Pepper Adams Doings

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.





I'm very pleased with the way Chapter 4, "Now in Our Lives," is moving along. I'm at 65 pages and currently listening to all of Pepper's music, issued and otherwise, from 1977-1986 to make sense out of it. There so much material, especially cassettes, so it will take me at least another month or two to work through it all. So far, I'm most impressed with an August 24, 1979 gig with Pepper and the great pianist Roger Kellaway done at the Pizza Express in London. As I wrote, "With Adams and Kellaway feeding off of each other, it's a meeting of two colossal intellects, in some way reminiscent of Monk and Coltrane at the Five Spot in 1958." The greatest performances that night were on "Bye, Bye Blackbird," Adams' ballad "Civilization and Its Discontents," a super-fast version of "Oleo," and a zany, incredibly slow version of Thad Jones' out-theme "'Tis." Just remarkable! Woefully, a record producer didn't hear the two of them together and rush them into the studio.

Once I get through and write about all this music, I only have one more section to write before the chapter is finished and I can get it out to my readers. That section will be about why Pepper was so beloved by his colleagues. I'll talk about his work with the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), his amazing Grammy Awards telecast performance, and other issues. Since there's no more interviews to audition for Chapter 4, the end is in sight.

As for Pepper's materials getting to William Paterson, there's been a delay in delivering the first batch of them. It looks like I won't get them to New Jersey until 2019. I have posted on Instagram a number of documents recently that will be donated to WPU. Check out instagram.com/pepperadamsblog/

I'm very pleased to report that I've begun submitting materials to Rich Falco at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, who oversees the Jazz History Database. See jazzhistorydatabase.com. A Gary Carner Collection is currently being built to digitize much of my materials for posterity. It will be organized in a similar fashion to Gene Perla's collection: jazzhistorydatabase.com/archives/gene-perla/index.php In this way, researchers will only need a computer with an Internet connection to access it. A new batch of stuff goes out tomorrow, including a rare performance of Tommy Flanagan in Korea, 1953, and a Rudy Tucich radio interview with Billy Mitchell. Ultimately, all of my interviews about Pepper Adams will be made available. Please spread the word. Falco is looking to preserve and protect collections throughout the world.  Those of you who are sitting on important material should take a good look at this.

In the last few weeks Georgia State University in Atlanta received my entire book and periodical collection as a donation. They took everything except my JazzTimes and Down Beat mags, which I plan to donate elsewhere. A list of the book materials is below. I'll post the periodicals at GSU in next month's post. Have a great October.

Tomorrow, October 8, is Pepper's birthday!


All paperback unless noted.

