The Hard Copy-Ebook Dilemma

{SEE BELOW}

This month has been an exciting one. Much to my surprise, I found thirteen

unmarked tapes that I had to review. Some fascinating material came out

of them, especially regarding Pepper and Elvin Jones’ early days together

in New York City. I even found a tape of Tommy Flanagan’s trio live at the

Village Vanguard!

Most of my efforts continue to be readying the first part of the biography for

publication. I’m in the process of making my final edits, then passing it on

to three readers for their final comments. That will push the publication date

into January but make for a stronger book.

I’ve put some time, too, into writing Chapter 7. It covers Adams’ recordings

from 1963-1977. I expect a first draft to be in place by the end of the year.

That’s well ahead of schedule. For my work on this chapter, I’ve been

listening to all my versions of Pepper’s Thad/Mel solos features. Although

there are sixteen of them, six in particular form the core of Pepper’s solos

with the band: “Once Around,” “Three and One,” “Us,” “Thank You,” “Little

Rascal on a Rock” and “My Centennial.”

Tony Faulkner sent me an exciting video of the University of Illinois Concert

Jazz Band. Three Pepper tunes are played: “Patrice” (at 9:00), “Mary's Blues”

(at 1:14:40) and “Etude Diabolique” (at 1:32:45). “Patrice” features Glenn

Wilson bs. “Mary's Blues” features Ron Bridgewater ts and Carlos Vega

ts. “Etude Diabolique” features all three plus Chip McNeill ts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odBCOgzJoJ0

Two Pepper concerts, both jam sessions done at the Highlights of Jazz series

In New York, are available to check out. The first was led by David Amram

from May 6, 1974: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/kleinsinger/16/ Scroll

towards the bottom of the page. On -a, Adams solos begin at 9:55, 35:52;

48:24., and 1:05:12. A “Tribute to Al Cohn” took place on December 15, 1977.

Pepper’s solo on “In a Mellow Tone” begins at 44:32. His ballad feature on

“My Ideal” begins at 1;00:37: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/kleinsinger/41/ 

I’ll let you find them.

I’ve gotten commitments from three European writers to review the biography.

Because everyone prefers a hard copy edition but the Pepper book will be

released only as an ebook, it was necessary to explain to them my rationale

for that decision. The following will be posted soon at pepperadams.com: 

A Word About Hard Copy

Books vs. Ebooks

The only publishers who produce hard copy books about important yet unglamorous 

jazz figures are either academic or small independent presses. To keep the cover price 

affordable, their modus operandi is to include mostly text and not exceed around 250 

pages. Music examples and musicological analysis, in particular, are anathema. It 

increases the book’s cost and scares off a substantial part of their readership. 

We strongly feel, however, that Pepper Adams is worthy of a major study well beyond 

what these publishers will accept. For one thing, a 250 page limit for this work’s 

biographical and cultural study (Part One) would necessitate significant excisions, 

even, as was suggested, if the entire first part was decoupled from the musicological 

section (Part Two) and published as a freestanding volume. Secondly, the musical 

analysis of Adams’ artistry is the science that proves his many accomplishments. Best 

conjoined with the biographical study, it buttresses some of the assessments in Part One 

just as surely as the biography contextualizes the analysis of Part Two. Simply put, they 

need each other.

Although the authors are fully aware that many readers prefer hard copy books, the way 

that the current publishing landscape restricts jazz scholarship is the reason why an ebook 

for a work of this kind is the only sensible alternative. By cutting out the middleman, we 

don’t have to reconsider the book’s length or scope. Photographs, music examples, 

and audio samples, too, aren’t a constraint. 

We’re especially excited that our interactive, multidimensional study allows the reader to 

listen to the recordings that are discussed in the book, and view an array of photographs 

and other related material. To that aim, all the links that are enabled within the text are tied

to corresponding documentation that’s found at other websites. Furthermore, we’ve 

Designed an inclusionary approach to Part Two so that musicians and non-musicians alike

can appreciate Adams’ eminence. Divided into two sections, the first part will contain 

general observations about his style that can be understood by non-musicians. The other, 

quite technical and intended for musicians, will include musical jargon and notation.

