He was also influenced at a young age by listening to Fletcher Henderson's big band radio broadcasts out of Nashville, Jimmie Lunceford, Duke Ellington, and Cab Calloway.

[6] As early as fourth grade, Adams sold cigarettes and candy door-to-door in order to contribute to his family's income for essential items.

[5] Adams switched to tenor saxophone in the fall of 1943, which was made possible due to his jobs as a box cutter in the mail order room of a jazz store and an usher at a movie theater, allowing him to make enough money to buy the instrument.

His first steady gig came in 1946 with a six-piece group led by Ben Smith, which then caused him to drop out of school in the 11th grade due to working six nights a week.

[5] Following the recommendation of friend Oscar Pettiford, Adams joined the Stan Kenton Orchestra in 1956, where he played for a majority of the year until leaving the group to form a new ensemble with Lee Katzman and Mel Lewis in Los Angeles.

Prior to signing with Motown, Adams turned down an offer from Harry James to play in his Las Vegas-based band because it was extremely commercial and presented few opportunities to solo, despite its $10,000 annual salary.

[12] Adams co-led a quintet with Donald Byrd from 1958 to 1962, with whom he recorded a live date, 10 to 4 at the 5 Spot (Riverside), featuring Elvin Jones,[13] and a sequence of albums for Blue Note.

During this time he also played with the Sal Salvador Big Band at the Diamond Beach Club in Wildwood, New Jersey, in August 1965, along with Teddy Charles in early 1966, and Ella Fitzgerald in 1967.

[5] Most of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band performances took place at the Village Vanguard in New York City, along with many colleges and other locations around the United States, Europe, and Asia.

[9] Adams' life was severely altered by the leg injury he sustained in December 1983, which was caused by his car's parking brake becoming disengaged on his slanted driveway.

[5] Despite the long recovery from his injury, Adams began playing again and exhibited his love for performing in October 1984 by flying from New York City all the way to Singapore for a one-night gig, then returning two days later.

[5] A benefit concert was held for Adams on September 29, 1985, in New York City that featured Dizzy Gillespie, Frank Foster, Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, among others.

[5] Despite his various health issues, Adams continued pushing himself professionally, which was exemplified by his stretch in Dublin, Ireland, April 4–6, 1986, when he played five gigs over three days with five different bands.

[5] Pepper Adams was in many ways the antithesis of near-contemporary baritone players Gerry Mulligan and Serge Chaloff, who favored melodic cool jazz.

"[9] Adams "succeeded in elevating [the baritone saxophone] to the level of all other solo instruments [with] blinding speed, penetrating timbre, distinctive sound, harmonic ingenuity, precise articulation, confident time-feel, and use of melodic paraphrase".

[8] A large part of Adams' appeal was that "[he] had the remarkable ability to blow low with enormous power and swing, becoming a hefty addition to big band reed sections.

[6] In December 1982, Adams won the DownBeat Readers' Poll award for the best baritone saxophonist in the world, unseating Gerry Mulligan, who had held that distinction since 1953.

[5] With Ray Alexander With Mose Allison With Gene Ammons With Chet Baker With Walter Bishop Jr. With Joshua Breakstone With Ray Bryant With Donald Byrd With Hank Crawford With Richard Davis With Maynard Ferguson With Don Friedman With Jimmy Forrest With Curtis Fuller With Red Garland With Dizzy Gillespie With Bobby Hackett With Johnny Hammond With Barry Harris With Elvin Jones With Philly Joe Jones With Quincy Jones With The Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra With Stan Kenton With Peter Leitch With Herbie Mann With Arif Mardin With Howard McGhee With Helen Merrill With Charles Mingus With Blue Mitchell With The Mitchells: Red Mitchell, Whitey Mitchell, Blue Mitchell and André Previn With Hank Mobley With Thelonious Monk With Lee Morgan With Oliver Nelson With Duke Pearson With Houston Person With Pony Poindexter With Shorty Rogers With A. K. Salim With Lalo Schifrin With Ben Sidran With Dakota Staton With Idrees Sulieman With Toots Thielemans With Mickey Tucker With Stanley Turrentine With Jimmy Witherspoon With Joe Zawinul