Strange Bedfellows: Pepper Adams and Nick Brignola

February 21, 2015, 11:44 am

Pepper Adams performed with Nick Brignola only a handful of times during his career. Other than a 1982 festival concert in Holland, all of the known gigs were produced by Fred Norsworthy. Norsworthy was a huge Adams fan who self-produced Adams'Encounter date that was eventually sold to Prestige. Norsworthy was also responsible for doing A&R work on the Baritone Madness recording on Beehive. Pepper didn't care for Brignola's playing and would've only taken the gigs here and there because of need. He was also hired on Baritone Madness as a sideman and was furious with the way he was manipulated on the date to appear as a co-leader. I doubt he was pleased with how his sound was re-engineered to make Brignola seem the more prominent sounding player.

I interviewed Norsworthy, Adams and Brignola regarding their work together. Much can be learned from their comments in Pepper Adams' Joy Road (pages 340-44 and elsewhere). Although Adams and Brignola were contemporaries, how do they differ? First, other than occasional doubling on clarinet only in a big band setting, Pepper exclusively played baritone sax and would only solo on baritone. Brignola, for his part, was a multi-instrumentalist who favored baritone more and more later in his career because he finally got an offer to record as a leader on baritone. In a JazzTimes article (August 1989, p. 14) Brignola told Jesse Nash, "I play all the saxophones. The soprano, alto and tenor, as well as bass sax, the clarinets and flutes."

Brignola for many years--until Pepper passed away and Brignola slid into his place--taught saxophone whereas Pepper never had students. Phil Woods told me that he wrote the charts for his octet with Pepper in mind and with the expectation that he'd be in the group. Pepper passed away before the group recorded and Brignola took Pepper's place.

Both Pepper and Brignola had great technical facility and good time but the differences are dramatic. Pepper was a stylist, with an immediately identifiable style. He had a very sophisticated harmonic sensibility, plus an encyclopedic mind that could cite all sorts of arcane musical paraphrases. His time feel had a plasticity to it: he could play way behind the beat or on top of the beat when double-timing. According to Kenny Berger, however, Brignola was a "lick player." That means he didn't have his own style and his approach was an amalgam of licks from his contemporaries. Pepper prized individuality above all else and would've been completely turned off by this kind of superficiality substituting for style.

Brignola didn't have the flexibility in time feel either. According to my co-author John Vana, "Brignola has the bop thing down on Baritone Madness but it's as though he's trying to upstage Pepper. On the surface he succeeds. Pepper is so much more creative in his lines, always looking for something new and usually finding it. While the bop/on-top-of-the-beat approach certainly works, Brignola's baritone comes across as a big alto. On Donna Lee, Pepper's time is much more flexible and he freely quotes to add a conversational quality to an up-tempo workout. Brignola's turn sounds pre-planned and less of an artistic statement."

For me, when I hear Brignola, his playing sparkles for a few minutes but then gets extremely tiresome. That's because there's no variety of time, no paraphrasing or humor, little in the way of harmonic depth and it's all in-your-face machismo. He's not telling a story and it's technique for technique's sake. I don't care for Brignola's altissimo playing. More of the same. It strikes me as a gratuitous gimmick. Pepper only rarely jumped into that range and only for dramatic effect.

Kenny Berger also said that Brignola wasn't a good reader. That's another reason why Brignola didn't work that widely. Pepper was a great reader and played with everyone imaginable.

Regarding their only known non-Norsworthy twin baritone gig, Bert Vuijsje attended the De Meervaart concert in 1982 with Hank Jones: "I vividly remember the sadness and, to a certain extent, indignation I felt. Pepper Adams did not make a healthy impression, to say the least. His playing lacked its usual strength and already rumors were going around that he had a serious illness. Nick Brignola reacted in a rather tasteless manner by using his ballad feature, Sophisticated Lady, as a kind of show-off, demonstrating his - momentaneous - superiority by (unusually in this song, I thought) going into double-time after a while and then playing chorus after chorus after chorus as a real tour de force. My idea at the time was that here we saw the final moments of a history of rivalry (at least from Nick Brignola's side)." Here's another case of flamboyance masquerading as artistry. I suspect that Pepper probably knew he was being roped into yet another dumb baritone sax combat situation and demurred. It was also a hit-and-run for Pepper. That is, he flew in from New York for the gig and then went back home. He might've been jet-lagged. More than anything, the Baritone Madness recording left a very bad taste in his mouth and he was probably very uninspired and did this gig solely for the money. On the recording, he couldn't stand the way Beehive's owner took advantage of him and he hated Roy Haynes and Derrick Smith's playing. Years later he cited Roy Haynes as an example of a drummer who doesn't listen.