Three separate ebook installments will be released upon completion. “The Life of Pepper 

Adams” (Part One, 1930-1955) will be published first: Chapters 1-3 in 2020, Chapters 

4-10 a year later. “The Music of Pepper Adams” (Part Two, 1956-1986) will be published 

by 2029, in time for Adams’ centennial in 2030. Please join us for the worldwide 

celebration.

Utah State Does It The Right Way

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I arrived in Logan, Utah on a Monday, just before dinner. Logan is a college town, the home of Utah State University. The drive north from Salt Lake City is picturesque, especially breathtaking on Route 89 as you drive up and over the mountain pass about twenty minutes outside of Logan.

Baritone saxophonist Jon Gudmundson (http://music.usu.edu/faculty/faculty_directory/Gudmundson) invited me to Utah State. He runs their jazz program. The occasion of my two hour journey from Salt Lake City was to fulfill Jon’s vision of a Pepper Adams celebration at Utah State.

Several years ago in an email to me, Jon said he’d like to produce a big band concert of Pepper Adams charts to feature both his students and a guest soloist. Also, he thought I should participate in some way. Jon’s idea was an outgrowth of purchasing Tony Faulkner’s charts in 2013 as part of my Kickstarter campaign.

Fast forward to 2016. I wrote Jon to tell him that my daughter had moved to Salt Lake and I’d be in Utah at least once a year. That brought Jon’s idea for an Adams celebration back to the foreground. Moving ahead, Jon invited baritone saxophonist Jason Marshall (http://jazzbarisax.com/marshall.php, http://www.pmauriatmusic.com/us/artists/artist/14-jason-marshall ) to be the soloist with his two student big bands. And he asked me to lecture about Pepper Adams to his jazz history class and do a pre-concert interview about Adams with Utah deejay Steve Williams as a way of kicking off the show.

                    (Jon Gudmundson)

Apart from the Pepper Adams agenda, the week was made even more interesting by the presence of guitarist Peter Bernstein (http://peterbernsteinmusic.com/). Since Bernstein was passing through on his way back to New York, he too was invited to do a clinic and perform a concert at USU’s beautiful Performance Hall. This confluence of heavyweight New York musicians way out west felt like a Smoke reunion. (Both play there on a weekly basis.)

Sitting in on Peter’s concert were Jason Marshall and guitarist Corey Christiansen (http://music.usu.edu/faculty/faculty_directory/Christiansen ). The concert consisted of standards and it revealed a more introspective side of Bernstein’s artistry than I expected. His playing throughout showcased the harmonic inventiveness and technical range that has made him one of the world’s foremost guitarists.

The following morning I lectured on Pepper Adams in Jon’s class. It was comprised mostly on non-music majors. I only had 75 minutes. Much like my lecture at Brigham Young University the previous week I needed to keep my comments brief. Unlike BYU, however, I was able to read to the students part of my Prologue to my forthcoming Adams biography and interlace two YouTube videos for context: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCnWKm5uYhs and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfI6ljMgvuQ).

During my lecture, Jon Gudmundson said that he and Jason Marshall were talking about Pepper. Marshall questioned whether Adams on ballad performances ever stayed in a tender mood for an entire tune without double-timing. Partly on Marshall's behalf, Gudmundson asked me, “Does Pepper always scramble eggs?” “Yes,” I nodded. I mentioned that Adams in some ways was a frustrated soloist, spending too much time with big bands and not nearly enough recording or playing on his own with small groups. Jon, understanding my reply, said in summation, “He had a lot of notes inside that needed to come out.”

In addressing Jon and Jason’s question further, I then played for the class “Star-Crossed Lovers” from Adams’ great recording Encounter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie3hWHklEG0&list=PLEE675BC1DD76B95E) to show Adams’ interest in a more sublime, lyrical aesthetic. On that, unfortunately, Pepper only embellishes the melody. Much like Coltrane’s “Naima,” Pepper doesn’t take a solo, instead giving it to Tommy Flanagan as Trane did with McCoy Tyner. I thought to next play Pepper’s solo on “East of the Sun” with Toots Thielemans from Man Bites Harmonica but the class was coming to a close.

