Pepper the Amusing Paraphraser

Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Here's a priceless anecdote from Earl McIntyre via Nate Cabana. Nate wrote me 

about Pepper Adams' Joy Road and pepperadams.com:

"My first job in the city was at a community music school called the
Brooklyn/Queens Conservatory of Music. The head of the jazz division there
is Earl McIntyre, former tuba/bass trombone in the Thad/Mel band. Earl was
a tremendous influence on me and is a wonderful musician who has been on
the scene since the late 60's/early 70's. Whenever I had the chance I would press 

him for information and stories about his experiences. . . . I never got a chance to 

have an in-depth discussion with him in regards to his experiences with Pepper 

Adams, but the one anecdote that he did share with me I have always cherished.  

It went something like this:

'Pepper Adams was a real funny cat.  When the Thad/Mel band would tour the
college circuit they would often visit the Big 10 schools. Usually he would get 

a feature on a tune like "Once Around." Well, every time the band visited a school 

with an intense athletic rivalry, Pepper would make it a point to quote the rival 

school's fight song! So, say they were playing at Indiana University, he would quote 

Purdue's fight song, or if they were at Ohio State University he would find a way to 

work Michigan's alma matter into one of his solos.'"