Ruppli, Michel. Prestige Label HARD
Ruppli, Michel. Savoy Label HARD
Japanese ed: Complete Blue Note Book
Priestley, Brian. Mingus: A Critical Biography. HARD
Hodeir, Andre. Toward Jazz.
Stokes, W. Royal. The Jazz Scene. HARD
Williams, Martin. Changes. HARD
Lee’s, Gene. Waiting for Dizzy. HARD
Young, Al. Kinda of Blue.
Collier, James Lincoln. Duke Ellington. HARD
Kirchner, Bill. A Miles Davis Reader.
Chambers, Jack. Milestones 2. HARD
Lehman, Jan. Miles Davis Discography. HARD
Tucker, Mark. The Early Years of Duke Ellington. (Dissertation)
Jewel, Derek. Duke.
Tucker, Mark. The Duke Ellington Reader. HARD
Gammond, Peter. Duke Ellington.
Jewel, Derek. A Pietrait if Duke Ellington.
Ulanov, Barry. Duke Ellington. HARD
Dance, Stanley. The World of Duke Ellington.
Simosko, Vladimir. Eric Dolphy.
Chilton, John. McKinney’s Music.
Ruppli, Michel. Charles Mingus Discography.
Reinhardt, Uwe. Like a Human Voice.
Stahl, Tilman. Sun Ra Materials.
Nisenson, Eric. ‘Round About Midnight.
McRae, Barry. Miles Davis.
Mosbrook, Joe. Cleveland Jazz History.
Buerkle; Barker. Bourbon Street Black.
Carr, Ian. Music Outside. HARD
Miller, Mark. Jazz in Canada. HARD
Litchfield, Jack. Canadian Jazz Discography. HARD
Zwerin, Mike. Jazz Writings of Boris Vian.
Zwerin, Mike. Jazz Writings of Boris Vian HARD (2nd copy)
Berton, Ralph. Remembering Bix. HARD
George, Don. The Real Duke Ellington HARD
Gammond, Peter. Duke Ellington. HARD
Jones, Max; John Chilton. Louis. HARD
Abersold, Jamie. Charlie Parker Omnibook.
Iwamoto, Shin-Ichi. Hank Jones Discography.
Frohne, Michael. Lee Konitz Discography.
Weir, Bob. Clifford Brown Discography.
Ingram, Adrian. Wes Montgomery.
Gonzales, Babs. Movin on Down the Line
Murray, Albert. Basie Autobiography. HARD
Ellington, Duke. Music is My Mistress. HARD
Pendold, Mike. Louis Armstrong.
Titon, Jeff. Early Downhome Blues.
Walker, Leo. Big Band Almanac.
Longstreet. Stephen. Jazz From A to Z.
Dial, Harry. Autobiography. HARD
Chilton, John. Bob Crosby.
Hentoff, Nat. Jazz Is. Hard
Friedwald, Will. Jazz Singing. HARD
Korall, Burt. Drummin’ Men. HARD
Erlich, Lillian. What Jazz Is All About. HARD
Clayton, Peter; Peter Gammond. 14 Miles on a Clear Night. HARD
Larkin, Philip. All What Jazz.
McRae, Barry. Jazz Handbook. HARD
Cerchiari Luca. Jazz Degli Anni Settanta.
Leonard, Neil. Jazz Myth and Religion. HARD
Pleasants, Henry. Serious Music — and All That Jazz. HARD
Gelly, David. Lester Young. HARD
Freeman, Bud. You Don’t Look Like a Musician. HARD
Voce, Steve. Woody Herman.
Taylor, Arthur. Notes and Tones.
Ogren, Kathy. The Jazz Revolution.
Rusch, Robert. Jazz Talk. HARD
Gioia, Ted. Imperfect Art. HARD
Wilmer, Valerie. Jazz People. HARD
Turner, Frederick. Remembering Song. HARD
Williams, Martin. Where’s the Melody? HARD
Feather, Leonard. From Satchmo to Miles.
Russo, William. Composing for the Jazz Orchestra.
Course, Leslie. Louis’ Children.
Balliett, Whitney. Goodbyes and Other Messages. HARD
Williams, Martin. Jazz in Its Time. HARD
Kirkeby, Ed. Ain’t Misbehavin’
Shacter, James. Piano Man. HARD
Turner, Bruce. Hot Air: Cool Music.
Shaw, Arnold. The Jazz Age. HARD
Jones, Max. Talking Jazz. HARD
Williams, Martin. The Art of Jazz
Lindsay, Martin. Teach Yourself Jazz. HARD
Davis, Francis. Bebop and Nothingness. HARD
Wilmer, Valerie. Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This. HARD
Gourse, Leslie. Story of Joe Williams. HARD
Porter, Lewis. Lester Young. HARD
Hentoff, Nat. Jazz.
Rich, Alan. Simon & Schuster Listener’s Guide to Jazz.
Kaminsky, Max. My Life in Jazz. HARD
Newton, Francis. The Jazz Scene. HARD
Abe, K. Jazz Giants. HARD
Coryell, Julie; Lara Friedman. Jazz-Rock Fusion. HARD
Smith, Willie “The Lion.” Music on My Mind. HARD
Anon. Jazz history in cyrillic.
Headlock, Richard. Jazz Masters of the Twenties. HARD
Rockwell, John. All American Music. HARD
Schiller, Gunther. Musings. HARD
Giddins, Gary. Rhythm-A-Ning. HARD
Hammond, John. On Record. HARD
Blesh, Rudi. Combo USA. HARD
Blesh, Rudi. Shining Trumpets.
Radano, Ronald. New Musical Figurations.
Keepnews, Orrin. The View From Within. HARD
Hartman, Charles. Jazz Text. HARD
Gleason, Ralph J. Celebrating the Duke.
Persip, Charli. How Not to Play the Drums.
Simon, George T. The Big Bands.
Simon, George T. The Big Bands (2nd copy)
Murray, Albert. Stomping the Blues.
Chevigny, Paul. Gigs. HARD
Lyttelton, Humphrey. Jazz. HARD
Lyttelton, Humphrey. Jazz II.
Lyttelton, Humphrey. Jazz II. (2nd copy)
Lyttelton, Humphrey. Jazz II. (3rd copy)
Hodeir, Andre. Jazz: It’s Evolution and Essence.
Hodeir, Andre. Jazz: It’s Evolution and Essence. (2nd copy)
Hentoff, Nat; Albert J. McCarthy. Jazz.
Shapiro, Nat; May Hentoff The Jazz Makers. HARD
Hodeir, Andre. The World of Jazz.
Feather, Leonard; Jack Tracy Laughter from the Hip.
Rogelio, Pauline; Robert Levin. Giants of. Black Music.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Swing.
Feather, Leonard. The Jazz Years.
Sidran, Ben. Black Talk.
Feather, Leonard. From Satchmo to Miles.
Lees, Gene. Meet Me at Jim and Andy’s. HARD.
Budds, Michael. Jazz in the Sixties.
Gitler, Ira. Jazz Masters of the Forties.
Gitler, Ira. Jazz Masters of the Forties. (2d copy)
Goldberg, Joe. Jazz Masters of the Fifties. HARD
Jones, LeRoi. Blues People.
Buchmann-Moller, Frank. ThecStory of Lester Young.
Laubich, Arnold; Ray Spencer. Art Tatum. HARD
Porter, Lewis. Lester Young Reader.
Kofsky, Frank. Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music.
Williams, Martin. Jazz Masters of New Orleans.
Feather, Leonard. The Pleasures of Jazz.
Jones, LeRoi. Black Music.
Feather, Leonard. Inside Jazz.
Ullman, Michael. Jazz Lives.
Korall, Burt. Drummin’ Men. (2nd copy) HARD
Waters, Benny. The Key to a Jazzy Life.
Sonnier, Austin. Bunk Johnson.
Chilton, John. A Jazz Nursery.
Priestley, Brian. Charlie Parker.
Papo, Alfredo. El Jazz a Catalunya.
Bechet, Sidney. Great It Gentle.
Zinsser, William. Willie and Dwike. HARD
Berendt, Joachim-Ernst. Jazz: A Photo History. HARD
Brask, Ole; Dan Morgenstern. Jazz People. HARD
Baron, Stanley. Benny: King of Swing. HARD
Cerulli, Dom; et al. The Jazz Word.
Cotterell, Roger; Barry Tepperman. Joe Harriott.
Schlouch, Claude. Bud Powell on Record.
Suzuki, Naoki. Herbie Hancock.
Giddins, Gary. Celebrating Bird.
Wild, David; Michael Cuscuna. Ornette Coleman.
Astrup, Arne. Zoot Sims Discography.
Knox, Keith. Jazz Amour Affair.
Delauney, Charles. Django Reinhardt.
Kukla, Barbara. Swing City. HARD
Dance, Stanley. The World of Earl Hines.
White, John. Billie Holiday. HARD
O’Mealy, Robert. Last Day.
Reisner, Robert. Bird.
Calloway, Cab. Of Minnie the Moocher and Me. HARD
Marquis, Donald. In Search of Buddy Bolden. HARD
Bigard, Barney. With Louis and the Duke. HARD
Horricks, Raymond. Stephane Grappelli.
Bookspan, Martin. Andre Previn. HARD
Haskins, Jim. Dinah Washington. HARD
Machlin, Paul. Stride. HARD
Palmer, Richard. Oscar Peterson. HARD
Davis, Francis. History of the Blues. HARD.
Carner, Gary. Miles Davis Companion.
Schafer, William. Brass Bands and New Orleans Jazz.
Barnet, Charlie; Stanley Dance. Those Swinging Years. HARD
Bernhardt, Clyde. I Remember.
Ruttencutter, Helen. Previn. HARD
Hawes, Hampton. Raise Up Off Me.
Page, Drew. Drew’s Blues. HARD
Lees, Gene. Oscar Peterson. HARD
Pepper, Art. Straight Life. HARD
O’Day, Anita. High Times, Hard Times. HARD
Wright, Laurie. King Oliver. HARD
Claghorn, Charles. Biographical Dictionary. HARD
Horn, Paul. Inside Paul Horn. HARD
Meryman, Richard. Louis Armstrong. HARD
Biagioni, Egino. Herb Fleming.
Colin, Sid. Ella. HARD
Jepsen, Jorgen. Dizzy Gillespie.
Armstrong, Louis. My Life in New Orleans.
Clarke, Donald. Wishing on the Moon. HARD
Gilmore. John. Who’s Who of Jazz in Montreal.
Pearson, Nathan. Goin’ to Kansas City. HARD.
Sallis, James. The Guitar in Jazz. HARD
Miller, Mark. Boogie, Pete and the Senator.
Carr, Ian. Keith Jarrett. HARD
Charters, Samuel. Jazz New Orleans.
