FREE | Good Times Jazz Club,  | 7:00 PM & 9:00 PM

Teddy Adams

A pillar of the community for more than 50 years and post his return from living in and touring Tokyo, Japan, Adams  along with Ben Tucker, is credited for the resurgence and rebirth of jazz in Savannah, Georgia. As Co-founder of Coastal Jazz Association, Savannah Jazz Festival and the Savannah Jazz Orchestra, he has remained commit-ted and steadfast to keeping the art form formerly known as jazz alive and well.

Continuing to carry and pass the torch as only Adams can, to date, one of his favorite concerts is the highly anticipated Annual Christmas Jazz Concert and Jam Session.

Since its inception in the mid 1950’s, he was a loyal participant as a high school student. When Adams returned from Asia, he learned the annual Christmas concert had ceased with no plans of revival. With the support of musicians and Savannah jazz enthusiasts supporting his vision, he reinstated the Annual Christmas concert where itcontinues to be “a must attend” event 43 years later.

An avid supporter and believer in educating the next generation of musicians, he is responsible for presenting the Black Heritage Festival’s annual “Future of Jazz” concert which features the brightest young jazz talent in the region. The Dean of Jazz, Adams continues to mentor a host of young jazz musicians who are currently making names for themselves both domestically and internationally.

Presently performing and responsible for jazz entertainment for Good Times Jazz Barand Restaurant, he also continues to share his love and passion for music as a trusted and respected music instructor at Savannah State University. Adding published author to his list of accomplishments, Adams’ memoirs, “The Up of the Down Beat”, Dr.Teddy Adams shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Cynthia Utterbach

Cynthia Utterbach was born in New Jersey, moved to Los Angeles in the late seventies, and has been living in Europe since 1994. She arrived in Europe to perform in the musical production “The Buddy Holly Story” in Hamburg and has since performed throughout Europe as a jazz vocalist at festivals and clubs. Cynthia cites as her main inspiration Sarah Vaughan, and certainly she has a comparable warm sonority in the low register. Another influence was the highly distinctive Morgana King, who sang with a remarkable range, great tenderness, elegance and grace, excellent diction, and a strong sense of the dramatic.  Mother was a church choir organist and pianist and had an extraordinary voice. She was teaching her daughter in the beginning, who also became a music major in school. She learned theory and sight-reading, and planned originally to become a classical singer, but when she started scatting to Madame Butterfly, the professor thought that maybe she should pursue another career. Cynthia grew up listening to the Supremes and other girl groups, so when I started as a singer, it was mostly Top Forty music. Then in the early eighties, she decided to change over to Jazz.