After the talk I thought more about the issue of Adams as an “extreme player.” Does that detract from what he does? Some musicians, such as bassist Major Holley, would ask him why he plays so many notes. Did they ask Art Tatum the same thing? Does that suggest a double standard? Is there a different aesthetic expected of piano soloists than saxophonists or low-pitched instrumentalists?

I remembered something Gary Smulyan once said to me about the audience perception of baritone playing, something he’s been trying to get away from as his career continues to evolve. He told me it’s always expected that he play aggressively. If he doesn’t, his fans are let down. Perhaps Pepper Adams felt the same pressure?

Basically, it seems to me that Pepper’s playing is characterized one way based on the bulk of his commercial recordings. Yet some of his little known audience tapes show an entirely different side to his playing. If Pepper, on commercial recordings, preferred a bravura, virtuosic style of playing, is that necessarily a bad thing?

I thought first about medium tempo Pepper solos, such as the audience recording “Bye, Bye Blackbird” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC2vilxFqpk ) where Adams strikes a perfect balance between behind-the-beat, swinging eighth-note choruses and double-timing. But then I remembered some commercial recordings. There’s this early Pepper solo on “A Winter’s Tale”: http://www.pepperadams.com/Compositions/compList/WintersTale/index.html#anchor

Pepper plays very lyrically until he doubles up at the end as a climactic denouement. How about his great solo on Excerent?: http://www.pepperadams.com/Compositions/compList/Excerent/index.html#anchor Do you have any lyrical Pepper solos you can recommend?

Back to Marshall and Gudmundson's point, how about Adams’ ballad playing in particular? Did Pepper ever hold back and not double-time? This ties into a criticism that Lewis Porter once articulated to me about Adams. He said, after listening to a Pepper solo at my house in the mid 1980s, that Adams is “an anxious player.” Do you in any way agree? Is he too quick to double up, too eager (= anxious) to slowly build up a solo? Do some of his lines, or his rhythmic patterns, add an anxious sensibility, especially when they’re staccato? Does Martin Williams’ comment to me many years ago about Pepper--“He’s playing Coleman Hawkins paradiddles”-- have any merit?

Lip scoops. Remember Brian Williams’ comment a year or so ago about Pepper’s overuse of them? Is this unique to Pepper? Is it part of his articulational concept?

Apart from all the time I spent thinking about the implications of Jon and Jason's observation, one of the highlights of my Logan experience was a jam session held at Jack’s Wood Fired Oven. Mostly an enthusiastic Tuesday night hang for Utah State music students and their retinue, the night was made particularly exciting thanks to the added presence of Jason Marshall, Peter Bernstein, various Utah State faculty, and especially Detroit trumpeter Kris Johnson (http://krisjohnsonmusic.com/), who drove up from Salt Lake with one of his bari students to see Marshall (his old Count Basie Band buddy). All took turns sitting in and Johnson was dazzling!

Equally enjoyable was my opportunity to speak to the large pre-concert audience on my final night in Logan. For thirty minutes I was asked a handful of questions by Steve Williams before an appreciative house prior to USU’s “Tribute to Pepper Adams.” At the Tribute (see program), Greg Wheeler conducted two Tony Faulkner charts: “Mary’s Blues” and “Trentino.” Later, Jon Gudmundson conducted three others: “Bossallegro,” “Doctor Deep” and “Etude Diabolique.” 

Featured soloist Jason Marshall played beautifully throughout the night. He had a chance to work with the USU faculty small group (Aggie Music Project) on two tunes between the big band sets, and added an absolutely exquisite surprise ballad duet, backed by piano. He prefaced it by saying (and I paraphrase), “I want to play something pretty. We need more pretty in our lives. It delays the oxidative process.”

Lecture Notes

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I was off for much of the week, enjoying a few rounds of golf with a good friend. Because of that, the second part of my review of 50 Years at the Village Vanguard will be delayed at least a week. Thanks for your patience.

As of yesterday, I began preparing a new Pepper Adams lecture for at least four talks I'll be giving in Utah over a two-week period starting March 27. I've been invited to Utah State University for a few days as a guest of professor Jon Gudmundson. I'll be speaking about Pepper Adams in a classroom setting on April 4, and again at a pre-concert talk on April 5. The latter will be before a concert by the Utah State Jazz Band. They're performing some of Tony Faulkner's big band charts of Pepper Adams tunes, with Jason Marshall as the featured baritone saxophone soloist. The previous week I'll be lecturing to mostly music students at Westminster College (3/28), Salt Lake Community College (3/30) and Brigham Young University (3/31).