Davis, Miles; Quicey Troupe. Miles. HARD
Calendar, Red; Elaine Cohen. Unfinished Dream. HARD
Balliett, Whitney. Barney, Bradley and Max. HARD
Reisner, Robert. Bird. HARD (2nd copy)
Crowther, Bruce. Gene Krupa. HARD
Charters, Samuel B; Leonard Feather. History of the New York Scene.
Horricks, Raymond. Gil Evans. HARD
Horricks, Raymond. Dizzy Gillespie. HARD
Dexter, Dave. The Jazz Story.
Allen, Walter C. Hendersonia. HARD
Mezzrow, Mezz. Really the Blues. HARD
Clancy, William; Audree Coke Kenton. Woody Herman. HARD
Zwerin, Mike. Jazz Under the Nazis. HARD
Bisset, Andrew. History of Jazz in Australia.
Herman, Woody; Stuart Troup. Woodchopper’s Ball. HARD
Gillespie, Dizzy; Al Fraser. To Be or Not to Bop. HARD
Brown, Nat; Cyril Brown. Nat Gonella Story. HARD
Freeman, Bud. Crazeology. HARD
Simon, George T. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. HARD
Balliett, Whitney. Night Creature. HARD
Balliett, Whitney. Night Creature. HARD (2nd copy)
Balliett, Whitney. American Singers.
Balliett, Whitney. New York Notes. HARD
Balliett, Whitney. New York Notes. (2nd copy)
Panassie, Hugues. Louis Armstrong.
Lomax, Alan. Mister Jelly Roll.
Goodman, Benny; Irving Kolodin. The Kingdom of Swing.
Panassie, Hugues; Madeleine Gautier. Guide to Jazz. HARD
de Valk, Jeroen. Chet Baker. HARD
Noglik, Bert. Jazz-Werkstatt. HARD
Holiday, Billie; William Duffy. Lady Sings the Blues.
Spellman, A.B. Four Lives in the Bebop Business.
Britt, Stan. Dexter Gordon
Mingus, Charles. Beneath the Underdog.
Mingus, Charles. Beneath the Underdog (2nd copy)
Chilton, John. Billie’s Blues.
Gonzales, Babs. I, Paid My Dues.
James, Burnett. Coleman Hawkins. HARD
James, Burnett. Billie Holiday. HARD
Mellers, Wilfrid. Music in a New Found Land.
Placksin, Sally. Jazzwomen.
Westerberg, Hans. Boy from New Orleans.
Villetard, Jean-Francois. Coleman Hawkins. Vol I.
Villetard, Jean-Francois. Coleman Hawkins. Vol II.
Jepsen, Jorgen. Miles Davis.
Spellman, A.B. Four Lives in the Bebop Business. (2nd copy)
James, Michael. Dizzy Gillespie.
Balliett, Whitney. Goodbyes and Other Messages.
Litweiler, John. The Freedom Principle. HARD
Chamberlain, Dorothy; Robert Wilson. The Oris Ferguson Reader.
Sjogren, Thorbjorn. Long Tall Dexter.
McPartland, Marian. All in Good Time. HARD
Ramsey, Frederick; Charles Edward Smith. Jazzmen.
Davis, Francis. Outcast. HARD
Harrison, Max. A Jazz Retrospect.
Hentoff, Nat. The Jazz Life. HARD
Davis, Francis. In the Moment.
Hentoff, Nat. Hear Zane Talkin’ to Ya.
Young, Al. Things Ain’t What They Used to Be.
Giddins, Gary. Riding on a Blue Note.
Gordon, Robert. Jazz. HARD
Williams, Martin. Jazz Heritage.
Williams, Martin. Jazz Tradition.
Gitler, Ira. Swing to Bop.
Carr, Peter George Winfield’s Story.
Morgan, Alun. Count Basie. HARD
Ojakaar, Valter. Jazz. HARD
Ulanov, Barry. A History of Jazz in America. HARD
Ostransky, Leroy. Understanding Jazz.
deToledano, Ralph. Frontiers of Jazz. HARD
Martin, Henry. Enjoying Jazz.
Sales, Grover. Jazz.
Stearns, Marshall. The Story of Jazz.
Allen, Daniel. Bibliography of Discographies. HARD
Gridley, Mark. Jazz Styles and Analysis.
Chilton, John. Jazz.
Britt, Stan. The Jazz Guitarists.
Gold, Robert. Jazz Talk.
Balliett, Whitney. American Musicians. HARD
McCarthy, Albert. Big Band Jazz. HARD
Dale, Rodney. Jazz HARD
Keepnews, Orrin. Pictorial History of Jazz. HARD
Krivin, Joan. Jazz Studies.
Gottlieb, William. Golden Age ofJazz. HARD
Stewart, Chuck. Jazz Files.
McCarthy, Albert. Dance Band Era. HARD
Driggs, Frank. Black Beauty, White Heat. HARD
Wilmer, Valerie. Face of Black Music.
Collier, James Lincoln. The Making of Jazz.
Summerfield, Maurice. Jazz Guitar. HARD
Anon. Greek jazz history I
Anon. Greek jazz history II
Sallis, James. Jazz Guitars.
Nisenson, Eric. Open Sky.
Palmer, Richard. Sonny Rollins.
Noal Cohen; Michael Fitzgerald. Rat Race Blues.
Kinkle, Roger. Complete Encyclopedia. HARD
Feather, Leonard. Book of Jazz. HARD
Poindexter, Pony. Pony Express.
Berger, Morroe; et al. Benny Carter Vol I
Berger, Morroe; et al. Benny Carter Vol II
Tirro, Frank. Jazz.
Carner, Gary. Miles Davis Companion (2nd copy)
Thomas, JC. Chasin’ the Trane.
Stearns, Marshall. Story of Jazz.
Lotz, Rainer. AFRS Jubilee I HARD
Lotz, Rainer. AFRS Jubilee II HARD
Condon, Eddie; Hank O’Neal. Eddie Codon Scrapbook. HARD
Copeland, Keith. Creative Coordination.
Schlouch, Claude. Wardell Gray.
Schlouch, Claude. Kenny Dorham.
Anon. Yu-Jazz.
Mehegan. John. Tonal and Rhythmic Principles.
Gridley, Mark. How to Teach Jazz History.
Abersold, Jamey. II-V-I Progression.
Anon. The Real Book.
Erwin, Pee Wee. Teaches You to Play the Trumpet.
Collins, Lee; Mary Collins. Oh, Didn’t He Ramble. HARD.
Vann, Kimberly. Black Music in Ebony.
De Lerma, Dominique-Rene. Black Music and Musicians.
Turi, Gabor. Jazz from Hungary.
Chambers, Jack. Milestones. HARD
Carner, Gary. Pepper Adams’ Joy Road
Carr, Ian. Miles Davis.
Simpkins, C.O. Coltrane.
Clayton, Buck. Clayton’s Jazz World. HARD
Kravetz, Sallie. The Reluctant Jazz Star.
Lateef, Yusef; et al. Writings.
Wattiau, George. Book’s Book.
Monti, Pierre Andre. Booker Little.
Starr, S. Frederick. Red and Hot. HARD
Johnson, Grady. The Five Pennies.
Barker, Danny. A Life in Jazz.
Klinkowitz, Jerome. Listen. HARD
Slovo, Gillian. Morbid Symptoms. HARD
Locke, David. Drum Gahu.
Calling, Patrick. Jazz, Jazz, Jazz.
Guralnick, Peter. Feel Like Going Home.
Charters, Samuel. Legacy of the Blues.
Palmer, Robert. Deep Blues. HARD
Albertson, Chris. Bessie.
Sawyer, Charles. Arrival of B.B. King. HARD
Breton, Marcela. Hot and Cool.
Kroeze, Hans. International Jazz Festival.
Bernstein, Leonard. The Unanswered Question.
Hinton, Milt. Bass Line. HARD
Litwak, Howard. Goin’ to Kansa City.
Mazur, Mladen. 10th Zagreb Jazz Fair.
Walrath, Jack. Book 1.
Lerner, Edward. Study Scores.
Holoman, D. Kern. Writing About Music.
Solomon, Maynard. Beethoven.
Sollors, Werner. Beyond Ethnicity.
Marshall, Robert. Mozart Speaks.
Barlow and Morgenstern. Dictionary of Musical Themes.
Cowell, Henry. Charles Ives.
Robertson, Alec. Pelican History if Music.
Poling, James. Squire World of Jazz. HARD
Anon. Mozart: Later Symphonies.
Brahms, Johannes. Schubert: Four Symphonies.
Simandl, F. New Method for Double Bass.
Piston, Walter. Harmony. HARD
Reid, Rufus. Evolving Bassist.
Duckles, Vincent. Music Reference and Research Materials. HARD
Persicjetti, Vincent. Twentieth Century Harmony. HARD
Titon, Jeff. Worlds of Music. HARD
Shostakovich, Dimitri. Testimony. HARD
Crofton, Ian; Donald Fraser. Dictionary of Musical Quotations.
Kamien, Roger. Norton Scores.
Thomson, Elizabeth; David Gutman. Lennon Companion.
Gillies, Malcolm. Bartok Remembered.
Lipsitz, George. Time Passages.
Lambert, Constant. Music Ho!
Feinstein, Elaine. Bessie Smith.
Morris, Edmund. Beethoven. HARD.
Nettl, Bruno. Theory and Method in Ethnomusicology. HARD
Baker, Houston. Blues.
Feld, Steven. Sound and Sentiment.
Cage, John. Silence.
Stevens, Halsey. Life and Music of Bella Bartok.
Kennedy, Michael. Mahler.
Anon, Index to Negro Spirituals.
Wild, David. Recordings of John Coltrane.
Schiff. Ronnie. Jazz, Blues, Boogie & Swing for Piano.
Silverman, Jerry. Chords and Tunings.
Glover, Tony. Blues Harp.
Ake, David. Jazz Cultures.
Ake, David; et al. Jazz/Not Jazz. HARD
Ake, David. Jazz Matters. HARD
Duckles, Vincent. Music Reference and Research Materials. HARD
Amram, David. Vibrations. HARD
Gilmore, John. Swinging in Paradise.
Dance, Stanley. The World of Count Basie
Segall, Michael. The Devil’s Horn.
Wilber, Bob. Music Was Never Enough. HARD
Gordon, Max. Live at the Lvilkage Vanguard. HARD
Balliett,Whitney. Barney, Bradley and Max. HARD
Floyd, Samuel. Black Music in the Harlem Renaissance.
Rosenthal, David. Hard Bop. HARD.
Leitch, Peter. Off the Books.
Holladay, Doc. Life, on the Fence.
LaPorta, John. Developing the Stage Band.
Smith, Chris. The View From the Back of the Band. HARD

