Live a Day without You
• 2006: Christmas Time with Oleta (3 tracks)

swell

1. ↑ Oleta Adams comes to the Ziggo Dome. De zangeres komt voor het vredesconcert MasterPeace. NPO Radio 2 , May 7, 2014, accessed January 30, 2016 (Dutch).  
2. ^ Masterpeace in Concert. maxazine.nl, accessed January 30, 2016 (Dutch).  
3. ↑ hr big band with Oleta Adams at the Frankfurt Musikmesse Festival ( memento of the original from September 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Singles Albums UK US1 US2
5. ↑ ^{a b} UK US gold / platinum database
6. ^ Joel Whitburn : Hot R&B Songs 1942-2010 . 6th edition. ISBN 978-0-89820-186-4 .

Web links

• Official website of Oleta Adams
• Oleta Adams at Allmusic (English)
• Oleta Adams at Discogs (English)
• Oleta Adams at laut.de
• Discography including album cover