I do agree with Brignola that Baritone Madness helped Pepper's career. That's something that Brignola pointed out in our interview. The date did bring attention to Pepper as a soloist just a half a year after Pepper went out on his own as a single.

About two years ago I exchanged emails with recording engineer Jim Merod. He worked with Brignola and knew him very well. Jim said that Nick was very much aware of Pepper's place as the superior player and the greatest on his instrument. Nick himself told me years before, in our interview, how he respected that Pepper "played with all the cats." He was referring to all the greatest musicians: Monk, Mingus, Elvin, Miles, Trane, Diz, Thad, Mel, Lee Morgan--I could go on forever. I sensed that Brignola knew exactly what that meant in relation to him not having that kind of access.

↧

The Dark Side Reassessed

February 28, 2015, 6:09 am

≫ Next: The Sublime and Neglected Wardell Gray

≪ Previous: Strange Bedfellows: Pepper Adams and Nick Brignola

A note about last week's post. It was the first time I was ever critical of another player, though it was mostly Pepper's criticism that I was expressing. I was interested in hearing about Brignola, but I did it in the wrong way. Going to the dark side really isn't my thing but I tried it as an experiment. I rarely get any responses so I figured I'd try polemics and see what happens. Personally, I was also having a very tough week. I've gotten enough criticism to not do it again. Thanks to everyone for sharing your feedback.

I've gotten a pushback once before about sharing Pepper's personal views. That was regarding his dislike of Serge Chaloff's playing. More about last week's post, a friend pointed this out: "Your blog leaves the impression that men like Brignola and Haynes were somehow lame players compared to Adams, when in fact they were merely different players. Pepper comes off as mean-spirited and somewhat petty as a result." That's certainly not my intent. Pepper was a very gracious person who kept his opinions to himself and a select group of friends.

My friend contunes: "Granted that Pepper's approach was the most technical and the most harmonically advanced of all the modern baritone players, but Brignola was much more than just a "licks player." Even if Nick's rhythm patterns were more straight ahead, he certainly swung strongly at all times, no mean accomplishment on that big saxophone. The fact is that ALL jazz artists assemble a number of "licks" that they make their own and then, as is the case with both Nick and Pepper, they make creative use of them as they generate their own unique solo statements. Surely you recognize that Pepper had many of his own "licks," more often ascending and descending patterns of fourths, that other baritone players still quote to this day."

He concludes about Brignola: "His rhythm feel is the best of all the baritone guys, just as Mulligan's ballad playing is in a class by itself, a class that, quite frankly, Pepper never quite achieved, though his ballad work was wonderful. There is enough room in the jazz world for lots of different players contributing their own unique visions. Pepper was the best at what he did and it is only right that you have dedicated your website to celebrate his achievement. But there is no need for any implied belittlement of his competitors."

↧

The Sublime and Neglected Wardell Gray

March 7, 2015, 10:25 am

≫ Next: Osian Roberts on Pepper Adams

≪ Previous: The Dark Side Reassessed

How many have heard Wardell Gray's magnificent opening solo on the Count Basie 1950 small group Snader transcription "I Cried for You?"

Listen: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rvUVMJ96aUY

I can't think of a more perfect one-minute introduction to the swinging and sublimely beautiful playing of little known tenor master Wardell Gray. Wardell Gray's tone, time and lyricism was a huge influence on Pepper Adams in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Gray grew up in Detroit, attended Cass Tech and often returned to Detroit to play gigs there, including gigs with Pepper, where they traded horns. Apart from Sonny Stitt, Pepper cited Wardell Gray as the best baritone player he ever heard. Gray had a distinguished career in the bands of Earl Hines, Benny Carter, Billy Eckstine, Benny Goodman and Basie. He's particularly known for his tenor duels with Dexter Gordon. With lots of work experience, he served as a strong role model for younger players in Detroit, and in Los Angeles where he lived for a time. Pepper and Wardell were very close and Pepper was a pallbearer at Wardell's funeral in 1955. Wardell, like Bird, died in 1955 at the age of 34.

Read Pepper's description of Wardell and his death here: http://www.pepperadams.com/PepperOnGray/Page01.html

The Basie performance above plays a prominent part in Abraham Ravett's 1994 documentary Forgotten Tenor.

