You may be able to hide behind the physicality, but the voice of the baritone sax is as grand as and as present as its stature. It can be almost percussive and then moan a lyrical line, almost like a human voice.
Like the human voice emotion from sadness to joy and humor can be found in its plumbing. Not unlike the human baritone voice, it ranges from an almost haunting beauty in a soundscape like some registers of the cello and it will also fearlessly be as audacious and full on with life. Pepper Adams found all of these voices in the instrument. His compositions showed off the instrument’s range and Adams’s imagination and artistic wit.
From tender as a side player to alive and in every moment when out in front, Adams gave the baritone life.