Lost Pepper Adams?

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

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My June was dominated by proof-reading the first half of my Pepper Adams biography for publication.

It’s now leaner and in much better shape. I have another fifty pages of Chapter Three to proof. Then, I’m

putting it to bed until the end of the year, when I’ll read it once more before making it available.

One of my readers suggested that I cut some of my discussion of the Duke Pearson Big Band within

Chapter Six. That’s now been accomplished. For the same chapter, another reader asked me to explore

rock in the 1960s, and how that affected Thad/Mel and jazz at large. That will take me a little time, for sure.

My reader also suggested that I place my “Listener’s Guide, 1977-1986” within the text, not as an

appendix. So it’s likely going to be the new Chapter Five. Consistent with that, I’ll craft the “Listener’s

Guide, 1964-1977” as Chapter Seven. 

Thanks to the podcasts offered by the Author’s Guild, I’ve been researching mailing lists, contracts, and

(soon) piracy issues. I’ve yet to select an e-book vendor, but I’m edging closer and closer.

I may invite someone to write a foreword. That remains to be seen. Any suggestions? I’d love to get

Herbie Hancock or Chick Corea to write it, but they’re so hard to reach.

I’ve gotten through 17 of my remaining 50 interviews that I need to finish before I can turn to writing

Chapter Six, my final one.

Sometime in 2008 or so, I had lunch with an old New Jersey neighbor at Universal Music Group. After

hanging out and having lunch, he promised me that he would get from their Los Angeles vaults the

masters to Pepper’s four Motown tracks (arranged by Thad Jones) and the unreleased Motown date done

by Marcus Belgrave. He asked me to follow up. Follow up I did, about twenty times over the course of two

or three years. I never heard back. Now, the truth about Universal’s epic fire has final come to light, and I

can only suppose that this is why he never got back to me. The word among management was to keep news

of the fire a secret. See the article “The Day the Music Burned”:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage  

Although the master to these dates have likely been destroyed, fortunately this music survives:

Correction:

PEPPER ADAMS

631203

Recorded at Sanders Recording Studio. The correct title is “Azure-Te.”

This date is likely destroyed, due to the catastrophic Universal Music Group fire of June 1, 2008, where the master was stored.

See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage 

What follows is a list of all of the now-believed lost or destroyed Pepper Adams recordings that recent

research has uncovered. These updates have been made to Discography Updates: 

https://www.pepperadams.com/JoyRoad/DiscoUpdates.pdf at https://www.pepperadams.com/. While a few of

these dates are known to be destroyed, others may still exists. Hopefully, bringing these sessions to the

attention of the public will increase any possibility of their eventual discovery.

New Entry (Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive):

10th SPECIAL SERVICES COMPANY

530400

cmid April 1953, audience recording, Korea: Pepper Adams bs; Al Gould accordion; other musicians.

According to Al Gould, a complete one-hour show of the band in performance was recorded sometime in April. “I believe what

was recorded,” says Gould, “was not a typical whole show with all of the specialty entertainers. It was more likely the Show

Band playing a blend of styles of a few well-known uptempo show tunes, plus ballads of the day, with an emcee (not Al Lamo).

Pepper would have been definitely featured on one or more songs. The original recording or the only known copy has been long

gone since the person who had it can longer be found.”

New Entry (Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive):

NEW MUSIC SOCIETY

550328

28 March 1955, Institute of Arts, Detroit: Sonny Stitt ts; Pepper Adams bs; Kenny Burrell g; Tommy
Flanagan p; Bill Burrell e-b; Hindal Butts dm. 