As I always do, I try to bring something new to these lectures. Apart from choosing different videos and music examples, I've tried to further refine why Pepper Adams remains overlooked. After all, why am I standing before these people, and why have so few in attendance not heard of him? Below is part of what I'll be presenting. (For one class I'll need to truncate my talk, hence the bracketed thing about Detroit.) I'm interested in your feedback. Am I on the right track? 

PEPPER LECTURE #4: PEPPER ADAMS (1930-1986)

Thank you, ________. It's great to be here. Today I'm going to discuss Pepper Adams' contribution to American music [ . . . and I'll touch on why his postwar Detroit generation of musicians is unique in jazz history.] 

Before I begin, do you have any burning questions for me about Pepper Adams or about my work about him? Have any of you seen pepperadams.com, my Instagram site, or my blog?

Before my lecture here was announced, how many of you had even heard of Pepper Adams? . . . 

There's no doubt that among jazz musicians during Adams' lifetime, and for many insiders up to this day, Pepper Adams is viewed as a jazz titan, an icon. Nevertheless, he still isn't widely known as a musician of significance, as I think he should be, nor even discussed in any depth in jazz histories that really should know better. Despite the reverence he commands among musicians, Adams still lingers as somewhat of a footnote to history. That disconnect, albeit gradually improving over time, is something I've dedicated my life to changing.

I've been working on Pepper Adams for 33 years, since I met him in the summer of 1984. I knew him during the last three years of his life, two during his terminal illness. I'm continually struck by how much he's overlooked as an innovator. Part of this, I think, is due to the sheer complexity of his style. There's a lot going on, a lot to grasp, when you hear a Pepper Adams solo! 

Another reason, as I see it, is the bias in the way jazz history is told and the way it's sold. For me, they are two sides of the same phenomenon. If you look through the histories of jazz, you'll likely notice that so much of it discusses bandleaders and their recordings. Those who led jazz bands have historically made the most well-known recordings because they are the ones most promoted by record companies, PR firms, radio and TV, and other affiliated industries. Such bandleader recordings in turn have gotten the most press and continual airplay. So, around and around it goes in a circular, self-aggrandizing cycle of promotion and acclaim.

Yet, I'd like to point out that there's a lot more to the history of jazz than music made only by bandleaders. The way they've been anointed as the core history of this amazing music is myopic and unfortunate. For one thing, there's the overlooked history of music made in major cities such as Detroit. Fortunately, this kind of localized scholarship is really beginning to flower. 

Then there's the issue of sidemen. Some of the greatest jazz musicians, such as Pepper Adams or Sonny Stitt, to name just two saxophonists, preferred to tour as soloists, playing with pickup rhythm sections throughout the world. They didn't want the responsibility of leading a band and running a business. Being a sideman doesn't make them any less important as players, nor, as I've said, shouldn't marginalize them in term of their historical influence. It's simply a business decision they've made, though it certainly has its implications, doesn't it? Even Charlie Parker, by the way, though extremely well known, also spent much of his career touring this way. 

So, part of Pepper Adams' lack of recognition is due to issues related to commerce, as well as the common narrative sold by the media and told in jazz books. In addition, he played the baritone saxophone, an instrument that before him was thought to be cumbersome and unwieldy; a low-pitched instrument that early in the Twentieth Century was somewhat of a novelty instrument. One of Adams' great contributions to music is the way he brought the level of playing on the baritone saxophone up to the level of all other instruments. 

What Happened to The Big Band and Tentet CDs?

After last week's stimulating experience interviewing Detroit pianist Charles Boles, this week was pretty sleepy by comparison. I did exchange emails with Chip McNeill at the University of Illinois regarding the long awaited CD of big band performances of Pepper Adams tunes. Unfortunately, the Illinois state budget is still on shaky ground and McNeil's esteemed jazz program has suffered because of it. For the past few years, Illinois has slashed public college educational spending. Limited resources has kept McNeill from having the revenue to, among other things, release the date on Armored Records. He told me that if he has any money left over at the end of this semester, he'll finally be able to release the CD.

