‘Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions of Charles Mingus’ Joins Blue Note Tone Poet Series
Baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams’ 1963 album is coming to Blue Note’s Tone Poet reissue collection.
A deep-cut treasure of a 1960s jazz album is coming getting the Blue Note Tone Poet treatment this year. Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions of Charles Mingus, a 1963 recording from the baritone saxophonist, will soon be available through the legendary label’s flagship audiophile reissue series.
Pepper Adams Plays The Compositions of Charles Mingus was originally released via the Motown subsidiary Workshop Jazz, a short-lived imprint primarily active between 1962 and 1964. Adams takes two different approaches to Mingus’ repertoire. A majority of the album, including “Fables of Faubus” and “Black Light,” feature a quintet lineup with Thad Jones on trumpet, Hank Jones on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Dannie Richmond on drums. But three songs—”Better Git It in Your Soul,” “Portrait,” and “Haitian Fight Song”—are played as an octet, building out the starting lineup with Benny Powell on trombone, Charles McPerson on alto saxophone, and Zoot Sims on tenor saxophone, plus bringing in Bob Cranshaw on bass.
The record marked one of eighteen albums Adams led on over his decades-long career. In addition to these releases, Adams also served as a sideman on over 600 albums, collaborating with Donald Byrd, Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Lee Morgan, Quincy Jones, and more. He died in 1986 from lung cancer at the age of 55. His final performance was at Montreal’s Montreaux Jazz Festival that year, where he received a standing ovation.
The release marks Adams’ first entry in the Tone Poet series as a bandleader. He joins genre pioneers including Ornette Coleman, Stanley Turrentine, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis. All the records in the series, which is produced by the Tone Poet himself Joe Harley, receive a new remaster from Kevin Gray using original analog tapes. They’re pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and come complete with a deluxe tip-on gatefold jacket.
