Tag: pepper adams

Boss Baritones w/ Gary Smulyan & Frank Basile out tomorrow!

A new exciting album drops tomorrow, Friday June 7th. Two of my favorite baritonists will be releasing their album finally. I’ve seen the group play live a couple times and its tremendous. Gary Smulyan, and Frank Basile are both solidly in the Pepper Adams school of baritone playing, but each have their own take on it.

This group they have together is somewhat a throwback to the notable groups that had two tenor saxophones as the front men (Think Sonny Stitt & Gene Ammons, or Johnny Griffin & Lockjaw Davis etc)

I’ve pre-ordered my copy, if you’d like to grab yours the link is here.

BIG news for the baritone – Low Blow Music launches!

This is the biggest news I’ve been able to write about I think since launching this site 15 years ago.

Some time last year Gary Smulyan called me to propose a crazy idea to promote the baritone saxophone. Though we have planned and scrapped those plans a few times we are finally at the point where we can announce a new organization devoted to the baritone saxophone. Low Blow Music was formed by Gary Smulyan in conjunction with the council of baritonists – Frank Basile, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro (myself), Brian Landrus and Jason Marshall – with the purpose of promoting the baritone saxophone.

We’re hoping to make this a world-wide phenomenon, and to kick things off we are celebrating Pepper Adams’ birthday on October 8th, 2022 with a BARITONE MARATHON. 12 hours of baritone and a jam session to boot. In addition to performances from groups led by Gary as well as each of the council of baritonists, we have additional performances from Lauren Sevian, Dave Schumacher, Roger Rosenberg and Carl Maraghi! The day will start at 12pm with Gary Smulyan and end at 12:30pm with an open Jam Session! Click here to see the full line up and schedule.

But perhaps the even more exciting news is that we have launched LowBlowMusic.com – this is a site that offers exclusive baritone content for a very affordable yearly membership of $25. Membership will get you all of the following:

-Access to the live stream of the October 8th event!
-Council of baritonists videos – conversation and mini lessons from Gary Smulyan, Claire Daly, Andrew Hadro, Jason Marshall, and Brian Landrus!
-Rare photos from Gary Smulyan’s career and travels
-Free download of the album “Marcescence” from Andrew Hadro
-Custom altissimo fingering chart from Andrew Hadro
-Rare photos from Claire Daly’s career and travels!
-Free download of the album “Mirage” from Brian Landrus
-Access to unreleased live Frank Basile performance in France
And more to come soon.

You can also support this organization by joining as a Gold Member or becoming a Sponsor of one of the live sets!

I hope to see you at the Ornithology Jazz Club in person, and look forward to sharing all of the forthcoming baritone goodness with you.

Andrew Hadro

New, previously unreleased, Pepper Adams album!

For Pepper Adams fans (which is most baritone saxophonists I think) there is great news. A new album is being released after being uncovered by some extensive archive digging. Its being released on the Real to Reel label headed up by Cory Weeds. The title is “Pepper Adams with the Tommy Banks Trio: Live at the Room at the Top”

This is a recording from an engagement Pepper did with the Tommy Banks trio. The new recording is in a 2 disc format with an extensive booklet. The tune lengths seem to indicate plenty of stretching out in the blowing, which makes sense on a live recording not originally intended for release. 

From the official description:

The 100-minute performance was recorded on September 25th, 1972 at the University of Alberta.

This is the first release from a rich tape archive from Marc Vasey in Edmonton, Alberta. The set is transferred from the original analogue tapes. The deluxe edition double CD Includes an extensive 15 page booklet with rare photos; essays by Gary Carner, producer Cory Weeds; plus interviews with baritone saxophonists Frank Basile and Gary Smulyan as well as original music producer Marc Vasey.

Click here to pre-order ! (releases May 6th, 2022)

Virtual Round Table on Pepper Adams

Do you want to watch 14 respected baritonists talk about and tell stories about Pepper Adams? Of course you do! Fortunately for all of us Gary Carner has put together such a thing. Gary is the author of the recent Pepper Adams biography Reflectory. Have a watch of the video below, and enjoy!

The musicians featured in the roundtable discussion were: Kenny Berger, Larry Dickson, Gary Smulyan, Glenn Wilson, Frank Griffith, Peter Leitch, John Vana, Andre White, Frank Basile, Shirantha Beddage, Aaron Lington, Jason Marshall, Adam Schroeder, Anders Svanoe.

 

Pepper Adams Biography is now out! + Interview

Fans of Pepper Adams (so pretty much all baritone saxophonists) should be aware of Gary Carner. It is not an exaggeration to say he is the foremost authority on Pepper Adams. Not only does he run the very extensive site, pepperadams.com he also published ‘Joy Road’, a very thorough annotated discography of Pepper Adams. And after many years of prepping, holding interviews, and research he has completed his biography of Pepper, titled “Reflectory: The Life and Music of Pepper Adams”.

The biography is currently available in eBook form, with a physical copy perhaps due out in the future.  The amazing thing about the eBook format is that it includes inline links to hundreds of recordings relevant to exactly what is being said in the book at that time. Many of these recordings are previously unreleased – thousands of hours of music included here.

Find out even more and buy a copy here:
https://www.pepperadams.com/Reflectory/index.html

I recently was able to have a nice discussion with Gary Carner about the book and also about Pepper Adams. His love and enthusiasm for the great baritonist and this project is clearly evident. I have included the interview below.

2 More Pepper Adams Transcriptions!

Continuing with the recent theme of Pepper Adams (appropriate since his birthday was recently) there are two new transcriptions in the repository thanks to Noah Pettibon! More Pepper Adams news coming soon too.

The first is on the classic Monk blues “Straight, No Chaser” from a live TV broadcast in Sweden, and the second is from the great album “Jazzmen Detroit”. Enjoy them both below!

Pepper and a Mulligan transcriptions added

I’d like to thank Jorge Retamoza for sharing two new transcriptions to the repository. Two very different solos but both from two great baritonists.

First is a Gerry Mulligan solo from what I always thought was one of Gerry Mulligan’s more interesting albums. Its called “Close Your Eyes and Listen” and its from a collaborative album Mulligan made in the 70’s with Argentinian Tango master, Astor Piazzolla. The music is beautiful and the arrangements are excellent. There is some tinge of unfortunate 70’s era percussion and sounds but overall I think the album is beautiful and Mulligan’s lyrical playing worked really well with Piazzolla’s tango.

The second solo is a Pepper Adams solo. Its the title track from his album, “Urban Dreams”. Not much to add here other than its great to have another classic Pepper solo in the mix. Urban Dreams is one of the later recordings he made as a leader.

Head on over to the Transcriptions page and check them out.