This is the recording that features arrangements by the superb British drummer and arranger Tony Faulkner. In order for Faulkner to get paid, travel from England to North America for a month tour of concerts and lectures with me, and pay for the mastering of the original concert done at the University of Illinois, Tony and I oversaw a stressful but ultimately successful 30-day Kickstarter campaign in the summer of 2013. Somehow we exceeded our goal of $7000. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/333143376/the-compositions-of-pepper-adams-big-band-cd-and-t  On behalf of Tony Faulkner, I want to thank all of you for your funding of the project. We remain eternally grateful.

One large contributor was baritone saxophonist Jon Gudmundson, who leads the jazz program at Utah State University. It was Jon's three-part goal to perform some of these charts, feature a guest soloist at the concert, and invite me to speak about Pepper. That dream is finally coming to fruition in a few weeks. His big band is performing these tough Faulkner charts on Wednesday night, April 5, in Logan, Utah, with baritone saxophonist Jason Marshall as soloist. I'll be doing some kind of pre-concert talk, plus lecturing at a jazz class the day before. While in Utah, I'm also doing lectures at Westminster College, Salt Lake Community College, and possibly a few other schools.

The big band recording that Tony and I worked on was to be Volume 6 of my multi-volume CD series of Pepper's music. My record label, Motema, cut me loose after Volume 5 due to lackluster sales. At that point, not having a label, Chip and Glenn Wilson took back the project, deciding to search for a label or self-produce it through the university. After announcing its release on Armored http://www.armoredrecords.com, I thought the issue was concluded. Two winters ago the date was scheduled for release. Then I heard something about the owner's wife having a baby. Now it's Illinois' budget problem. We're nearly four years after the date has been recorded. Because of it being in limbo for far longer than any of us thought possible, the patience of some of my donors has no doubt been tried. Chip McNeill does not want me to release an edited version on CD Baby that we produced for Motema. In respect to his wishes, I continue to wait. Almost all of the donors will be receiving a surprise CD in the mail. I wish I knew when!

In the mail this week arrived a sampler CD, All Blues, from Denny Christianson, director of Humber College's great jazz program: http://humbermusic.ca/ Sometime after Tony Faulkner and I lectured at Humber in Toronto in the Fall of 2013, Christianson directed his Humber Studio Jazz Ensemble to record a collection of tunes, one of which was Pepper Adams' composition Doctor Deep. Finally, there's a well-produced studio version of one of Tony charts! Despite so many great concerts of his Adams charts done in 2012 and 2013, and even with the prospect of doing two recordings of Faulkner's arrangements, this Humber recording is the first and only commercial release of anything he wrote. The main reason why Tony worked so hard was to create a book of material that could be performed by big band and tentet, some of which would be recorded. The Illinois date has languished, obviously, and a live tentet recording led by drummer Tim Horner didn't turn out as expected and won't be released.

Speaking of drummers, I just received this email out of the blue from drummer Tony Inzalaco. It was a response to an email I sent to him last November:

Hi Gary;  I am replying to your email concerning working with Pepper Adams, etc. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond but I rarely check the email that you contacted me on. I would be happy to speak with you about Pepper but not by email. So if you are interested I would prefer speaking via telephone. You can either send me your number or request my number. Park was one of the great gentlemen of Jazz and his body of work is a testament of his artistic level of excellence.   

Sincerely,  

Tony Inzalaco

Here's my original email:

Hi Tony: In my interview with Pepper Adams, he mentioned playing with you in Atlantic City. He said it was a sextet led by Maynard Ferguson. I've been able to approximate the dates as cApr 20-24, 1965 and cApr 27-May 2, 1965. Might you remember who else was in that band, the venue, or anything else about it? Did you work with Pepper on any other occasions?

I'm scheduled to interview Tony this afternoon

                      (Tony Inzalaco)

In a few weeks, pepperadams.com's webmaster, Dan Olson, and I will be adding audio content of some of these big band performances of Faulkner's charts from 2013, including some great things on YouTube that haven't been seen because they're not properly indexed. By then, I should know if I'm going abroad in late September to give a presentation about Pepper Adams and Detroit in Darmstadt, Germany. My research over the last few months has been working toward having something of substance to present in Germany. If it comes to pass, I've been invited to Prague to stay with tenor saxophonist Osian Roberts. He'll no doubt do a gig of Pepper tunes when I'm there, hopefully with a big band, since he too arranged a few big band charts of Pepper's music. I'm hoping to lecture about Pepper at a few schools, including possibly the Prague Conservatory, if all works out.              

