Marques Jarvis Adams was born October 21, 1980 in Miami, Florida. He
began playing the saxophone at age 11. Marques' talent was quickly
noticed by many as he started winning talent shows and was selected to
perform at various prestigious functions, all while he was still in
middle school. Marques attended Carol City High School where he was
selected to play with the Florida Division of Grammy Bands in Schools
and was nominated for the Silver Knight Award for the Arts.
A senior Jazz Studies and Commercial Music major at Florida A&M
University, Marques had numerous performances credited to his resume'.
His career took to the national stage when he co-founded a young,
fresh, Neo-Soul movement called CONCEPT a group of young musicians
(made up of most of his high school friends including Saunders
Sermons, John Toney, Jeremy Mills, and Corey Irving) who blazed the
north Florida music scene with original compositions and fluent
reproductions of cover tunes.
While touring with CONCEPT, Marques
became the featured soloist and regular member of THE CHAPTER, an R &
B group based out of Tallahassee, Florida. With THE CHAPTER, Marques
recorded "DERRTY JAZZ" an original, self-composed instrumental that
caught the attention of record executives as far as Asia and Europe.
Marques' original "DERRTY JAZZ" was ranked #1 in Europe and was in
regular rotation on the BBC1 (British Broadcasting Network #1).
"Quez", (as he was affectionately called) played alongside such jazz
greats as Nestor Torres, Grover Washington Jr., James Moody, Dr.
Nathan McDavis, Najee, and Boney James.
Along with his childhood friend Saunders Sermons, "Quez" made
appearances with Jill Scott, George Clinton and The P-Funk All Stars;
Tom Joyner on his "Fantastic Voyage" Cruise; Rachell Ferrell and
George Duke; Big Daddy Blues & Red Hot Java; Bobby Watson, and Jimmy
Heath. "Quez" also toured with the hit stage play, "The Maintenance
Man", which was based on a book written by Michael Baisden. While
touring with this play, "Quez" attracted the likes of Billy Dee
Williams and Darius McCray from the hit television series "Family
Matters".
In September 2005, Marques was recruited to be the featured soloist in
a musical entitled "HALFTIME LIVE", a stage production based on the
20th Century Fox movie, "DRUMLINE". This production brought Marques to
Atlanta, Georgia, where he quickly gained attention for his musical
tenacity on saxophone. His solo feature in the musical, a cover of
Earth Wind & Fire’s “REASONS”, was consistently met with thunderous
applause and standing ovations.
During his short tenure in Atlanta, Marques captured the attention of
the Atlanta Falcons and the Atlanta Hawks- both organizations were
interested in securing “Quez” as the official, national anthem
featured soloist for the upcoming football and basketball seasons.
Marques lived a vibrant and successful life. His talent combined with
his personality, charm, and his will to succeed made him one of the
world's most remarkable instrumentalists and musicians. He will be
missed by all.
