Wandering Wednesday 7

My original plans for Wandering Wednesday was to go to the Dismal Canyons with my friends Mona and Nancy. However, Tuesday evening, after watching the weather forecast, we decided that might not be a good plan.  I tossed around some other ideas and we discussed some things we could do, but really made not set plans.

Wednesday, I was moving a little bit slow and had almost decided not to go anywhere, when Nancy called and said she had checked to see if Doc Adams would be at the Jazz Hall of Fame and found that he would be giving a tour at 1:00. So we made plans to meet.

The Jazz Hall of Fame is located in the old Carver Theater in downtown Birmingham. Located on the corner of 4th Ave. N. and 17th St. North, the Carver opened in 1935.  Alabama has a rich history of music and we have had a multitude of musicians from our fine state. The Jazz Hall of Fame recognizes some of the great Jazz artist who have ties to ur state and to Birmingham.

We arrived at the Carver and discovered that there was a movie being shown to the other people in the tour. We got to see about the last 5 minutes of this movie, which was discussing some of the Jazz musicians that are represented in the Hall of Fame and the story of Jazz in Birmingham.

When the movie was over, we were joined by our tour guide, Frank Adams, also known as Doc Adams. What an interesting man!

Doc Adams as he gives us our tour

The Wikipedia entry about Doc Adams states :

"Frank "Doc" Adams was born in Birmingham in 1928. He is a jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader.
Docs was introduced to music early in life.  His father was  a trombonist  his older brother  played clarinet. He began playing the clarinet in elementary school and once he was  in  high school he was
 recruited into Fess Whatley's big band. He later joined a second big band put together by Sonny Blount (later known as "Sun Ra"). From that point he continued his education and he continued playing music, and played with some greats, such as  Duke Ellington. I believe he said he had 4 degrees and he has taught music as well as playing music.
He treated us, several times during the tour, to his clarinet playing.

Here are some pictures from the Jazz Hall of Fame

Here is a silly picture of Nancy

After leaving the Jazz Hall of Fame, we decided to go to Ranelli's for a late lunch. Of course this meant we got to visit with our Friend Sarah Fendley. Great food and great company.  We sat there till after 4:30, so once leaving Ranelli's, I went to Marty's to have a gin and tonic and to visit with my friend Kay.

By this time, it was nearly 6, so I headed on home.

All in all, it was a great Wandering Wednesday, even though I didn't do a great number of things.
Cost-wise, I stayed under my 25 dollar limit for Wandering Wednesday, with a $5.00 admission to the Jazz Hall of Fame (it is cheaper if your do the self-guided tour--but I recommend getting the tour with Doc Adams!) and lunch was less than $10.00 (I don't remember exactly) and my Gin and Tonic was 3.50, I think.