Biography
Adams, Pepper [Park Frederick III] b Highland Park, MI, 8 Oct 1930; d Brooklyn, NY, 10 Sept 1986. Jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. Adams first learned music in the Rochester, New York public schools. Soon after moving to Detroit in 1947, he adopted the baritone as his sole instrument, allowing him to get gigs in the fiercely competitive Detroit music scene. After completing two years in the U.S. Army Band, Adams returned to Detroit in 1953, 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. Most notably, from 1958-1961 Adams co-led a quintet with Donald Byrd, and by the mid-’70s, he had worked with virtually everyone, including John Coltrane, Wes Montgomery, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charles Mingus. 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. Apart from his tunes, twenty albums as a leader, and 600 sessions as a sideman, 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.
GARY CARNER