Return of the Pepper Bio

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.





I've begun writing Part II of Pepper Adams' biography (1930-1986). In the last two weeks I've written about forty pages, starting with Pepper's death at home on September 10, 1986 and working my way back in time. My plan is to write in reverse chronological order until I reach the end of Part I, when Pepper packed his bags and moved to New York. Then, having come full circle, I'll conclude by assessing whether what he set out to do in music was actually achieved.

I've finished listening again to the interview I did with Tommy and Diana Flanagan. They had a lot to say about how Pepper approached death, how and why his marriage collapsed, and what really took place versus what the New York jazz community thought was going on. I quote a few very poignant letters to give a sense of what Pepper was enduring at that time. The one below was written as a kind of confessional and published in the July, 1986 issue of JazzTimes. By the time of its publication, he would only have about six more weeks before he passed away:


I’d like to thank you for the kind words in the current JazzTimes, and thank you particularly for stressing the fact that I’m continuing to work. People have been exceedingly kind, and their contributions have been quite helpful, but opposed to the cost of the treatments that are, to put it bluntly, keeping me alive, private charity can only go so far. The bulk of the costs have been offset by my own efforts in being able to work, and work effectively. And, if I may say so myself, I’ve done remarkably well for fourteen months, and the next three months appear quite secure.

And this despite the efforts of a few unscrupulous agents, who have used my name to secure work and then, when the job was secure, informed the purchaser that I was too ill to perform and substituted someone else. I’ve learned about these incidents when the purchaser (club owner, festival executive, etc.) would call to commiserate about my health when I was sitting home, feeling fine but out of work. I wonder if these agents considered that by eroding my reputation for reliability they were diminishing my chances for survival; if they did think about it, they were obviously not deterred. Which is why I consider it important that people be reminded occasionally that I’m still a credible working musician. . . .

I must report, though, that my string of playing every job I had contracted for has finally come to an end. It happened on my last trip to Europe, in April, which ended in near-disaster. It started at the Dublin Festival, where they drove me into the ground like a tent peg. I had five concerts with five different bands (four of them requiring lengthy rehearsals), a 2 1/2 hour master class, and a live television show, all within three days. I was already in a lot of pain when I arrived in Paris to work seven straight nights at Le Petit Opportun; after five nights the pain became so overwhelming that I had to sit out the last two nights.

When I got home it was discovered that I had a severe case of pleurisy, which was raging out of control since it had been there, untreated, for ten days or so. My oncologist held off the chemotherapy while I was in such rotten shape, but finally the point was reached when it had to be administered, ready or not. I could tell that the doctor was worried and, frankly, so was I, but it’s worked out well. I’m recovering nicely. I’ve felt nearly myself for several days, and still have a couple of weeks to recoup my strength before I resume work. My itinerary through the middle of September is sprinkled with nice paydays, and at no point so burdensome as to tempt a return bout of the pleurisy, nor of the pneumonia I went through twice last winter. Things are definitely looking up.



Since I'm donating my large book and periodical collection to Georgia State University, I have in front of me access to this huge jazz library that for fourteen years was packed up in boxes in my basement. I've spent this month skimming through many articles from Wire, Cadence, JazzTimes, Down Beat, Jazz Journal and many others to locate interesting tidbits I can use for color in the narrative. So far, I've found these:

ABOUT KENTON:
“He was terrified when the band started to swing, he didn’t understand it,” said the bassist Red Kelly.

ABOUT ELVIN JONES:
“If Elvin was anything drum-wise, it’s about fullness of sound . . . the absolute fullness of the tonal palette,” said the saxophonist Dave Liebman.

ON THE ROAD WITH WOODY HERMAN:
“It was very grueling," said Joe Temperley. "There used to be some awful bus journeys. It was a hard life, you know: ten-hour bus ride and you’d get to the job twenty minutes before you had to hit, then change your clothes in the toilet downstairs and play all night. And then, maybe sleep that night and then the next night you would hit and run; but you play the gig. You sleep all night and travel all day to the gig, and play the gig -- this is the second night -- play the gig and then travel all night to save a night’s rent. Those were the days. That happened all the time.”

ABOUT NEW YORK AROUND 1965:
“New York was vibrant then," said Joe Temperley. "You could go and hear Al and Zoot; go one night and Phil would be sitting in with them and another night Richie Kamuca would be sitting in with them. You could go hear John Coltrane and sit all night -- buy a bottle of beer, two bottles of beer -- and sit all night and listen to the music.”

 ABOUT NEW YORK IN 1968:
“When I left in ‘68," said Art Farmer, "the United States was in a very bad situation. There were assassinations, social unrest, people afraid to go out at night, and with so many jazz clubs in the so-called ‘ghetto areas,’ people felt that they were taking their lives in their hands if they went out to hear jazz. That had a bad effect on a person who tried to play for a live public.”

ABOUT MEL LEWIS:
Mel Lewis’ greatest influence was the drummer Tiny Kahn, said the bassist Red Kelly.

ABOUT PEPPER AND THAD:
“I heard Pepper say a couple of things that made me know that he and Thad had been very close in their lives," said Seldon Powell. "And I think they were still close, but there maybe was a rub or two here and there. Pepper told Thad one time, when he figured that he wasn’t getting his share of solos and whatnot. But I remember Pepper saying one time -- somebody said something about that to Pepper, and he turned and said to him, ‘When I was in the army and they sent me to Japan during the Korean War,’ he said, ‘I received two letters the entire time I was over there. One of them was from Thad Jones.’ And the inflection that was in his voice told me something about how he felt about [Thad]. They might have had a conflict here or there but I’m sure they felt very close to each other as human beings and as musicians, and they were the giants of their time.”

See you next month,
GC

Reflectory

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.




I'm just back from a vacation in Canada. Sorry for the delay in uploading this post. On my way home I visited with trumpeter Denny Christianson, who was the only musician to ever record Pepper Adams in a big band setting with Adams as the featured soloist. That recording, Suite: Mingus, and its follow-up date, More Pepper (with a few additional cuts from the Montreal session), were released posthumously. Adams, very weak from cancer in February, 1986, made it through the recording but it was a Herculean struggle for him to get through the date. Denny told me that, for the first few takes, the rhythm section was pulling back the time to stay with Pepper because he was back-phrasing. Denny had to instruct them to keep the time in place so Pepper could express himself as he wished.

Christianson has run the esteemed Humber College jazz program in Toronto for eighteen years, building it to its current state as one of the world's finest. At age 75, he has just retired. He intends to begin writing his memoirs once all his things in his office are organized and packed.

It was a joy to reminisce about Pepper with him and his wife, Rose, and to share parts of the first half of my Pepper book with them. Later, saxophonists Pat LaBarbera, Kirk MacDonald, and Shirantha Beddage, all on the Humber faculty, came by for a barbecue. What a great experience! From Denny, Rose and Kirk I was able to record some more valuable interview material that will be helpful in the second half of the biography.

While in Canada, before returning to Toronto, I hung out with my pepperadams.com webmaster. We made considerable progress with the Dedications page, gathering performances. That page, and Big Band Arrangements, are currently being updated. New Chronology files have already been posted at the site. In some cases, these are the first updates in over a year, with much new information, including the newly researched inception of the Thad Jones-Pepper Adams Quintet.

My co-author on the Pepper biography, John Vana, and I have adopted a new working title for the Pepper Adams book. We're running with Reflectory: The Life and Music of Pepper Adams. Do you like it? John felt that the title underscored Pepper's contemplative, intellectual side. I felt that it had an air of poetry to it. The subtitle needs to be there to reflect the bifurcated nature --  Pepper's life and the musical analysis -- of our twin approach. As with my first Adams book, Pepper Adams' Joy Road, we'll use on the cover what I feel is Pepper's most iconic photograph.

I've added a surprise, very special guest to write an Afterword to the book. Still another contributor is in the works. The idea is to have at least one world renowned jazz scholar/musician validate some of John Vana's observations, to add weight and emphasis to them. For one thing, putting Adams in a class with Bird and Trane will surprise some, if not many. I feel it's important that Vana's conclusions not be perceived as the ranting of a biased fan. Having an Afterword will silence the cynics, and startle those who have been asleep about Adams.

To that aim, Vana will be teaching a graduate course at Western Illinois University in the Spring, 2019: "The Big Three: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Pepper Adams." I expect he'll make all sorts of discoveries that will make its way to our book.

I've been listening recently to my interviews with Tommy and Diana Flanagan. I'm nearly finished with them. The great value of this documentation is that it helps me understand the last few years of Pepper's life, especially how he dealt with his final illness.