From http://gc-pepperadamsblog.blogspot.com: For years I’ve wondered about the eighth entry in Pepper Adams’ Joy Road.
I first learned about that mysterious 1955 live recording from a concert program I found in Pepper Adams' materials. Program
notes written by drummer Rudy Tucich referred to a live recording with a numbing array of Detroit's finest musicians. What
happened to it? Now, thanks to Tucich, I finally have some news.On 28 March 1955 the New Music Society produced a
spectacular concert at the Detroit Institute of Arts to showcase its members. Tucich and singer/vibist Oliver Shearer, co-officers
of the Society with Kenny Burrell, invited many of the greatest players then living in Detroit to participate in the concert,
including Burrell, Tommy Flanagan, Pepper Adams, Barry Harris, Curtis Fuller, Elvin Jones, Yusef Lateef, Bernard McKinney
and Sonny Red. Detroit elders Sonny Stitt and Milt Jackson, not Society members per se, were invited as very special guests.
“This concert,” wrote Tucich, “is being recorded and will be the first release on our own label, Free Arts Records. Your
cooperation in the recording will be greatly appreciated. We would also like to have you give us your suggestion for the
name of our first concert album.” In 1955 most of the musicians at the concert performed on Tuesday nights at the World Stage.
The World Stage was a theater above Paperback Unlimited at the northwest corner of Woodward Avenue and Davison. On
weekends, World Stage put on plays. Lily Tomlin was one of its actors. Early in the week, however, the theater was dark, so a
perfect venue for the New Music Society's members to have sessions.

The Society recorded the 28 March concert on three ten-inch reels. A quintet comprised of Pepper Adams, Kenny Burrell,
Tommy Flanagan, Billy Burrell and Hindall Butts opened with a tune based on the changes of Undecided, then performed
Afternoon in Paris. After Flanagan's trio feature on Dancing in the Dark, the quintet returned to play Someday, If Not in Heaven
(with Kenny Burrell singing!) and Woody'n You. A local group, The Counterpoints, performed three numbers before Sonny
Stitt's quintet (with Curtis Fuller, Barry Harris, Alvin Jackson and Elvin Jones) performed Loose Walk, a ballad medley (I Can't
Get Started, If I Should Lose You, Embraceable You and Lover Man) and a closing blues.

After a likely intermission, Oliver Shearer gave a speech about the New Music Society, then Kenny Burrell introduced Yusef
Lateef's ensemble. Lateef, Bernard McKinney, Sonny Red, Barry Harris, Alvin Jackson and Elvin Jones played four tunes: Wee,
Three Storys, a ballad medley (This Love of Mine, But Not for Me and Darn that Dream) and a closing blues. 

After two tunes by pianist Jerry Harrison and three by pianist Bu Bu Turner, Sonny Stitt returned with Milt Jackson, Kenny
Burrell, Barry Harris, Alvin Jackson and Elvin Jones to finish out the show. They stretched out on Billie's Bounce, then did
Stardust and an ending blues. 

Oh, to hear this music! What happened to it? Tucich told me a week ago that he and Barry Harris decided to mail the tapes to a
guy in Los Angeles, who would edit the tapes and transfer them to LPs for release. Did they think to make a backup copy?
No. “It never occurred to us. We were naive,” admits Tucich. Woefully, the engineer went bankrupt and, after a concerted
attempt to track him down and rescue the tapes, Tucich and Harris finally admitted that the material was lost. “I've waited 60
years to find out about them,” said Tucich. “Hopefully, it will turn up. Weirder things have happened.”

New Entry (Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive):

PEPPER ADAMS

580803

3 August 1958, Great South Bay Jazz Festival, Great River NY: Pepper Adams bs; Kenny Burrell g; George
Duvivier b; Elvin Jones dm.

a Charlie Parker tune United Artists unissued

b Benny Golson tune

c Sonny Rollins tune

According to a 6 September 1958 article in Cash Box (see https://instagram.com/p/BNmrHlVBiBp/), United Artists recorded
this live date for the first of three releases for the new label. It remains unissued. Other tunes were likely recorded. The Golson
and Rollins tunes may be Stablemates and Oleo respectively.

According to Michael Cuscuna, “UA’s surviving tapes was very spotty. There was absolutely no trace of a live Pepper Adams
date nor any outtakes for the great live albums that they did do (Randy Weston, Al & Zoot etc). The only thing I can be sure of
is that there is absolutely no trace in the tape vaults.”