                            (Tony Faulkner)

Biography Update

Here's my first post of 2017. I caught the flu in late December while on vacation, then got blogged down in catch-up activities for much of the new year.

Apart from my day job, I'm happy to report that things have been moving ahead on my Pepper Adams research. My focus throughout 2017 is researching and writing the section of Adams' biography regarding his time in Detroit. Pepper considered himself a Detroiter through and through, so this is a very important part of the book. In order to make sense of it, I've had to read several books and articles, and comb my notes for things germane to that experience. I've also been listening again to all the personal interviews I conducted with Detroiters.

A few weeks ago I conducted an hour-long interview with Bennie Maupin. That was quite interesting. Maupin came of age in the fifties and was influenced by Adams, Yusef Lateef and Joe Henderson, among other Detroit musicians. Generally speaking, I've stopped doing interviews about Pepper, except those related to the Detroit experience. A forthcoming interview with Detroit pianist Charles Boles will likely be my last one this year.

It's not just the world Adams inhabited that intrigues me. It's also the music culture of Detroit. How did it come to be? How is it that so many great jazz musicians (and musicians of all styles) come from that city? No one has really pinned it down. Additionally, what was it about Pepper's amazing generation of musicians that brought it to fruition? How unique in jazz history is it? I'm pleased to say that a picture is beginning to emerge.

In the great biographies, I commonly see some kind of sweeping historical context conveyed about why and how its subject fits into its milieu. There's an explanation of the city he grew up in, for example, and how that informed his experience. It's this kind of narrative that I'm after for Pepper's biography, and he certainly deserves no less. That's why I've been reading all these books. Here's the ones most important so far:

Austin, Dan. Lost Detroit: Stories Behind the Motor City's Majestic Ruins. Charleston SC: History Press, 2010.

Bjorn, Lars; Jim Gallert. Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit: 1920-1960. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 2001.

Goldstein, Laurence, editor. "Detroit: An American City." Michigan Quarterly Review, Spring, 1986

Lemann, Nicholas. The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America. New York: Vintage, 1991.

Lewis, David L.; Laurence Goldstein, editors. The Automobile and American Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1991.

Martelle, Scott. Detroit: A Biography. Chicago: Chicago Review, 2012.

Sugrue, Thomas J. The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. Princeton: Princeton University, 1966.

I'm currently reading my last book about Detroit: The Most Dangerous Man in Detroit: Walter Reuther and the Fate of American Labor by Nelson Lichtenstein. I was very impressed by, and highly recommend, the documentary film Brothers on the Line (2012), directed by Sasha Reuther.

During the last month or so I also took two left turns to read Michael Segell's wonderful The Devil's Horn: The Story of the Saxophone, From Noisy Novelty to King of Cool and Vladimir Simosko's Serge Chaloff: A Musical Biography and Discography.

For context, I also watched again two TV shows about Pepper's friend, the great American poet Phil Levine. He's interviewed by Bill Moyers here: https://vimeo.com/82438969; and by Jeffrey Brown here: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment-jan-june10-levine_01-12/

I'll be summarizing my observations about Pepper Adams' great generation of postwar musicians in a few lectures I'll be doing in Utah in March and early April. Maybe I'll see you there? I'll be at Utah State in Logan for a few days as part of a residency, and also at Westminster College and Salt Lake Community College. A few other schools are possibilities too. At Utah State, the university big band is performing big band charts of Pepper's music, arranged by Tony Faulkner, featuring guest soloist Jason Marshall.

For those of you who haven't seen my recent Facebook posts, these two amazing Lionel Hampton videos were just posted on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOzUbvhwTIk&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21qpqYHQob0&feature=youtu.be

Both are from 1964, Pepper's first trip to Europe. They include two magnificent solos and are his earliest known videos (at age 34).

                                                            (Bennie Maupin)

New Pepper!