I did listen to my interview with Bob Wilber that I conducted in 1988, between sets at the Sticky Wicket Pub in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, where he appeared as a soloist with a rhythm section. Wow, was he tremendous that Sunday afternoon!

Here are some Wilber interview excerpts about Pepper:

"He saw the possibility of taking the big sound from the baritone, from Carney, and applying it to bebop jazz -- which was a difficult thing to do because when you have a really big sound it tends to be sluggish. It tends to slow you down."

"One of the tensions that he achieved in his playing was this feeling of being slightly behind, as though he was falling behind. It added tension to his playing."

"Yeah, legato tongue, where Carney tended to be more legato without any tonguing. He had great harmonic sophistication. He explored all the possibilities of using the diminished scale, and all kinds of things. Very sophisticated harmonically."

"A gentle guy. He had that soft way of speaking."

In the next few weeks I'll begin cataloging part of Adams' collection before I drive up to New Jersey to donate it to the William Paterson University Archive. I'll be including a list of Pepper's 78s and LPs, as well as his personal 8-Track collection, as appendices in the biography. How appropriate to have the Pepper and Thad Jones collections together at the same institution!

Last month I promised to share Eddie Locke interview excerpts. That will have to wait until my next installment. I may also include some of Doc Holladay's interview excerpts next month too.
Happy Summer to all!

Bob Cornfoot Remembers Pepper Adams

In the last month I've worked my way through two lengthy and significant interviews that I conducted in 1988. The first one is with Pepper's college roommate, Bob Cornfoot. The others is with the Detroit-born drummer Eddie Locke, who worked for four years with Coleman Hawkins. The only interviews yet to be heard before I'm officially done with Part I of Pepper's biography (1930-1955) are those with the singer Lodi Carr, the saxophonist Doc Holladay, the bassist Major Holley, and the pianists Hank Jones and Tommy Flanagan. Listening to, and taking notes about these last handful of interviews will help me finish Chapter 3, which covers Pepper's stint in the US Army and his time in Detroit from 1953 through the end of 1955.

Additionally, I finally located my interview with the saxophonist Bob Wilber. I'll listen to that one, too, to also see, as I do with all the others, if I've missed or misrepresented any important facts. In Wilber's case, I want to determine if I've overlooked anything important about Pepper's early days in Rochester, New York. Wilber attended the Eastman School of Music for one semester in the mid-1940s. While there, he, Pepper, Raymond Murphy and Bob Huggler spent a lot of time together, listening to jazz records and playing along on their instruments.

As it only relates to Pepper's time in Detroit before he moved to New York City in early 1956, the thrust of Cornfoot's interview was recalling a number of interesting facts about his time knowing Pepper at Wayne University (now Wayne State) and when they worked together at several record stores in Detroit. Cornfoot mentioned that Pepper liked Leo Parker's early work with Fats Navarro. They both adored Gilbert & Sullivan, and, apart from that, they listened together to recordings of Honegger's Pacific 231, and by Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Charlie Parker, Wardell Gray and Dexter Gordon. Pepper also liked Benny Bailey's trumpet playing. There was a lot of knocking on the walls at 3am, said Cornfoot, because of the late-night listening. The great Detroit pianist Bu Bu Turner used to come to their dorm a lot to listen to 78s at half speed and learn solos. In the dorm, Pepper practiced soprano sax.

While rooming together, he and Pepper in the middle of the week used to go to the Center Theater, about six blocks from Wayne, to catch matinees of older films that were made during the twenties and thirties. At all-night theaters they would catch comedies at the Mayfair Theater. They enjoyed shorts by Laurel and Hardy (with Charlie Chase), Bobby Clark, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and the Marx Brothers.

About Pepper's sense of humor, he said, "His humor seemed to be based more on human foibles, and bringing up short the pompous, the powerful. A tremendous punster. A lot of word play at times." When Pepper told a story, he would wait a few seconds, with a deadpan expression or a half-smile on his face, before laughing with his characteristic chuckle.

Cornfoot introduced Pepper to the works of Anthony Burgess. "He got all wrapped up in him," said Cornfoot. "When he got interested in something, he went thoroughly, all across the board."

Regarding classes at Wayne: "He used to use my notebooks because I was on the GI Bill. So they paid for my paper, and my notebooks, and that. So I'd come back from a class. Pepper would take the notebook and go to his class and make his notes. I remember he had a music appreciation class. They were covering Haydn. He had a marginal note that said, 'No wonder the guy write 104 symphonies. The son of a bitch only scored in octaves!'" Pepper did his term paper on Stravinsky. Pepper's favorite class was a film history course taught by Fran Striker. Striker wrote radio scripts for the Lone Ranger show.

Pepper told Cornfoot that he studied with Sidney Bechet. I've written Bob Wilber about that, because if true, it would have been when Wilber was living with Bechet.

"Hellure" is how Pepper answered the telephone, and "Cheers" is how he signed off on his correspondence.

Next month I'll tell you about the Eddie Locke interview and other things I've learned.

Love Letters

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Much of my week was spent reading hundreds of letters that Pepper Adams kept and I scopped up at the time of his death. Many of them are from women--I guess you could call at least some of them groupies--who are enthralled with Pepper and are somehow hoping to inspire him to write them back. Others are from longtime Detroit friends of his, such as Frank Foster, Bob Pierson, Sheila Jordan, Rudy Tucich and Tommy Flanagan, or from various Korean War buddies. I can't begin to say how happy I am that I got through them. Most of the letters were tediuos and felt utterly interminable!

One letter, though, from one of Adams' admirers, cut through the rest. It was an undated letter from the late '60s or early '70s, judging from the date of some of her other letters. At one point she writes to Pepper, "Golly, you must like me! Do you like me as a person and not just as a woman? That would be nice." It's not known if Pepper ever responded to her question, or if he even gave it a minute's thought. Her question for me cuts to the core of Pepper's intimacy issues with women, something I'll be writing about in the biography. This little moment stood out from all the chatty letters, mostly informative in nature, always with the request that Pepper please write back and show some interest in them.

I've retained a few piles of letters from a handful of women who were significant in Pepper's life. I'll be consulting them later on as I get deeper into the biography.  The rest are going in a bin with other estate materials.

A few of the letters, despite the tedium, helped me pinpoint some Adams gigs. That's always helpful and it helped sustain my interest throughout the process. I made the corresponding updates to the Chronology. They will be posted at pepperadams.com on the next round of updates.

In a few cases I did find some of the correspondence significant enough to post at my Instagram site. One was a postcard from Blue Mitchell.

Another was a letter from Transition owner Tom Wilson.

Still another was a letter from Kenny Davern.

Another one was a letter from Pete King at Ronnie Scott's.

Still another was a letter from Friedrich Gulda's office.

Here's a letter from Chick Corea. Or a letter from Tommy Flanagan and Frank Foster.

One thing I did learn is that Pepper took an active role in trying to obtain overseas gigs for himself as early as 1961. That flies in the face of one of Pepper's outer myths: that he didn't know how to promote himself. True, he wasn't aggressive about it, but, as the letters show, he wasn't passive either.

I also spent time looking at about 500 Kodachrome slides that Pepper took in Korea while serving in the U.S. Army. I found three really nice candid shots of Pepper at age 21-22 that I'm transferring to digital images. From the many others I did get a sense of the terrain and experience. It was rocky, mountainous and cold.

As for last week's concern about my Pepper Adams biography, all is OK. I stated the core tension--becoming a virtuoso on the baritone-- in the very first sentence of the book. It's something that he's working on at least until he gets to New York in 1956 and that I'll be discussing. Conflicts, self-doubts, and the like are being developed too. I'm still happy with it thus far and I will return to writing.

