American Bandmasters Association Announces New Recognition
The American Bandmasters Association has established the Alton Adams Legacy Recognition to honor the contributions of conductors, directors, and composers who have not yet been formally recognized by the ABA.
Alton Augustus Adams, Sr. (November 4, 1889 – November 23, 1987) was born in Saint Thomas, US Virgin Islands. He nurtured a passion for music and literature. Adams learned to play the piccolo and joined the St. Thomas Municipal Band in 1906. Simultaneously, he studied music theory and composition late into the nights through correspondence courses with Dr. Hugh A. Clark at the University of Pennsylvania. In June 1910, Adams formed his own ensemble—the Adams Juvenile Band. Adams’ band developed rapidly, becoming part of the social fabric in the islands’ capital city.
Adams had come to depend on music magazines from the U.S. mainland as a source of ideas and learning about music. His passion for reading and writing bore fruit in 1910 when he first contributed an article on the Black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor to The Dominant. Adams’ essays garnered the attention of leading musicians in the States, such as John Philip Sousa, Honorary Life Member, and Edwin Franko Goldman, the first President of the American Bandmasters Association.On June 2, 1917, Adams and his band were inducted into the United States Navy, thus becoming the first African Americans to receive official musical appointments in the U.S. Navy since at least the War of 1812 and making Adams the Navy’s first black bandmaster.
On June 2, 1917, Adams and his band were inducted into the United States Navy, thus becoming the first African Americans to receive official musical appointments in the U.S. Navy since at least the War of 1812 and making Adams the Navy’s first black bandmaster.
He traveled to the U.S. mainland for the first time in 1922 to research music education programs, but the highpoint of his naval career was a 1924 tour of the U.S. eastern seaboard. Adams and his Navy band won accolades from concert and radio audiences in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Adams’ music is in the style of John Philip Sousa, communicating energy and patriotism. His best-known works include the “Virgin Islands March” (1919), “The Governor’s Own” (1921), and “The Spirit of the U.S.N.” (1924).
In 1933 he retired into the Naval Fleet Reserve and returned to St. Thomas, resuming his duties for the public-school music program, which was cut short by World War II, when he was recalled to active duty. Sent back to Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Adams took over an all-white unit and received permission to reinstate eight former bandsmen thus creating the first racially integrated band sanctioned by the U.S. Navy. Alton Adams was inducted (posthumously) into the American Bandmasters Association in 2005. He was nominated for membership years earlier and would have been the first African American to be inducted.
In 2026, the American Bandmasters Association established the Alton Adams Legacy Recognition to celebrate the contributions of distinguished deceased or retired band conductors/directors and composers who made significant contributions to concert bands and have not been recognized by ABA.
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