Updates on The Master

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I've heard from Stu Fine at Denon. My proposal to reissue The Master with never before heard, very historic alternate takes is moving up the corporate chain of command. I hope to have some substantive progress to report in the next few weeks.

It turns out that I have only four alternates, not five: Bossallegro, Rue Serpente, and two of Enchilada Baby. On Pepper's cassette, Lovers of Their Time is denoted as a second take. That's what led me to believe I had a fifth alternate. Some research at Denon will hopefully turn up the first take, but I suspect it's incomplete. 

Fortunately, all four alternates on Pepper's cassette are complete performances. They're really superb and the sound is well preserved. I'm eager for you to hear them. Any of the alternates would've worked on the original Muse release with an edit or two. Pepper and Mraz are flawless throughout. A faster version of Enchilada is done; cool to hear. It's kind of amazing that they nailed Chelsea Bridge and My Shining Hour in one take. Just another indication of this outstanding band's very high level of musicianship.

Flanagan and Mraz were Pepper's absolute favorites on their respective instruments. To my knowledge, Pepper never had the opportunity to play with all three of his favorite rhythm section musicians at the same time, even on a gig. To hear this rhythm section as a unit, you'd need to check out the 1978 recording Confirmation, Flanagan's date for Enja.

Who was Pepper's favorite drummer?  Elvin Jones, of course. Pepper always tried to hire Elvin for his dates as a leader. By the 1970s Jones toured quite a bit and spent a lot of time in Japan. Because of that, starting in the late 1970s drummer Billy Hart became Pepper's second choice. Hart wasn't available for The Master, so Pepper hired Leroy Williams, a drummer who was working at the time with Barry Harris. Pepper had recently gigged with Williams in Kansas City. 

Frankly, I'm surprised that Pepper didn't hire Mel Lewis for his final stretch of dates as a leader. They were very close musical associates and their collaboration started in the Kenton band in 1956. Apart from their work with Thad Jones (in the big band and in the Thad-Pepper Quintet) a Jimmy Witherspoon date in c. 1966, and a 1979 project with Helen Merrill and Dick Katz, Pepper only recorded with Mel Lewis while they were both on the West Coast in 1956-57. Kind of curious. Any thoughts on that? Am I forgetting anything? After twelve years with Thad-Mel, maybe Pepper wanted a break? Perhaps he thought using Mel would interfere with him forging a new identity as a "single?"

Pat LaBarbera and Gary Smulyan with String Quartet; Lew Tabackin withOrchestra

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

There's now movement on two of my beloved recording projects. Pat LaBarbera as featured soloist is now on board to record Pepper compositions in Toronto with a rhythm section plus string quartet. He'll be recording four newly written octet arrangements by LA based arranger and pianist Bevan Manson. I plan to do a crowdfunding campaign in April 2014 to raise $2,000 for Bevan Manson's arranging commission. I'll need your help to reach colleagues who might contribute, thanks. 

These four new arrangements will complement the four Manson wrote to feature Gary Smulyan that were performed in 2011 at Birdland in New York City. (Samples are at pepperadams.com.) Once eight pieces are in place we can then move ahead to line up the musicians, studios, label and financing. The plan is to release a complete CD of Manson's brilliant octet charts. Half will be recorded in NYC featuring Smulyan on baritone sax, ideally again with the great George Mraz and Kenny Washington. The other half would feature LaBarbera on tenor and soprano saxophone with a band to be determined, but hopefully including cellist Matt Brubeck and violinists Aline and Luane Homzy.

The even more ambitious flute concerto project for Lew Tabackin is also moving ahead. Bevan is applying for a compositional grant to write a new piece for flute and chamber orchestra--about 30 pieces--based on themes from Pepper's tunes that is easily expandable to full orchestra. Manson is also looking for conductors to get the piece on their calendars. (Any ideas anyone?) Ultimately, we'll need to record the piece, but funding, etc. for that is far off in the future. For now, Manson is planning a compendium CD of his pieces for flute. Arranger Tony Faulkner might assist in arranging a suite of Pepper's seven superb ballads as an additional Tabackin feature, since Faulkner's already scored several for big band (see pepperadams.com). I've also requested that Manson consider scoring Lew's terrific arrangement of Pepper's Bossa Nouveau (sample at pepperadams.com) for the CD.

Re-Releasing The Master?

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I came across Pepper's unmixed cassette of The Master session and it has five alternates!: 2 of Enchilada Baby, one of Rue Serpente, one of Bossallegro and one of Lovers of Their Time. I'm excited to report that Motema Music is interested in releasing it as part of my Pepper series, especially with some of these newly discovered tracks. The Muse material is now owned by Denon (after first being the property of Joel Dorn's 32 Jazz). I've placed a call to Stu Fine at Denon to find out if the masters still exist, including the alternates, and how we can put together a deal. Does anyone know him?  I'm going to try my hardest to get this historic session reissued. What do you think? Good idea?

I never liked Muse sticking in the James Dean Generation tracks on their previous reissue. The Master (Milt Hinton's nickname for Pepper), either by itself or with Adams' other great Muse recording Reflectory, should've been the original approach. Generation wasn't a Pepper Adams or Frank Foster led date. Because Joe Fields marketed the date that way, though it was a Dean project with Pepper and Foster as sidemen, Frank Foster was furious about the way it misrepresented him. (See my book for details, including James Dean's take on it). Foster went out of his way to tell radio stations about Joe Fields' shady marketing approach and that, because of it, they shouldn't play it. I suspect that if Pepper wasn't ill when the date was released in 1985, he might've joined with Frank to stop its release, start a law suit, or otherwise create a shitload of noise about it. 

