Saturday, June 4, 2011

Jeremy Kahn Sextet records new Pepper Adams project

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.



It was such a joy to be in Chicago last week to record all seven of Pepper Adams' ballads!  It was Pepper Adams' unfulfilled wish at the time of his death in 1986 that lyrics be written to his ballads.  Now, the lyrics that I commissioned posthumously have been recorded.  The culmination of at least a half a year of planning, Jeremy Kahn took my ideas for transforming Pepper's ballads into other styles and wrote another brilliant set of arrangements.  Transforming a dreamy, harmonically rich Strayhornesque ballad into a funk tune, for example, was just one of the ideas I had for Adams' ballads that Kahn crafted with extraordinary results.  It sure helps when you have a terrific band.  Jeremy and I brought back Ray Brown drummer George Fludas, who appears on Volumes 1 and 2 of this project.  Joining us for the first time is the very tasteful Chicago bassist Dennis Carroll, who has played with Fludas for many years.  Singer Alexis Cole, who collaborated in New York with poet/lyricist Barry Wallenstein to fit his words to Adams' compositions and, later, to Jeremy's provocative arrangements, sang on all seven tunes, each also a showcase for our two extraordinary tenor saxophonists, Pat LaBarbera and Eric Alexander.  The date will be released on CD Baby, just prior to the group's concert at the Chicago Jazz Festival on Saturday, September 3.  Please check out the date, and come on out and support the band and the music of Pepper Adams!  The concert is free.

3 comments:

  1. Hi,

    My name is Michael Stack and I am President of Verse Music Group who
    recently acquired the Bethlehem Jazz Records label. We are in the
    process of trying get in touch with the artists who recorded for
    Bethlehem or where appropriate their descendants or representatives of
    their estates. I am wondering if you have ever come across any descendants of Pepper Adams
    whilst you were developing the site? Any help that you can give would
    be greatly appreciated.

    Many thanks in advance,

    Best regards,

    Michael Stack
    President

    Verse Music Group LLC
    134 West 25th Street 5th Floor
    New York, NY 10001
    212.494.0078 | 212.494.0079
    www.versemusicgroup.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This website is a tremendous resource! I have an arrangement of "Claudette's Way" for big band, which we have performed (but not recorded) with the Emerald City Jazz Orchestra here in Seattle. I'd like to contribute this arrangement to your archive if I may, and I'd also like to acquire official permissions to market the arrangement. Please send contact info.

    Thanks,
    Matso Limtiaco
    Snohomish WA

    ReplyDelete
  3. Whoops! My email: matsolimtiaco@comcast.net.

    ReplyDelete