Welcome Pepper Adams listeners! Here you will find a rotating selection of extraordinary and very rare performances by Pepper Adams, performed around the world, from 1967 to 1984. Just as Pepper told me about listening to Bird bootlegs, I feel that Pepper’s live dates, away from the pressures of commerce, reveal him at his most experimental, free to play with melodic and harmonic material, and especially free to stretch out and create long solos of stunning beauty. Some of his very best playing will be available here, mostly from audience tapes I’ve collected, but some from broadcasts and unissued material done in the studio. I welcome your comments on the blog. Long live Pepper Adams!

April’s recording:  

Gone with the Wind is a set of changes that Adams really enjoyed, and, in this rollicking, hard-swinging, four-and-a-half-minute solo, you can hear how Adams’ endless ideas flow superbly from chorus to chorus. This excerpt of Gone with the Wind is taken from a Danish Radio broadcast, recorded at the Montmartre Jazzhus on 23 September 1976. Adams was in Europe with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra from 11 June until 3 October, one of Adams’ longest tours with the band. Personnel: Thad Jones cornet; Pepper Adams bs; Kenny Drew p; Hugo Rasmussen b; Svend-Erik Nørregaard dm.