Charles Boles Looks Back

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I had a wonderful, hourlong conversation yesterday with Detroit pianist Charles Boles. Boles attended Northern High School with Paul Chambers, Donald Byrd and Sonny Red, and studied privately, as so many of that era did, with Barry Harris. Boles witnessed and participated in Detroit's Golden Age of Jazz. His career spans seven decades and he's still performing in Detroit. Boles has worked with a who’s who of musicians, including Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker and B.B. King. Many thanks to Ken Kellett for setting up the FaceTime call and for participating as an amused and valuable observer. Rather than summarize my conversation, I'm going to let Charles speak for himself:

Miles at the Blue Bird in the summer of 1954:

Miles didn’t want to see Thad come in there because Thad would eat him up! . . . Miles would come to work and he would ask the owner even before he hit a note, ‘Can I get $50?’ Clarence Eddins would say, ‘Well, you gotta play at least one tune!’ So Miles would go up there and say, ‘Blues in F.’ He’d hit one note and then he’d walk off the bandstand and say, ‘Gimme $50.’ While the band was playing, [with] this guy ‘No Neck’ (who was a frightening looking guy), they would come out of the Blue Bird, go to the corner. (There was a light at the corner of Tireman and Beechwood.) They’d just be waiting for any car that would come along where the door was unlocked and they’d just get in. ‘No Neck’ would say, ‘Take us downtown.’ They’d go down to this hotel. I think it was called the Hotel Theresa then. It was right there on Adams and Hastings. They would go into this hotel to get high, and they’d come back outside of the hotel, after they got high, and they’d repeat the same scenario: Go to the corner, wait for a car to come along with an unlocked door, and they’d open the door and just get in and say, 'Take us to the Blue Bird.’

Pepper Adams:

I saw him all the time. I saw him at Barry’s house. He’d be always at the World Stage but he’d be at Barry’s house a lot. It was on Russell, upstairs over a grocery store.

Paradise Valley:

The Valley was only maybe two or three or four blocks long, from Hastings Street and Adams to, say, John R and Adams.

Northern High School:

Of course, we were there for band rehearsal, and to go to Choral at Fifth Hour. Claude [Black] was in the choral group with me. We all did the Messiah every year. We were very good. They had a very good music teacher there, Claire Weimer. . . . I couldn’t play in the concert band because I couldn’t read as well as Donald Byrd’s sister, Margie Byrd. She was a classical pianist. So I ended up playing bells in the concert band, and then I played piano in the dance band. They very rarely played any dances. We just played jazz tunes, and blues of course. In that band were people like Donald Byrd and Sonny Red, Paul [Chambers]. Paul and I used to eat lunch together every day. When he got to the Tenth Grade, he went to Cass. Him and Donald Byrd both.

The reason why Paul Chambers and Donald Byrd went to Northern High School the first year of high school was because Northern started in Ninth Grade. Donald Byrd was a neighbor of mine, maybe three or four blocks from me in Detroit, in the North End. Paul lived on the East Side somewhere. . . In that class at Northern was Claude Black. . . He was switching from trombone to piano, and there was Sonny Red there. He was in the band. There was Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Bobby Barnes. . . . The teacher was Orvis Lawrence, a barroom, stride piano player, if you will. A very good Teddy-Wilson-type piano player. A very good musician. He could really tell you what to do musically. He was knowledgeable. He kept a bottle in his desk drawer and he’d always go back there and get laced. The best thing about that era--and even after Donald Byrd and them left--was at the Seventh Hour there would always be people like Tommy Flanagan, Bess Bonnier, Roland Hanna. These guys showed up every day at the Seventh Hour to jam. What you didn’t know you could learn from hanging out with these guys. . . Orville Lawrence would allow you to continue to stay there and play until maybe 4 o’clock. School got out at 3 o’clock. 

We would leave and go to one of two houses after school. At Bobby Barnes’ house, Roland Hanna was the piano player, Gene Taylor was the bass player, Claude Black played trombone, and Bobby Barnes played the sax. Sometimes we’d go to Bobby Barnes’ house, who lived on Russell on the North End, or we’d go to Barry Harris’ house. Sonny Red would go back and forth. . . . We would come out of Northern High School--me and Paul Chambers and Sonny Red--and we’d catch the Woodward bus (the Woodward bus ran north and south) downtown to, say, Warren, and then you’d catch the crosstown bus to Russell. And then you’d catch the Russell bus to Barry’s house. I tell you what: When we went to Barry Harris’ house, more than likely you’re gonna get slaughtered! You know what they do? They would egg you on, and do everything they could do to get you to play, and then they’d play something like Cherokee or some hard-ass tune. Of course they’d play it at some ridiculous speed but you couldn’t keep up. So you’d go home and you’d practice that all week long, and you go back and they’d play it in A or play it in some other ridiculous key that would have nothing to do with the tune at all. They’d say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m in A. Whatever you practiced would be null and void. You could barely play in B-flat! When you get your butt kicked at Barry Harris’ house, then you’d slink on over to Bobby Barnes’ house the next two or three days. You wouldn’t dare show your face at Barry Harris’ house when you got killed already. He was a master teacher, though. I tell you what: If you continued to go there, he would help you. He would teach you how to improvise.

Legendary trumpeter Claire Rocquemore:

The great Claire Rocquemore? He could play anything. He’d wear Miles out. He’d wear anybody out. Donald didn’t want to get on the bandstand with him. He ended up being strung out. And he didn’t go anywhere. He would always be around, when he could keep it together, and kick everybody’s butt. He was at Barry’s house all the time.

Kenny Burrell:

He and I went to the same church together. I knew his mother and his grandmother. It was a church in Greektown called Second Baptist. The oldest black church. 200 years old.

Doug Watkins:

Doug was around at Northern too. Definitely at Barry’s house. It was almost a situation where it was either Doug or Paul. They were in fierce competition.

Tommy Flanagan and Barry Harris:

Nobody could be like Willie Anderson. Everybody tried to be like Barry. . . . Here are two different guys that played the same style but in a different way. My explanation of it is that Barry is a direct link from Bud whereas Tommy Flanagan is a direct link from Teddy Wilson. It’s a difference in the touch, the way they play. . . In the beginning, Barry really wanted to be like Art Tatum but he didn’t have the strength. Tatum played really light but he was fleet. . . . The competition was so fierce here. You’d be around people like Barry, you’d be around people like Tommy Flanagan. These guys were like mythical!

Roland Hanna:

Roland was completely different. I went over to Bobby Barnes’ house and there was Roland. He and Gene Taylor had drank up a half a gallon of wine. Every day they would get together at 10, 11 o’clock playing classical music. I never knew where Roland went to school. Roland said to me, ‘I wanna be a classical pianist. I don’t want to play jazz.’ He could read fly shit. He was scary to be around.”

Hastings Street Scene:

I played on Hastings Street, which was a red light district. I played on that street for ten damn years. The cops came down on Hastings Street. The deal was that you either got, ‘Give me some head or give me some booty, or give me all your money.’ I saw them shoot a prostitute in the back and kill her. Her name was Charlene. I’ll never forget it. Killed her dead, right? And the people know the police did it but they got away with it because she refused to give them any money and she wasn’t going to give them booty that night. She was tired of screwing the police for free. That was in the fifties. I played on Hastings Street off and on from 48 to 58. The deal was you give up some booty or you give up some money, or else you’re going to jail.

                       (Charles Boles)

Heaven Was Detroit, Part 3

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I hope everyone is getting in the holiday mood. This will be my last post in 2016. I'm heading out of town for a few weeks. To all my readers out there, a very merry Christmas to you (or whatever it is you celebrate), and a healthy and very happy New Year!

The fourth jazz piece included in Heaven Was Detroit is about pianist and arranger Teddy Harris. Harris, for me, was the glue of the great Butterfield Blues Band ensemble (with a horn section) that I saw do several exciting concerts in New York City when I was a teenager. It was Harris' charts, his thing. What a great fusion of jazz and blues! I knew nothing about Harris until I read the piece by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert. It turns out that Harris, apart from his jazz roots, was the Music Director of the Supremes for more than a decade. The authors point out that Harris functioned as an elder to younger musicians, continuing the longstanding Detroit practice of mentorship:

"Nurturing musicians essentially forfeited their chances for national exposure and recognition. A city's reputation is made by those musicians who leave; it is sustained by those who remain. Musicians who remain are special, and they form the backbone of our jazz community. Louis Cabrera, Barry Harris and Marcus Belgrave were among their number."

Born in 1934, Teddy Harris went to Northern High School, another Detroit secondary school with a great music program. The program was run by Orvis Lawrence, who played with the Dorsey Brothers and Glenn Miller big bands. Also at Northern at that time was Tommy Flanagan, Sonny Red and Donald Byrd (before he transferred to Cass Tech).

