Meeting Tony Faulkner

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

In the Spring of 2012 my Pepper Adams book, Pepper Adams' Joy Road, was finally completed, after more than 25 years of research.  At that time, I was also finishing liner notes for Motema to get the 5-CD set of Pepper's music ready for release in the Fall.  The overarching strategy was to co-brand the book and CD series as "Joy Road," then release them at the same time and promote them with a book and CD tour.

I built an ambitious, four month, 40-city tour throughout the US and Canada (including one week at major clubs in New York), lecturing at colleges and book stores, and overseeing concerts of Pepper's music.  It was really a fantastic time--one of my life's highlights!  Most of the bands were small groups, but some were large aggregations that played big band arrangements of Pepper tunes that I had commissioned.  The commissions were started the preceding year in anticipation of the tour, and with an eye towards a big-band CD as Volume 6 of my Motema series.

One of the arrangers that provided big band charts is the esteemed Frank Griffith, an old friend who now lives in London. Griffith was only able to do two charts, but knew that I needed at least enough material to do a CD.  He recommended that I contact a colleague, Tony Faulkner, who lives in Leeds, England.  He thought Faulkner would enjoy participating in my project.  Griffith said, "I can not recommend him highly enough," and that was enough praise for me.

I emailed Faulkner, and he wrote back saying that he was delighted to get involved. Little did I know that he was retired and one of Thad Jones' greatest disciples.  In the ensuing 18 months, Faulkner would throw himself heart and soul into the project, doing 21 big band arrangements of Pepper's compositions; an original 20-minute suite (Park Frederick III) dedicated to Adams, built on themes from Pepper's tunes; as well as 11 tentet charts on Pepper's tunes.  For some, this is the output of an entire lifetime!  Faulkner's dedication and brilliant work was so inspiring that I produced Volume 6 entirely of his arrangements, then joined with drummer Tim Horner to produce a second CD of Faulkner's work for tentet, that will be recorded in a few weeks, live in New York and New Jersey.

This Saturday I'll go into more specifics about tunes, concerts, and the details of the upcoming tour.  Please see my post "Tony and Ernie" from 8/24/13, an amusing two-day travelogue about the recording of Volume 6.

Pepper Adams Archive?

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

It occurred to me today that I wrote a will many years ago, directing my heirs to donate all of my jazz and Pepper Adams materials to the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark NJ.  Over the years much of my work has benefited from the Institute. But in a few weeks I'll be touring the Thad Jones Archives at William Paterson University.  William Paterson has an extraordinary jazz studies program that Thad started. Doesn't it make a lot of sense to establish a Pepper Adams Archive to encourage future work on Pepper at the same place that houses the Thad Jones Archive?  There's so much overlap, and so much of my Pepper materials can help Thad Jones researchers.  Pepper and Thad, like Carney and Duke, should be together.  I'll be exploring this with William Paterson and I'll report back about it. Hopefully this meeting will set in motion not just a future home for Pepper Adams materials, but a place of activity about him and his great body of work.

2013 Best Jazz Discography

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I'm very pleased to announce that my book Pepper's Adams' Jazz Road has been awarded as the Best Discography in Jazz for 2013 by the Association of Recording Sound Collections. It's very gratifying to be recognized by my peers, that's for sure. The book is now out in paperback.

Pepper Adams' 83rd Birthday

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Tomorrow (October 8) is Pepper Adams' birthday.  He would've been 83 years old.  Please play his music in celebration.  Here's the listing from my Chronology at pepperadams.com:

October 8: Highland Park MI: Park Frederick Adams III is born at 8am at Highland Park General Hospital to Park Adams II and Cleo Marie Coyle of 4695 Courville Road, Grosse Pointe Village, Michigan in suburban Detroit.

Altsys Tentet

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

On Friday, November 6, 2013 at 8pm the Altsys Tentet will be performing at L'espace 64, 64 Rue Prince, Montreal. The ensemble will be performing the Canadian premiere of Tony Faulkner's new tentet charts of Pepper Adams compositions. Author Gary Carner will be signing copies of his book Pepper Adams' Joy Road.

