Park Frederick "Pepper" Adams III (October 8, 1930 – September 10, 1986) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. He composed 42 pieces, was the leader on eighteen albums spanning 28 years, and participated in 600 sessions as a sideman. He worked with an array of musicians, and had especially fruitful collaborations with trumpeter Donald Byrd and as a member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band.
Born in Highland Park, Michigen, he was five years old when his family moved to Rochester, NY, where he soon developed a passionate interest in jazz by listening to Fats Waller, Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway on the radio. At 12 he was blowing clarinet and tenor sax and was soon sitting in with local bands, including one led by veteran reedman Ben Smith. Pepper's primary inspiration was tenor archetype Coleman Hawkins, and Harry Carney inspired him to take up the baritone.
Moving back to Detroit in 1946, he played in a group led by Lucky Thompson and worked in the house band at the African-American-owned Bluebird Inn with Barry Harris, Billy Mitchell, and Thad and Elvin Jones while holding down a job manufacturing automobiles. He blew tenor with Lionel Hampton for a while and served in the U.S. Army from 1951 to 1953, including a spell in Korea, often appearing in Special Services shows. He returned to Detroit, where he worked through 1955, with Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, and Elvin Jones, in the house band at the Blue Bird and at Klein’s. Adams moved to New York City in January, 1956. In May, Oscar Pettiford recommended Adams to Stan Kenton, whose band Adams joined for six months, putting in motion a twenty year trajectory as a big band section player, though, ironically, Adams was arguably the most accomplished baritone soloist in jazz history.
From 1957-1977, Adams was a member of the Maynard Ferguson, Benny Goodman, Quincy Jones, Lionel Hampton, and (for twelve years) Thad Jones-Mel Lewis big bands, though, whenever possible, Adams broke away to work in small ensembles, all the while highly in demand as a recording artist, especially from 1958-1961.
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| Donald Byrd, jackie McLean & Pepper Adams |
Adams co-led a quintet with Donald Byrd and showed up on several Blue Note sessions presided over by Elvin Jones from 1969 to 1973, on two albums with soul-jazz organist Johnny "Hammond" Smith, and with composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram on various projects and by the mid-’70s, he had worked with virtually everyone, including John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie.
In 1977, Adams left Thad Jones-Mel Lewis to travel the world as a soloist. During this time he wrote nearly half of his 43 compositions. He demonstrated terrific adaptability as he assisted Felix Cavaliere and the Rascals with their jazz-rock crossover Peaceful World and even signed on with comedian Martin Mull, appearing on his 1974 album, Normal. Further engagements during the 1970s included tours of the U.K. and Europe. A return to jazzier turf came about on Nick Brignola's Baritone Madness, on sessions with pianist Walter Bishop, Jr., and on Charles Mingus' last albums Me, Myself an Eye and Something Like a Bird in 1978.
Pepper's Urban Dreams came out in 1981, ushering in what would be his last five years of artistic productivity. He assisted with Teo Macero's Impressions of Charles Mingus and recorded with pianist Bess Bonnier, guitarist Peter Leitch, pianists Hank Jones and Hod O'Brien, and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler. Pepper's last recording, The Adams Effect, brought him together with saxophonist Frank Foster and a rhythm section of Tommy Flanagan, Ron Carter, and Billy Hart.
Adams’ enduring legacy is how he elevated the baritone saxophone to the level of all other solo instruments. Adams’ blinding speed, penetrating timbre, immediately identifiable sound, harmonic ingenuity, precise articulation, confident time-feel, and use of melodic paraphrase, often for comedic effect, make him one of jazz’s great Post-War stylists, a model to which all current baritone saxophonists aspire.
Adams handled the baritone saxophone with the driven facility of hard bop and fuelled the big horn with a propulsive intensity that caused him to be nicknamed "the Knife" for his "slashing and chopping technique," which had a humbling effect upon musicians fortunate enough to gig with him. Pepper Adams existed as an indispensable ingredient in the North American jazz ensemble, emanating a special warmth as a featured soloist, and serving as a strongly supportive sideman and an often overlooked accompanist, for he anchored many an ensemble behind vocalists such as Brook Benton, Aretha Franklin, Jon Lucien, Carmen McRae, Helen Merrill, Esther Phillips, Dakota Staton, Joe Williams, and Jimmy Witherspoon.
A lifelong tobacco addict, Pepper Adams died after a long battle with lung cancer at his home in Brooklyn on September 10, 1986. He was 55 years old.
(Edited From AllMusic & Blue Note)