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

PEPPER ADAMS BIG BAND UPDATE:

I'm very happy to report that Armored Records will be releasing the Pepper Adams CD that some of you so kindly contributed to some two years ago. Again, thanks for your generosity and your continued patience while mastering was concluded and a label was finally procured. I haven't been given a release date, but I think it's likely it will be out by this Christmas. Once I receive the stack of CDs, I'll let everyone know so I can reconfirm shipping addresses before mailing them out to all those who contributed at that price level and above.

This will be added to the date's liner notes:

We gratefully acknowledge those who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign that helped make this recording possible. Special thanks go to Ben Sidran, Richard Davis, Ed Xiques, Ellen Rowe, Dan Morgenstern,  Kurt Eherenman, Nils Erik Hagstrom, Colin Mills, Gilberto Munoz, Andrew Layton, Pat Collins, Joe Lex, Peter Jason Riley, Andrew Homzy, Steven Cerra, Ken Kellett, Claire Daly, Flavius Cucu, Jon Gudmundson, Jonathan Nathan, Frank and Carol Bubel, Joie Gifford, Larry Miller and Ernie Jackson. Very special thanks go to Nat and Cindy Charatan, who functioned as Executive Producer.

The following tunes will be on the new recording:

University of Illinois (all Tony Faulkner charts)

Ephemera

Bossallegro

Claudette's Way

Doctor Deep

Jirge

Mary's Blues

Lovers of Their Time

Julian

Etude Diabolique

Also, in a few weeks we'll have another 16 videos of Pepper tunes uploaded to YouTube from four concerts that Tony Faulkner videotaped (at the Blue Wisp, in Montreal, at the Puffin Foundation in Teaneck NJ, and at Trumpets in Montclair NJ) as follows:

Puffin (all Faulkner tentet charts):

Ad Astra

Dobbin'

Valse Celtique

In Love with Night

Freddie Froo

Montreal (Faulkner tentet charts):

Conjuration

Dobbin'

Urban Dreams

Ad Astra

Freddie Froo

Philson

Diabolique II (chart by Bill Mahar)

Trumpets (Faulkner charts for big band):

Dobbin'

Philson

Freddie Froo

Park Frederick III

Blue Wisp (big band, charts by Larry Dickson)

Bossa Nouveau

Twelfth and Pingree 

Aside from these, Glenn Wilson's new CD release has two Pepper tunes.

Apart from all the good news, this past September 10 marked the 29th anniversary of Pepper's death. It's always a solemn day for me, commemorated by burning a candle in his honor.

                             (Chip McNeill)

                                                     (Glenn Wilson)

                                      (Glenn Wilson's new release)

View From the Bridge

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

A new video from Nice has just been posted on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XU-7kC--ws. It's Dick Hyman's New York Jazz Repertory Company in the summer of 1978. They're playing a tribute to Count Basie. This is the last video in which Pepper and Bob Wilber are seen playing together and both have solos. Wilber plays a great clarinet solo beginning at 3:02 and Pepper's only solo is at the 24:18 mark on "Broadway."

Also posted is this great Dick Hyman tribute to Duke Ellington, done the summer before, with Wilber and Pepper also in the band together: https://youtu.be/wwHwyAgSMiM  Be sure to check out Pepper's amazing solo on "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo," the first of the concert. After Pepper's first few notes, you'll notice Eddie Daniels and Bob Wilber's delight in Pepper's solo--how harmonically daring it is in the context of a 1920s Ellington piece. Another equally great moment is Wilber and then Pepper's back-to-back eight-bar statements in "Blue Goose." Tenor saxophonist and Detroit compatriot Billy Mitchell is so utterly impressed with Pepper's articulation of the passage that he gives Pepper a round of applause, much to Pepper's delight.