Correction:

MARCUS BELGRAVE

630620

This date is likely destroyed, due to the catastrophic Universal Music Group fire of June 1, 2008, where the master was stored.
See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/11/magazine/universal-fire-master-recordings.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage 

Bennie Maupin, in a 2014 email to me and a subsequent interview, said: “For the record, please note that Pepper is absolutely
one of my many early Detroit influences. As a matter of fact, he was prominently featured on the very first professional recording
of my career. It took place in Detroit at a place known for presenting decades of great music: The Graystone Ballroom. The
featured artist was master/mentor trumpeter Marcus Belgrave. Others featured were pianist Kirk Lightsey, bassist Cecil McBee,
trombonist George Bohanon, and a great drummer who left us much to soon, George Goldsmith. It was just a wonderful moment
because we were right there recording everything on the ballroom floor. The Graystone Ballroom was quite beautiful. I heard a
lot of live music there, with Count Basie’s Orchestra, Dinah Washington, various bands that came through. . . It was great
moment for me to be in that circle of musicians.”

Correction (Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive):

MARCUS BELGRAVE

630626

This date is likely destroyed, due to the catastrophic Universal Music Group fire of June 1, 2008, where the master was stored.
See 630620.

Correction (Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive):

PEPPER ADAMS, page 511

790716

The August, 1982 recording date is in conflict with the session’s 790716 alphanumeric code. Although the drummer believes the date took place in August, 1982, Pepper’s chronology for that time makes that impossible. The original 16 July 1979 date is more likely because that’s the date when Pepper first wrote “Binary” that they recorded at that session. “Papamutt” is the nickname for the French drummer Philippe Briand.

Biography Update

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

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It’s been a busy month. Updating the entire Pepper Adams Interviews section of

pepperadams.com took a ton of time, mostly because I needed to listen to all of

them again in their entirety. I wanted to be sure that I didn’t overlook any important

facts that Pepper mentioned which might be a valuable addition to my Adams

biography. Also, it was necessary to add some mouse-over text for the user and fix

some previous errors. As of now, all fourteen interviews have been posted. All that

remains is seeing if we can improve the digital skips in the John Reid interview.

For several weeks, on and off, I’ve continued to wrestle with the opening section of

Chapter One of the Pepper bio. I just wasn’t entirely happy with it. I think now I’ve got it

where I want it.

I’m happy too with the rest of Chapter 1, and 4, and I’ve been editing Chapters 2 and 3.

Moreover, I’ve rewritten the Prologue and that’s done.

I did finish going through a stack of notes and quotations from various interviews that I

did with Johnny Griffin, Bill Watrous, Bill Perkins and others. Now that the pile of info is

sorted out, I’ve turned to my 46 microcassettes (as much as 92 hours of interview) that I

need to hear before I feel comfortable that I’ve gotten everything that I need from them.

Once finished, probably by early September, I can edit Chapter 5 and move on to Chapter

6, my final chapter.

Regarding Chapter 6, I already have 60 pages of notes and an outline. I’m hoping I can

breeze through it, then make some valuable concluding comments.

As for the publishing the first half of the bio soon, I think that this will be pushed ahead to

early next year. I just have too much work to do before I get to that point. Before it’s done,

I’ll be establishing a mailing list, very long overdue, at pepperdams.com

Below are some recent interview excerpts I hope you enjoy that I’ve added to my notes:

Pepper Adams to Ben Sidran:

“If you play everything legato, and don’t use the tongue -- and don’t outline where the
note is going to hit -- everything tends to run together because it is lower pitched. It has
no rhythmic impact, or impulse, behind it. I’ve tried to use a legato tongue so that there
is differentiation between the notes. I’ve tried to do a lot with articulation because that
has a lot to do with what the time feeling is going to be. And, if you fail to articulate on
baritone, or particularly on lower pitched instrument, it is going to be one constant rumble
after a while.”

Bill Watrous to Gary Carner:

“Every time he played, it was an adventure,” said Bill Watrous. “His ideas, and his
conception of the stuff that he was trying to play, was totally original. I would say, more
so than anybody else [who] ever played that instrument.”

