Born in San Francisco and named after Jelly Roll Morton, Doug Adams was influenced by his father's blues and New Orleans jazz 78 collection, featuring King Oliver and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Mesmerized by the surfing wave which hit the West Coast, he started playing guitar at age 11 and soon learned tunes by groups like the Ventures and the Astronauts.
In high school, he played in numerous cover bands, and took up weekend residence at the Fillmore and the Avalon ballroom, absorbing every lick from Cream to Hendrix and the Sons of Champlin. He began to study jazz with Jerry Hahn, and became active in John Handy's Jazz Improvisation Workshop at SF State. Doug made his way to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, immersing himself in arranging and composition with Herb Pomeroy, improvisation with Ron McClure, and guitar studies with Mick Goodrick. When he returned to the Bay Area, he began playing with local jazz players such as Andy Narrell, Elaine Caswell , Mark Soskin, and Ron Stallings. In 1976 Doug opened at the Berkeley Jazz Festival at the Greek Theater for Eddie Harris, Taj Majal, and Gil-Scott Heron.
After receiving a BA from UC Berkeley in Communications, he received a Curriculum Degree from the American Film Institute as a cinematographer fellow, then transferred to UCLA where he received an MFA in Production and Directing. He produced and directed the dramatic feature film BLACKOUT, which was released theatrically by Overseas/First Look, and played 10 major international film festivals . He co-wrote 2 songs for the film with multiple Grammy winning songwriter Bill Champlin. Doug continued his jazz guitar studies in LA with Joe Diorio, Bruce Forman, and Scott Henderson ( Chick Corea, Zawinul Syndicate).
In 1981 Doug joined ASCAP when an original song of his was bought by Warner Brothers for the film Mike's Murder, directed by Oscar winning writer/director James Bridges. Doug put together an R and B/ Jazz Revue under his own name, which featured a revolving door of top LA session musicians, including Tom McMorran ( Al Jarreau), Chris Moster ( The Eagles), Tollack Ollestad ( Don Henley, Seal), Tony Braunagel (BB King, Bonnie Raitt), Jerry Watts (Sergio Mendez), and Dave Derge (Larry Carlton, Keiku Matsui). He was hired to write a song for director Jim Wilson's comedy thriller Head Above Water, starring Cameron Diaz and Harvey Keitel. In between gigs, Doug worked for music supervisor G Marq Roswell, selecting songs for the films Pay It Forward, Paul Shrader's Auto Focus, and Baddass!, among others
In 2000 Doug was endorsed by Taylor Guitars. In addition to scoring films, Doug has written music in a variety of other venues; commercials for companies such as United Airlines and Fidelity Investments, and an industrial suspense score for the 3D CD-Rom game Requiem, Avenging Angel (Cyclone Studios.) He has recently collaborated with with Tonio-K, Burt Bacharach's current principal lyricist, and co-writer of numerous pop hits by Wynona Judd, Vanessa Williams, and Bonnie Raitt. Doug performs regularly in the Bay Area, gigs extensively in Asia (Tokyo, Soeul, Bangkok), as well as Europe and Hawaii. He recently has performed in San Francisco with Michael Wolff (Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderly)), Tom Scott, and Steve Miller; and toured Japan with keyboardist and founder of Japan supergroup Godiego, Mickey Yoshino.
ABOUT THE NEW SONGS
Doug's new music features sensational Brazilian vocalist Andrea Ferraz, and LA session vocalist Janelle Sadler, in addition to top musicians like Rico Ray on upright and electric bass, rising star drummer Abe Lagrimas Jr. from Hawaii, keyboardists Robyn Swensen and Jan Garfinkle (John Lee Hooker, Little Milton), New York saxophonist jazz giant Norbert Stachel, and versatile Brazilian percussionist Christiano Novelli.
The music features a blend of pop commercial vocal tracks, like the languorous "A Tempo Piaxao”, and "(I) Still Believe in Love" (bossa-novas written by Doug, Tonio-K and and Andrea) as well as original compositions by Doug for his instrumental group "The Elastic Band", which have an improvisational freedom of shifting grooves and tempos in the spirit of Miles Davis and Weather Report. The tracks are co-produced by Doug and engineer Ray Obiedo.