Pepper Adams Festival September 26, 2012

Pepper Adams, a major but widely unknown figure in jazz history, was a groundbreaking baritone saxophonist who was largely responsible for introducing the rough and reedy sound of the "bari" to the technical demands of bebop. Heavily influenced by tenor saxophonists Wardell Gray and Coleman Hawkins and fellow baritone player Harry Carney, Adams, nicknamed "the Knife," played with a driving intensity. This tribute acknowledges the place that Adams held for nearly four decades as a nearly ubiquitous figure in jazz ensembles.