Joe Temperley, a Scottish baritone saxophonist who anchored the reed sections of some of the most prominent big bands of the last half-century — notably the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in which he played for 25 years — died on May 11 at his home in Manhattan. He was 86.

The cause was kidney failure and complications of cancer, his wife, Laurie Temperley, said.

During a seven-decade career that began with dance bands in Glasgow and carried him to concert halls across the world, Mr. Temperley maintained a personal trademark of soulful professionalism. He had a deep sonority on the baritone, softening the instrument’s stentorian brawn with a smooth, almost velvety tone. He could blend to the point of invisibility within a saxophone section, but he was also a gallant soloist with a special gift for ballads.

Though he was fluent in a range of modern jazz styles, his great hero on the baritone saxophone was Harry Carney, a stalwart of the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1927 until after Ellington’s death in 1974. At Mr. Carney’s funeral later that year, Mr. Temperley played a signature ballad in tribute, “Sophisticated Lady.” The performance so impressed Mercer Ellington, the maestro’s son, that he asked Mr. Temperley to succeed Mr. Carney in a legacy edition of the band.

Mr. Temperley remained with the Ellington orchestra for more than a decade, until accepting an invitation from Wynton Marsalis to join the new resident jazz orchestra at Lincoln Center in 1991. After Mr. Marsalis, the founder and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Mr. Temperley had the longest tenure of any member of the band.