“Pepper had an angularity about his playing, like a jagged sort of approach, that was very
much like the way Sonny Rollins approaches the instrument. Sonny goes at the instrument
from all angles -- from the left, from the right, and under, and goes that way. Pepper,
basically, did the same thing. Pepper had incredible technique. Pepper didn’t just run the
changes. Pepper played all over the changes. I think they sort of approached their music
from a similar direction.”

“The sense of humor was amazing! Pepper would play: I found myself laughing to myself a
lot when Pepper would play some of the things he would play.”

Bill Perkins to Gary Carner:

“He’s one of the true giants of jazz. He stood out in that rare group of jazz soloists, the great giants
of all time, people like Bird and Prez. And John Coltrane has become that. I think that Pepper was
that on his instrument. And Diz. They’re in an area where very few have done the creative work that
they’ve done.”

Johnny Griffin to Gary Carner:

“He was never a pushy person. Maybe that’s what kept him from being more of a giant, as
far as the public is concerned, because he was never aggressive.”

Ron Kolber to Gary Carner:

“He would send me a tune, an old tune,” said Ron Kolber. “Every time we’d see each other, he’d
say, ‘You know this one?’ We used to try to stump each other with old tunes. One his favorite tunes
was a tune by the name of ‘Says My Heart.’ It’s an old tune. Always digging for old tunes; that was a
little hobby with him. He said that some of the early tunes were really great. . . . He had great interest
in the old-timers. Any of the old-timers. He would listen to all of the old records. He said, ‘That’s where
we’re from.’ He said, ‘If we listen to that, we’re gonna get to where we are, and maybe beyond, but
you can’t start in the middle and go. You gotta go all the way back.’”

Finally, here’s three clips of tunes that Anders Svanoe performed at his recent concert dedicated to
Pepper, and a video of Pepper conducting an after-concert interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybB-Rpnzx8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRtmIVKJ9EI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXdFEEnkq5M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ovuEbDv8YQ

Romping through the Midwest

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.

















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I left for my tour of the Midwest on April 8 and returned on the 23rd. I needed a full week to catch my

breath upon my return. After two solid years of writing Pepper’s biography on top of (or in between)

work, the trip really took its toll. I drove more than 1,000 miles from St. Louis to Macomb and back, and

then from Minneapolis to Madison and back. Half the trip was a vacation in Minneapolis with my old

college buddies, and there was a lot of carousing.

Before I left, one of my loyal biography readers encouraged me, once I got some distance, to reread the

first half of my forthcoming Pepper biography. He said that my writing had improved over the last two

years and that I’d probably find some things to tweak that no longer would seem acceptable. He said,

“more work equals a better book.” He was right! A few days after my return, I started reading my

opening paragraph of Chapter 1 and immediately saw things to alter. Accordingly, for the next few weeks

or longer, I’ll be editing the first half of the biography for publication this summer as an e-book. More

details will follow, once I’m done and figure out the vendor, etc.

I still have five more interviews on cassette, a handful of radio interviews, and about fifty interviews on

microcasette to listen to before I can make my final additions to Chapter Five and possibly the rest of

the book. What I’ve found by listening to these interviews is the unexpected gems here and there that,

when stripped into the text, add meaning and context to the text I’ve already written. I discovered some

of these today in my interview with the trombonist Bill Watrous. In some cases, as with my interview the

the drummer Eddie Locke, I’ve had to write new paragraphs that I wasn’t anticipating because of the

importance of the testimony.

On my journey throughout the Midwest, I came to the conclusion that I’d prefer to put off doing the

hardcore listening of Pepper’s recorded work from 1956-1977 until next year. That work will be

discussed in two separate appendices, as I’ve already done with the some fifty pages of text I wrote

about Pepper’s recordings during the period 1977-1986. All of the tunes I discuss in the appendices will

include links to YouTube so that the reader can immediately listen to the music. Much of it has never

been heard before.

Putting off the listening allows me to complete the biography this year. Because I’m on a roll and only

one chapter away, it’s far more gratifying to have that (as one wag once described a hemorrhoid) behind

me.