In c. 1950, before Frank Foster joined the U.S. Army, said Harris, Foster would meet with the budding Northern High musicians:

"Frank Foster used to help me. . . . He was becoming a pretty astute arranger. He would come over to [Northern]. We got out of school at 2:30. He would get Donald Byrd, Sonny Red, and myself and Claude Black and take us to his house where he would teach us how to read his arrangements."

                             (Teddy Harris, 1970)

Bill Harris' short piece on drummer Roy Brooks mentions that Brooks attended Northwestern High School. Brooks and alto saxophonist Charles McPherson were regular listeners at the back door of the Blue Bird Inn. Too young to be admitted, they listened to Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Pepper Adams and all the other greats that were playing there nightly. In late 1959, Brooks replaced Louis Hayes in Horace Silver's group.

Though outside the purview of this blog, those interested in post-1950 Detroit developments, should read Farooq Bey article and Larry Gabriel's two pieces.

As a sprawling anthology covering the entire breadth of jazz and vernacular music in Twentieth Century Detroit, much of the work will not excite Pepper Adams listeners who are narrowly focused in jazz up to 1956. Nevertheless, three other tidbits that caught my attention: R.J. Spangler's piece discusses the 1940s, around the time when Pepper Adams came back to town: 

"Clubs like the Flame Showbar, the Club 666, and the Club Congo all had house bands, chorus lines, shake dancers, ballad singers, blues singers, and more. These were big productions. The auto plants were humming round the clock. People had a few bucks to spend and clubs were full. There was work for musicians and entertainers."

John Sinclair's piece on bluesman Johnnie Bassett includes a surprising blurb about the great after hours jam sessions that took place at the West End Hotel:

"My sister was a waitress there in Delray--Louise, she was a waitress out there at the West End Hotel for a long time. Those guys used to have that session out there every weekend. It started at two o'clock in the morning and it'd go from two to seven a.m. Kenny Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers, Yusef Lateef, all the guys used to come through that was playin' down at the Flame [Show Bar], and the Rouge Lounge, used to come out to the sessions."

Lastly, in John Sinclair's piece on blues in Detroit, he describes the Hastings Street scene:

"Except for a couple of raggedy blocks straggling south from East Grand Boulevard, Detroit's Hastings Street is gone now. The Motor City's major African American entertainment thoroughfare was gouged out in the late 1950s to make way for the Walter P. Chrysler Freeway. . . . But for twenty years before that, Hastings Street swung all the way from Paradise Valley downtown for fifty or sixty blocks north. . . . In its prime years, Hastings Street throbbed with music, from the elemental blues of John Lee Hooker [and others,] to the swinging jazz of the Teddy Wilson Trio [with drummer J.C. Heard), Maurice King and His Wolverines (with vocalist LaVerne "Bea" Baker), Paul "Hucklebuck" Williams, T.J. Fowler, Todd Rhodes and His Toddlers, and the Mathew Rucker Orchestra. Jazz stars like Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billy Eckstine, and Cootie Williams played the Forest Club or the Flame Show Bar as well as the Paradise Theatre on Woodward Avenue, sharing the stage with rhythm and blues recording stars like Dinah Washington, Wynonie Harris, Amos Milburn, B.B. King, and T-Bone Walker."

Heaven Was Detroit

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Several weeks ago, an anthology of articles mostly about Detroit's popular music culture was published in paperback by Wayne State University Press. Edited by poet and long-time Wayne professor M.L. Liebler, the collection covers a lot of terrain as suggested by its subtitle From Jazz to Hip-Hop and Beyond. The nearly 500 page book--the first of its kind to address the great breadth of Detroit's jazz and vernacular music history--is divided into nine chapters. Eight articles in Chapter 1 are about Detroit jazz. Chapter 2 covers Detroit blues; 3 and 4: Early Soul and Motown; 5 and 6: Rock and Punk; 7 and 8: Hip-Hop and Country; 9 is "Detroit Music Miscellanea." Despite the book's breadth, there are surprising jazz anecdotes sprinkled throughout the collection. That's because Detroit's versatile jazz musicians played in jump bands, worked at Motown Records, and cross-pollinated in other ways.

The anthology is beautifully packaged, with a groovy cover and very attractive typesetting. Black and white photos grace the work instead of color ones, keeping the book affordable. The book weighs a ton, giving it an even more commanding authority that belies its $34.95 list price. "And, if you act now" . . . Yes, you can even save 40%! Buy the book before January 14, 2017 and use the order code here: http://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/heaven-was-detroit

Dave Marsh's foreword lays the groundwork, integrating Detroit's disparate musical genres in a compelling way. I especially like his evocative opening two paragraphs about Detroit's auto industry. In the way he describes its many tentacles, his piece provides a welcome context for all that follows. Marsh even elicited a sense of nostalgic longing in me when he mentions hearing the J. Geils Band for the first time at the Eastown Theatre. (Hailing from Worcester, Massachusetts, the ensemble nonetheless considered Detroit their second home.) I heard them nearly steal the show from the Allman Brothers at the Fillmore East in New York City when I was a kid.

Heaven Was Detroit's opening article is poet Al Young's memoir of his days growing up in Detroit. As a teenage friend of drummer Louis Hayes, Young was first getting involved with jazz in the 1950s. At fifteen, the author was underage, not able to experience the extraordinarily vibrant Detroit club scene. Instead, he had the good fortune of attending Sunday matinees at the World Stage.Young  then got involved  with the production of the venue's periodical. This allowed him to write about many of his local heroes--Sonny Stitt, Tommy Flanagan, Pepper Adams and so many others--that were jamming weekly there on Woodward Avenue and who went on to international prominence.

The anthology's second piece, "Bebop in Detroit: Nights at the Blue Bird Inn," is written by Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert. This overview of the jazz club's history is written by the noted authors who in 2001 published the pioneering study Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960. Their contribution provides a real sense of place, something invaluable to me as Adams' biographer.

Although the Blue Bird presented jazz intermittently from the 1930s until after the war, it didn't become a haven for bebop until 1948, when pianist Phil Hill organized a house band with vibist Abe Woodley and drummer Art Mardigan. Typically, Hill's group supported soloists such as tenor saxophonist Wardell Gray who were passing through town. A few years later, the Hill band was replaced by the Billy Mitchell Quintet. That superb group included both Thad and Elvin Jones. Obviously, the level of musicianship remained just as intense. The custom of supporting itinerant guest soloists also remained in place.

"The Blue Bird Inn," write Bjorn and Gallert, "was the hippest modern jazz nightspot during the city's bebop heyday."

It was a neighborhood bar that welcomed jazz lovers. The late Detroit baritone    
       saxophonist Pepper Adams once recalled its "great atmosphere": "Nothing phony
about it in any way. . . no pretensions and great swinging music." Musicians not
only graced the bandstand, they were an important part of the audience. As
bassist James "Beans" Richardson points out, "The majority of people in there
played an instrument, so, musicwise, they were very 'up,' you know? When
there was a lousy record on the jukebox, even the bartenders would say, 'Get
that record off!'"

Part of the appeal of playing at the Blue Bird was the ability within the idiom to play whatever one cared to play. As Tommy Flanagan noted about the club, "It had all the support a jazz club needed. Everyone who loved jazz in Detroit came. We were always able to play what we wanted to play and the people liked what they heard." Part of the appeal of the club was its atmosphere. Marketed as "the West Side's most beautiful and exclusive bar," said the authors,

it attracted a mainly black audience from both the immediate neighborhood
and the city at large. Those who visited the place were first struck by its
distinctive exterior--a pure blue facade accented with a New York City-style
awning that ran across the sidewalk and right up to the curb. It was just as
attractive inside. The acoustics were excellent, and the small, understated
semicircular bandstand could hold a quintet with something close to comfort. . .
Besides its music policy, the Blue Bird became nationally known for its friendly
but fierce jam sessions and its penchant for attracting visits from national stars
when they were in town for concerts at larger venues.

In 1953, before he was a household name, Miles Davis lived in Detroit and often played with Mitchell's band at the Blue Bird. In the summer of '54, Miles returned to the Blue Bird as a guest soloist. By then, the house band included Pepper Adams.

Next week I'll continue my review of Heaven Was Detroit, revealing still more Detroit jazz lore.