It's been quite a week for me listening to Pepper and performances of Pepper's music. Other than the above videos, just a few days ago I found the set of DVDs that Tony Faulkner (http://tonyfaulkner.net) filmed while we were touring throughout North America in the Fall of 2013. This is the first time I'm seeing these! I've only made my way thus far through the Altsys Orchestra's tentet performance from Montreal in November, 2013. (See http://mountainlake.org/blogs/gens-delights/the-segal-centre-proudly-presents-the-altsys-jazz-orchestra-/) I'm eager to get these posted on YouTube soon. This very fine, hard swinging ensemble, led by alto saxophonist Jennifer Bell and trumpeter Bill Mahar (https://www.mcgill.ca/music/about-us/bio/bill-mahar), did a wonderful concert of Tony Faulkner charts (except for Diabolique II, arranged by Mahar). A heartfelt thanks to Andrew Homzy for helping make this concert happen. Here are the tunes they performed:

1. Conjuration

2. Dobbin'

3. Urban Dreams

4. Ad Astra

5. Freddie Froo

6. Philson

7. Diabolique II

8. Unknown encore

                      (Jennifer Bell)

                            (Bill Mahar)

                            (Tony Faulkner)

Wardell Gray and Pepper Adams

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

How many have heard Wardell Gray's playing? How many know how big an influence he was on Pepper Adams? For the last year I've been thinking a lot about Gray's influence on Pepper. Last fall I had the opportunity to lecture about Pepper and Gray at a number of colleges while on a second Pepper Adams book tour. The trip took me to the University of Illinois, Western Illinois University, Wayne State University, Humber College, Concordia University, Hunter College, William & Mary, the University of North Carolina, and the North Carolina School of the Arts. I was traveling with eminent UK arranger/composer Tony Faulkner, one of the world's foremost authorities on Duke Ellington and Thad  Jones. As part of the tour Faulkner conducted workshops and rehearsed his Pepper Adams big band charts with college and professional bands. It was a great trip and we made a lot of new friends.

My lecture discussed the effects of Wardell Gray and Art Tatum's playing on Pepper Adams. Wardell Gray, for his part, was Pepper's greatest Detroit mentor. Already a world class player by the time Pepper relocated to Detroit in 1947, Wardell was based in Detroit and he would return after tours with name bands, such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie. Wardell was one of many great Detroit jazz players that attended Cass Technical High School. Pepper and Wardell Gray played together in Detroit at the Blue Bird Inn and elsewhere and the two would trade horns. Wardell was the first baritone saxophonist that Pepper heard who played with precise articulation. That coupled with Wardell's elegant lyricism and his unparalleled gift for creating beautiful melodic lines ultimately worked its way into Pepper's style.

Accentuating that lyricism was Wardell's penchant for pulling the time back, playing behind the beat. Pepper made it into an art form, often accentuating the swing feel when playing heads, and, when doing so, creating an interesting tension against the rhythm section. Moreover, Pepper often "back phrased" passages of his solos to swing even harder and alternate with his blistering double-time diminished lines. In my lecture I referred to these two things as polar opposites and as the yin and yang of Pepper's solo style.

Besides being a huge early influence on Pepper's saxophone playing, Wardell was also a close friend. Both were very scholarly, well informed and conversant on many topics. Wardell's early and controversial death at age 34 was a personal tragedy for Pepper and for jazz. Wardell died in 1955, two months after Charlie Parker. At the Diggs Funeral Home Pepper served as a pallbearer at Wardell's funeral. For Pepper's take on Wardell, please read my interview excerpt taken from the 1984 interview I did with Pepper. Click "Wardell Gray" at the pepperadams.com homepage's link "Reminiscensces."

I write about Wardell not just because I'm spending time listening to his music. Just yesterday I came across a nice overview of Wardell Gray written by New England Public Radio host and blogger Tom Reney. Here's the link: http://nepr.net/music/2014/02/14/wardell-gray/  Within Reney's post was a link to a documentary film on Wardell, Forgotten Tenor, done by Hampshire College professor Abraham Ravett. So delighted to learn about the film, I emailed Ravett and heard right back from him. He had no idea of Pepper's relationship with Wardell, nor was he aware that Pepper carried Wardell's torch and passed it down to virtually every baritone saxophonist playing today. I'm eager to see the film, which Ravett is mailing me to preview. Let me know if you want to see it and I'll put you in touch with him. 

Abraham and I are trying to put together some kind of program at Hampshire College or elsewhere in Western Massachusetts to raise awareness for both Pepper and Wardell and to rekindle an awareness of his film that was first released in 1994. I've also suggested that the film be aired at the Detroit Jazz Festival, hopefully as part of a tribute to Wardell Gray. As Rachel Maddow says, "Watch this space."