From what I can gather, Joe Fields wasn't liked in the industry. Tommy Flanagan told me that upon entering the studio for the 1980 The Master date, he saw that Joe Fields was involved with the project and almost walked out. He said in my interview with him in 1988, "I only stayed because it was Pepper's date." Flanagan was a very kind man who chose his words carefully and wasn't anyone I'd call gregarious. But at Pepper's date, when he first saw Fields there, he did tell Fields how much he disliked him. Flanagan told Fields, "It's people like you that killed Monk." 

Pepper's Favorite Honegger Compositions

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

In 1984 Pepper loaned me a stack of Arthur Honegger cassettes--his personal favorites--so I could dub them. After a while, he asked for them back because he was about to go on tour and wanted to take them with him. I'm planning to get all of these transferred to CD and I'm excited because I haven't heard them since Pepper's death in 1986.

Reel 1:
Prelude to Aglavaine et Selysette (Louisville Orch, Jorge Mester)
Sonatina for Two Violins (David and Igor Oistraizh)
Symphony #2 (Berlin Phil, von Karajan)
Sept Pieces Breves, #1-7 (Jurge von Vintschger)
Symphony #3 (Berlin Phil, von Karajan)
Movement Symphonique #3 (Phil Sym. Orch. of London, Herman Scherchen)

Reel 2:
Symphony #5 ["Di Tre Re"], (Czech Phil, Serge Baudo)
Violin Sonata #2 (Eric Albert, Olga Galperin)
Sonatine for Violin and Cello (Schoenfeld Duo)
Chant de Joie  (Phil Sym. Orch. of London, Herman Scherchen)
Toccato and Variations (Jurge von Vintschger)
Suite Archaique (Louisville Orch, R. Whitney)
Prelude Arioso et Fugette sur le nom de Bach (Olga Galperin)

Reel 3:
Symphony #1 (Czech Phil, Serge Baudo)
Trois Pieces: Prelude, Hommage a Ravel, Danse  (Jurge von Vintschger)
Pastorale D'Este/Rugby (Phil Sym Orch of London, Herman Scherchen)
Violin Sonata #1 (Eric Albert, Olga Galperin)
Cello Concerto (Milos Sadlo; Czech Phil Orch, von Neumann)
Deux Esquisses/ Sarabande ["Inc"], Jurge von Vintschger)

Reel 4:
Clarinet Sonatina (Richard Stoltzman, Vallecillo)
Symphony #4 ["Deliciae Basilienses"](Czech Phil, Serge Baudo)
Hommage a Roussel/Sarabande/Souvenir de Chopin (Jurge von Vintschger)
Concerto de Camera (D. Shostac; A. Vogel; LA Chamber Orch, Gerard Schwartz)
Le Cahier Romans (Olga Galperin)
String Quartet #2 (Dvorak String Quartet)
excerpt from "Judith" (Utah Sym Orch, Soloists, 9 choruses, Maurine Abravanel)

Pepper Adams Anthology

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

I've decided to edit an anthology of articles about Pepper. It would be a beautiful complement to my other two Pepper books (including the biography, which I've begun) and CDs. Anyone interested in contributing? It needs to be published by Fall, 2015, when another Pepper tour takes place. That means it would have to be finished by the end of 2014. Here's what I have so far:

1. Gary Carner, Rue Serpente (from Jazz Forschung)
2. Gary Carner, overview of Pepper's style from master's thesis
3. John Vana, Pepper Adams' Early Solo Style to 1960
4. Aaron Lington, excerpt from Pepper dissertation

5. Ken Kellett: "I Remember Pepper"

6. Frank Griffith: Reminiscences of Pepper and arranging Rue Serpente and Reflectory

7. Barry Wallenstein: Lyrics to Eight Adams Compositions.

8. Tony Faulkner: A Study of Pepper's Compositions

9. Jim Merod: Overview of Pepper's recordings

10. Bevan Manson: Compositional Aspects of Pepper's Tunes

11. Various previously published articles, interviews, and liner notes.

Duke Ellington Gig in Rochester NY Discovered

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Thanks to a huge database of Ellington gigs available on-line, I was able to redefine when Pepper was befriended by Rex Stewart and where it took place. The site is

ellingtonweb.ca/Hotedpages/TDWAW/nextTDWAW.html/  

Here's a taste from my forthcoming Pepper biography:

The following March, after he purchased his first saxophone, Pepper attended all three performances of the Duke Ellington Orchestra at the Temple Theatre, a movie palace built in 1909 at 35 Clinton Avenue South in downtown Rochester. On March 5, 1944, the last night of the engagement, Ellington trumpeter Rex Stewart was curious about the enthusiastic, short-haired thirteen-year-old kid with horn-rimmed glasses he noticed sitting by himself in the balcony. Intrigued, Stewart made his way upstairs, introduced himself, then brought Adams backstage to meet Ellington's illustrious musicians.

Cleo Adams Burial Plot Discovered

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

Thanks to Google, I somehow managed to find the appropriate site with a listing of those buried at cemetaries in Columbia City, Indiana. Sure enough, I discovered that Pepper's mother, Cleo, was buried at South Park Cemetery at 1500 South State Road 205 in Columbia City in Section 2, Row 26, Stone 1. Next to her is ostensibly her mother, Minnie B. Coyle. For me, this is just the beginning of discovering Pepper's maternal antecedents. I've sent emails to the Mayor's office and to the Genealogical Society of Whitley County asking for assistance in finding where Pepper lived with his mother's family c. 1931-1934.