Now Hear This

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I heard back from Pug Horton. It turns out that she and Bob Wilber have a son that lives in Atlanta. They expect to visit him sometime in 2016. It looks like my interview with Wilber will be put off until that time. Apparently, he prefers to do it in person. Something to look forward to, for sure!

I just found Pepper Adams' very first 8-track jazz "olio" that he put together. (See https://instagram.com/p/6-7Bfzpnmp/?taken-by=pepperadamsblog.) Adams assembled about 40 of these collections to enjoy while motoring around to gigs, etc. Since this first one includes Dedication and Consummation from the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis date Consummation, I figure that Pepper started making these particular sets sometime in late 1971, when the LP was likely released. If these were the first things Pepper made on 8-track, then he would have purchased his Wollensak-3M 8-track (see https://instagram.com/p/rm4zHfpnj3/?taken-by=pepperadamsblog) recorder sometime that year--that is, if he didn't make a bunch of 8-track classical recordings beforehand. What's interesting about this first selection of tunes is the titles he chose. Here's the roster:

1. Duke Ellington: Fade Up

2. Tony Coe: Regrets

3. Pepper Adams: One Mint Julep

4. Thad Jones-Mel Lewis: Dedication

5. Yusef Lateef: Ma, He's Makin' Eyes at Me

6. Barrry Harris: Like This

7. Duke Pearson: Tones for Joan's Bones  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vICb0Lggdnc

8. Billy Mitchell: A Little Juicy

9. Bud Powell: Dusk in Sandi

10. Duke Ellington: All Day Long

11. Pepper Adams: Port of Rico

12. Blue Mitchell: Smooth as the Wind

13. Thad Jones-Pepper Adams: Bossa Nova Ova  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmhYbMdt5s

14. Thad Jones-Mel Lewis: Consummation

15. Joe Henderson: Without a Song

16. Pepper Adams: Azurete

17. Duke Ellington: Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note

18. Music, Inc (Charles Tolliver/Stanley Cowell): Ruthie's Heart

19. Pepper Adams: Moten Swing

What can we make of this? Of the 19 cuts, 1 (#18) was previously unknown to me, 3 are Ellington, 5 are Pepper's dates as a leader or co-leader, 7 are recordings he appears on (it would have been 9 had he not missed most of the Consummation recording), and 12 are led or co-led by Detroiters. I'm especially taken that Pepper would include the four unissued Motown cuts that he did in 1963. Those wonderful tracks, with arrangements by Thad Jones, remain unissued to this day. I've been trying to get Universal to release them.

Adams made his second 8-track jazz tape with these tunes (see https://instagram.com/p/6-pNA9JnhE/?taken-by=pepperadamsblog):

1. Hank Jones: Fugue Tune

2. Joe Henderson: Invitation

3. Charlie Parker: Repitition

4. Yusef Lateef: Quarantine

5. Duke Ellington: Just Scratching the Surface

6. Tommy Flanagan: Solacium  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iUeuB7K8PCc.

7. Billy Eckstine: Air Mail Special  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Lq4h9Hhaw

8. Tony Coe: Together

9. Dizzy Gillespie: Serenade to Sweden

10. Ben Webster: Did You Call Her Today

11. Mike Westbrook: Portrait

12. Rubberlegs Williams: What's the Matter Now

13. Duke Ellington: Mr. Gentle and Mr. Cool

14. John Coltrane: Time After Time

What can we make of these cuts, especially as compared to #1? More Ellington and Coe, and, to be sure, a bunch of Detroiters again, plus another surprise cut for me by Rubberlegs Williams. Thank goodness for YouTube, here's the tune: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvGNw9xKp70. It's a Charlie Parker feature from 1945. Flanagan's Solacium (whatever does that mean?) is new to me too. It features early solos by the leader, Coltrane, Idrees Sulieman and Kenny Burrell. The Eckstine tune has Leo Parker on baritone (on the studio version), though I'm not sure if he's audible. This is one of the first great bop bands. This a smoking live version, possibly not what Pepper chose, but presumably with a fantastic Fats Navarro solo and Budd Johnson on tenor. What a great chart. Did Johnson write it?

Shall we check out one more? Here's Pepper's sixth 8-track olio:

1. Duke Ellington: Perdido

2. Freddie Hubbard: Latina

3. Rex Stewart: Georgia on My Mind

4. Bud Powell: Hallelujah

5. Duke Ellington: Primpin' for the Prom

6. Herbie Hancock: The Prisoner  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NiCsgkhTp7Y

7. Rex Stewart: Alphonse and Gaston  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PRWg53dOWpw

8. Duke Ellington: Tootin' Through the Roof

9. John Surman: Episode  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3sdfwks9Ad4

10. Thad Jones: Let's Play One

11. Elvin Jones: Tergiversation  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtg_GPKZrJg

12. Pepper Adams : Carolyn  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eTVldpGemsg

13. Bud Powell: I Want to Be Happy

14. Duke Ellington: Boy Meets Horn

15. Louie Bellson: The Jeep is Jumpin'

16. Ben Webster: The Days of Wine and Roses

How about that exchange on #7 between Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart? #9 surprised me: Quite free, and with no Surman bari solo. 

What fun it's been getting into the heart and mind of Pepper Adams! I hope you've enjoyed the ride.

The Main Line of Resistance

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Today begins Memorial Day weekend in the U.S. My heartfelt sympathies go out to all those who have lost a loved one in a war or have suffered due to injured or psychologically scarred friends or family members. Pepper Adams, for his part, saw plenty of suffering in Korea and knew musicians who were killed there. In fact, Korea was such a horrific experience for him that he chose not to discuss it when asked. Bettter not to bring up those memories and re-experience the trauma. Can you imagine how much different jazz history would be if Pepper, Frank Foster, Tommy Flanagan, Elvin Jones or Bill Evans, to name just a few, were killed in Korea?

Regarding my continuing research into the Korean War and Pepper's role in the U.S. Army, I heard back from Al Gould, who was in Pepper's platoon. He said that their 10th Special Services gigs on 4-9 March 1953 and 16-20 March 1953 were in "forward areas" near the MLR (Main Line of Resistance). "We played shows within 500 yards back of the MLR," said Gould. "USO Civilian Shows played 20 miles back of the MLR," he said. 

While stationed in Korea, Adams took many photographs that were developed as transparency slides. He marked each of his boxes of slides with dates and general locations. A few were marked "LP," a term unknown to me or Al Gould. Thanks to Gould, he researched this with a retired 2-Star General. "LP" refers to Listening Post. "A Listening Post was very dangerous duty, quite often slightly in front of the MLR," said Gould. "We would not have played loud shows there with the enemy all around us," he said.

For context, here's the brief but very informative Wikipedia article on the MLR:

"Main Line of Resistance, or MLR is a military term describing the most important defensive position of an army facing an opposing force over an extended front. It does not consist of one trench or line of pillboxes, but rather a system, of varying degrees of complexity, of fighting positions and obstacles to enemy advance. The MLR first came into use during World War I, after fighting became stalemated across northern France. The French and British on one side, and the Germans on the other, built elaborate fortified defensive positions. These were characterized by extensive use of barbed wire, entrenchments and underground bunkers to protect their troops from enemy fire, and defeat enemy attacks. The depth of such positions could range from several hundred to several thousand meters, and in a few cases much farther. If the position was held in great depth, a screening line of strongpoints and fortified outposts -- designed to slow and disorganize an enemy attack -- might be constructed forward of the MLR, and a reserve line built behind it. The most famous and elaborate MLR of World War I was the Siegfried Line (part of the longer German Hindenburg Line), across parts of northern France. During World War II, in which combat was relatively fluid, the term 'Main Line of Resistance,' was used less often, and the positions the term described were usually less deep and complex than in World War I. However, there were exceptions, including the French Maginot Line, the German Atlantic Wall and Westwall (Siegfried Line to the Allies), as well as the Soviet defenses at the Battle of Kursk. After the Korean War became static in 1951, MLR described the defensive positions of the U.N. Eighth Army, a series of trenches and bunkers extending east to west across the Korean peninsula."

                             (Photo courtesy of Carla Lehmeier. (c) Carla Lehmeier)