Toronto Art Orchestra

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

On Wednesday, November 6, 2013 at 9pm the Toronto Art Orchestra, featuring guest soloist Pat LaBarbera, will be performing at Array Music, 155 Walnut Avenue, Toronto. General admission tickets are $25. Only 70 tickets will be sold. Doors open at 8:00. At 8:30 Pepper Adams author Gary Carner will interview arranger Tony Faulkner about his pioneering Pepper Adams work. The band will be performing the Canadian premiere of Tony Faulkner's 20-minute suite dedicated to Pepper Adams, "Park Frederick III." Rare video will be shown of Pepper Adams with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra during intermission. The author will sign copies of his book, Pepper Adams' Joy Road, after the conclusion of the concert.

2013 Pepper Adams Tour

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Here's our upcoming concert and lecture schedule.  We hope to see you on the road!

T, 10/29: Cincinnati  8:30pm: Contemporary Jazz Orchestra performs Tony Faulkner charts, 

                including the world premiere of "Park Frederick III," at the Blue Wisp Jazz Club.

W, 10/30: Cincinnati  4:30pm: Tony Faulkner clinic at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Corbett 

                Center 1402.

Th, 10/31: Champaign IL  7pm: University of Illinois Concert Jazz Band performs Tony Faulkner big 

                 band charts at the Iron Post.

F, 11/1: Champaign IL  1pm: Gary Carner lecture at University of Illinois, Smith Hall, Rm. 25. 

Macomb IL  5:30pm: Tony Faulkner lecture at Western Illinois University, Salee 212.

Macomb IL  7pm: Gary Carner lecture/book signing at Western Illinois University, Salee 101. 

Sat, 11/2: Off

Su, 11/3: Detroit  1pm: Scott Gwinnell Dectet at the Institute of Arts, recorded for NPR broadcast. 

                World premiere of Tony Faulkner tentet charts. 

M, 11/4: Off

T, 11/5: Detroit  12:30pm: Tony Faulkner arranging clinic at Wayne State University.

Detroit   6pm: Gary Carner lecture at Wayne State University.

W, 11/6: Toronto  12:15pm: Humber College Jazz Band performs the arrangements of Tony 

                Faulkner, featuring Pat LaBarbera and Shirantha Beddage.

Toronto  8:30pm: Toronto Art Orchestra performs big band charts of Tony Faulkner at Array 

                Music, including the Canadian premiere of "Park Frederick III."

Th, 11/7: Toronto  11:30am: Tony Faulkner arranging clinic at Humber College.

Toronto  11:30am: Gary Carner lecture at Humber College.

F, 11/8: Montreal  Gary Carner lecture and Tony Faulkner arranging clinic at Concordia 

                University, time to be announced.

Montreal  8pm: Altsys Tentet performs Canadian premiere of Tony Faulkner tentet charts at 

                L'espace 64.

Sat, 11/9: New York  8pm: Tim Horner-Ron Horton Tentet recording live CD of Tony Faulkner 

                 arrangements at Zeb's. Emceed by Dan Morgenstern.

Su, 11/10: Teaneck NJ  4:30pm: Tim Horner-Ron Horton Tentet recording live CD of Tony Faulkner 

                  arrangements at Puffin Foundation.

M, 11/11: Paramus NJ  11am: Gary Carner lecture at Bergen Community College.

T, 11/12: Off

W, 11/13: Montclair NJ  8pm: Diane Moser Big Band performs Tony Faulkner arrangements at 

                Trumpets, including "Park Frederick III."

Th, 11/14:  To be determined

F, 11/15: Princeton NJ  11am: WPRB radio show with Jerry Gordon.

Sat, 11/16: To be determined

Su, 11/17: To be determined

M, 11/18: To be determined

T, 11/19: Williamsburg VA  6:30pm: Tony Faulkner-Gary Carner clinic at College of William & Mary, 

                Ewell Hall, 207.

W, 11/20: Chapel Hill NC  1pm: Tony Faulkner-Gary Carner clinic at University of North Carolina.

Winston-Salem NC  3:30pm: Tony Faulkner-Gary Carner clinic at University of North 

                Carolina School of the Arts.