I’m especially grateful to the wonderful hospitality that I was shown on my trip by my gracious guests. My

first visit was to Western Illinois University, to visit with my co-author, John Vana, and then speak to his

graduate class, “The Big Three: Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Pepper Adams.” At the St. Louis

Airport the following day, my flight got delayed for nearly three hours due to the snow storm that was

moving through the Midwest. The Minneapolis Airport was closed during that time so they could clean

the runways and catch up on all the delayed flights. I was indeed lucky to land in Minneapolis at 7pm and

still have some fun there, rather than be placed in an airport hotel and fly out the next morning. I think the

flights after me were grounded.

The following Sunday night, I met the alto saxophonist Jeff Erickson for dinner, where I proceeded to

download for hours the essence of my two years of Pepper research. Thanks, Jeff, for listening, and for

allowing me to get that out of my system! The following day, I lectured to his jazz survey class at the

University of Wisconsin/La Crosse. Then I drove about a half hour up the pretty Mississippi River to

Winona, where I had dinner with the drummer, Rich MacDonald., Afterwards, I lectured about Pepper to

his class.

The following day, I drove some 200 miles to Madison, then spent the evening with the baritone

saxophonist Anders Svanoe. Svanoe did one of the first books for Scarecrow. See

https://sonnyredmusic.com/ for all his work on the Detroiter. Obviously, we had a lot to discuss. After

eating some rather average food in LaCrosse and Winona, it was great to eat Nepalese, Laotian and

Mexican food during my stay. Svanoe took me around the main campus of the University of Wisconsin,

and the following day we looked over his Red memorabilia, then drove to Beloit College, where I lectured

to his jazz class.

That night Svanoe did an impassioned set of Pepper Adams tunes with a tasty rhythm section at

Madison’s Arts and Literature Lab. It’s an intimate setting for music, and we had a small but enthusiastic

turnout on a Wednesday night. My pre-concert talk to the audience and Anders’ performance was

captured on video. It will be posted soon at pepperadams.com. Many thanks to Thomas Ferrella, for his

support of the center and his wonderful hospitality. I hope more folks support it:

https://artlitlab.org/events/the-life-and-music-of-pepper-adams-reading-and-concert   

The last lecture I gave was to Chris Merz’s class at the University of Northern Iowa. Chris studied with

Yusef Lateef and had been waiting for the right time for me to visit. Fortunately, we fit it in this time around.

I drove 200 miles to Cedar Falls, leaving Madison at 6:45am, to get to his class in time. Fatigued but

undaunted, I found his class to be among the most spirited of any class I’ve taught about Pepper. I was

excited to go there, because over the past twenty or so years Chris has built the finest program in the

state of Iowa. Sure enough, his students, especially the saxophonists in attendance, were very engaged

and it was a memorable experience -- for me up there with Eastman, Brigham Young, and only a few

others.

That night, after we had dinner in Cedar Falls, I heard Merz at a jam session. He’s a very fine tenor

player. He was worried because I told him how displeased I was with Joshua Redman’s performance in

Hopkins MN a few days before. After the gig, I told him how much I loved his playing; how much joy he

exuded, how his lines swung so logically. Like Pepper once said, try to tell a story by getting conversation

going.

Part of my vacation I stayed with my webmaster, Dan Olson. We discussed pepperadams.com at

length, coordinating the future post with Svanoe, and charting the site’s future. We spent hours sorting

through the remaining Adams interviews that still needed to be posted. Right after I returned home,

“Danno” made some significant updates to the site. Due to a discovery I made after hearing an interview

with Pat Henry, the San Francisco deejay and the producer of Mel Lewis’ very first date as a leader, the

longstanding riddle about the publisher of “A Winter’s Tale” has mostly been solved:

https://www.pepperadams.com/Compositions/compList/index.html

Significantly, the Adams Interviews page has been updated and nearly completed:

https://www.pepperadams.com/Interviews/index.html

We will be changing the contact email from info@pepperadams.com to this blog so that we can drive

some more traffic and so that folks who email additions, etc, get replies in a timely manner.

Lastly, I’ve made some new additions to Pepper’s Instagram site, with some other photos forthcoming. Hopefully, I don’t repeat too many posts already on the site.

https://www.instagram.com/pepperadamsblog/

As always, I welcome your comments, and continue to be very grateful for all your support.