Alex Henderson

Remembering Pepper Adams

Release of 5-CD Pepper Adams Set and Comprehensive Book on The Sax Master Timed With Series of Tribute Performances in NY, 9/24 - 9/30

Motéma Music is releasing a 5-CD set featuring new performances of the music of noteworthy baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. The music is released being simultaneously with a new and comprehensive book about the saxophone master by Gary Carner. The Joy Road Celebration is a week of performances in the New York City area from September 24-30 (see page 1 of this issue of Jazz Inside Magazine for the complete schedule). Visit www.Motema.com for more information.

By Alex Henderson

Twenty-six years have passed since the death of Pepper Adams, who was only 55 when he died of lung cancer at his home in Brooklyn on September 10, 1986. But Adams has not been forgotten in the jazz world, and in September, the distinctive and influential baritone saxophonist is being remembered with everything from concerts to an ambitious tribute album to a book.

September 11, 2012 is Motéma Music’s scheduled release date for Joy Road: The Complete Works of Pepper Adams, a five-volume, 51-track digital set. The brains behind Joy Road is Gary Carner, a winemaker and jazz historian who knew Adams personally and is also the author of the new book Pepper Adams' Joy Road: An Annotated Discography (released by Scarecrow Press). The Joy Road album is not a collection of old recordings of Adams but rather, contains new recordings of artists performing his compositions—and those musicians include pianist Jeremy Kahn on Volume 1, pianist Kevin Bales on Volume 2 and baritone saxophonist Frank Basile on Volume 3. Meanwhile, Volume 4 offers a Kahn-led session featuring baritone saxophonist Gary Smulyan, and Volume 5 finds vocalist Alexis Cole (who records for Motéma) performing Adams melodies with new lyrics by Barry Wallenstein. Motéma also has a September 11 release date for I Carry Your Heart: Alexis Cole Sings Pepper Adams (which is Volume 5 as a stand-alone physical CD) and a single sampler CD that contains some of the highlights of Joy Road. Although Joy Road is being described as a “box set,” there will not be a “box” in the physical sense; Volumes 1-4 are only being released digitally.

Joy Road was quite an undertaking for Carner. The set, according to Carner, boasts recordings of every song that Adams ever composed, including some songs he never got around to recording when he was alive. Joy Road is a celebration of both Adams the saxophonist and Adams the composer.

Some jazz instrumentalists are known for disliking singers. Adams, however, didn’t feel that way. One of his wishes was for lyrics to be added to his melodies, and I Carry Your Heart: Alexis Cole Sings Pepper Adams fulfills that wish.

The Adams tribute concerts scheduled for September in New York City include a September 24 performance by the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra at the Village Vanguard, a Basile appearance at Small’s Jazz Club in Greenwich Village on September 28 and a September 26 CD release party for I Carry Your Heart: Alexis Cole Sings Pepper Adams at Smoke on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The night before that on September 25, organist Mike LeDonne plans to pay homage to Adams at Smoke with a quartet that includes Smulyan, guitarist Peter Bernstein and drummer Joe Farnsworth. Also scheduled are a three-baritone show (Smulyan, Basile and Joe Temperley) at Ginny’s Supper Club in Harlem on September 29 and a September 30 event at Birdland in Mid-Town Manhattan with Smulyan, pianist Arturo O’Farrill, tenor saxophonist Lew Tabackin and bassist George Mraz.

New York City, however, isn’t the only place where Adams tribute concerts have been planned for September. Outside of New York City, live performances in memory of the baritonist are planned for Chicago (Jeremy Kahn at the Chicago Jazz Festival on September 2), Cincinnati (the Blue Wisp Jazz Band at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club on September 5) and Montreal, Quebec (pianist Andre White at Upstairs Jazz on September 14). For October, Adams-themed performances are planned for Detroit (pianist Scott Gwinnell at Cliff Bell’s on October 5), Los Angeles (Smulyan at Catalina Jazz Club on October 17) and Vancouver, Canada (the Jill Townsend Big Band at Cellar Jazz on October 25).

The fact that one of those tribute events will be taking place in Detroit is quite appropriate in light of Adams’ connection to the Motor City. Adams was born in Highland Park, Michigan (a Detroit suburb) on October 8, 1930, and Detroit was where he first met trumpeter Donald Byrd.

The baritone sax was not the first instrument Adams played. He started out on the piano before picking up the tenor sax and clarinet, but he switched to the baritone at 16 and made it his primary instrument. Adams claimed baritone saxophonist Harry Carney (best known for his association with Duke Ellington) as one of his primary influences along with tenor men Coleman Hawkins and Wardell Gray. But while Carney made his mark in swing, Adams was very much a hard bopper—and he was among the first people to apply the language of bop to the baritone.

With his big, robust, muscular tone, Adams was a baritone equivalent of Dexter Gordon or Gene Ammons. And unlike the subtle and understated Gerry Mulligan (who played cool jazz and was the baritone’s answer to Stan Getz or Zoot Sims), the hard-swinging Adams was known for playing forcefully and aggressively. But like a lot of big-toned hard bop saxmen, Adams had a romantic streak and could be delightfully lyrical on ballads.

Adams began to record as a leader in the late 1950s. He co-led a quintet with Byrd from 1958-1961, and their association included seven studio albums as well as a four-month engagement at the Five Spot in Manhattan (in 2000, Mosaic released the four-CD set The Complete Blue Note Donald Byrd/Pepper Adams studio sessions). Other major associations for Adams included his years as a soloist for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra from 1965-1976 and an on-and-off association with Charles Mingus that lasted until 1979. Adams also appeared on albums by John Coltrane, Blue Mitchell, Oliver Nelson, Elvin Jones, Hank Mobley, Kenny Clarke, Duke Pearson, Lee Morgan and Chet Baker, among many others. Sadly, Adams was a heavy cigarette smoker, and he was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1984. But Adams continued to perform and survived for two more years.

Adams’ influence remains long after his death. Among jazz students who are learning the baritone sax, Adams’ albums are considered essential listening. And as all the Adams-inspired activities of September and October 2012 demonstrate, his admirers haven’t lost any of their enthusiasm.•••





“Adams was very much a hard bopper—and he was among the first people to apply the language of bop to the baritone.”