See excerpt here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oUhfubHKSAY

Interviews with family members, Clark Terry, Eddie Bert, Art Farmer, Buddy DeFranco and especially Teddy Edwards are extremely illuminating in the film. They give an account of his death, true, but also a character portrait that will help me explain Pepper and Wardell's friendship in my forthcoming biography. Others have very interesting points here and there to make about Wardell's personality and musicianship. Basie bassist Jimmy Lewis, for one, says about Wardell, "On the bandstand he was very serious about his music."Another noted that Wardell sometimes would exhort the entire band to dig in when it was his time to solo, saying things such as"C'mon! Let's go!" Another interviewee pointed out that Wardell enjoyed quoting in his solos and once played Dvorak's Humoresque on the bridge of Honeysuckle Rose. Pepper became a great paraphraser himself and might have been inspired early on from Wardell's use of musical quotation.

Wardell Gray was very bright, very funny and he could be sarcastic at times. Generally speaking, he was a happy-go-lucky guy and extremely friendly. Yet his letters late in life to his wife reveal his loneliness on the road and his frustration with not be able to send home enough money for the family. Imagine if a letter or two he might've sent to Pepper would turn up somewhere? Pepper, too, became a voluminous letter and postcard writer. Maybe another Gray influence?

Because my copy of Hampton Hawes' very fine autobiography Raise Up Off Me is packed, I can't cite parts of it. But I understand that Hawes writes about Wardell's influence on the young players like himself on the West Coast. Art Farmer said in the film that Wardell was more of a big brother than a father figure. Farmer said, "He was an excellent example for us in Los Angeles because he was doing what we wanted to do." We can probably safely assume the same with Pepper, though Pepper was fatherless at age 9 and Wardell may have filled in other gaps for him. After all, when Pepper was 17 or 18 in Detroit, attending college and mastering the baritone sax, Wardell Gray was 28 and had traveled widely in name bands.

Like Pepper, Wardell Gray was funny, studious and a sports nut. Wardell liked doing practical jokes, unlike Pepper, who preferred puns and subtle humor. Unlike Pepper, too, Wardell was very emotional and could cry easily. You kind of get that sense in his playing--so emotional--but especially in the poignant recitation of letters that his widow reads in the film.

Pepper has said that the hallmark of Detroit jazz playing is the time feel. Perhaps best embodied by Elvin Jones, you know where the beat is but Detroit musicians imply it and have a sophisticated plasticity in respect to the beat. According to DeFranco, Wardell had a natural way of swinging. He could fool with the time--play behind or forward or on it. I suggest that, apart from Wardell's behind-the-beat lyricism that Pepper adopted, Wardell's time feel was a huge influence on Pepper's solo conception. John Vana and I will explore Gray's influence on Pepper in our forthcoming study.

As Art Farmer said in the film about Gray, "He influenced my playing in striving for excellence. He was

very strong in melodic content and very strong in rhythm. . . . I loved the way his lines just flowed."

Pepper felt the same way.

Listen to Wardell's great feature on Little Pony, that Pepper mentioned to me when I interviewed him in 1984: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u2uMjh2dOSI

Anybody think that Pepper's great 1968 date Encounter with Zoot Sims (see photo below) is kind of a second coming of Pepper and Wardell?

↧

Osian Roberts on Pepper Adams

March 14, 2015, 4:26 am

≫ Next: Lost Detroit Session

≪ Previous: The Sublime and Neglected Wardell Gray

Welsh born tenor saxophonist Osian Roberts

has arranged for big band the two Adams ballads "In Love with Night" and "Civilization and Its Discontents." (See http://www.pepperadams.com/BigBandCharts/index.html#). Stay tuned. His long-term goal is to write big band charts of Pepper's entire oeuvre. Besides running Hard Bop Records and co-leading a quintet with trumpeter Steve Fishwick (recently augmented to a sextet with the addition of Frank Basile), Roberts has also recorded in Prague several Adams tunes with a small group featuring Pepper's first-call bassist George Mraz. Roberts' comments about Pepper Adams were originally posted at pepperadams.com on 8 October 2010, Adams' 80th birthday. He's agreed to write a guest post sometime in the future, when I hope he'll elaborate on some of the points made below. By then, his recordings of Pepper tunes should also be available at pepperadams.com.

I don't think I could overstate my love of Pepper Adams' music. He's one of the greatest jazz musicians and saxophonists (not just baritone) in the history of jazz. Not only did he have his own sound and vocabulary but he had a unique way of using that vocabulary--which was direct but, at the same time, highly sophisticated and completely devoid of any bullshit. That places him on the same level as Charlie Parker and John Coltrane in my opinion. Also, like Bird and Trane, his compositions seem to be an extension of his improvising concept. That he was held in such high regard by his fellow musicians isn't surprising to me in the least. His music conveys so many things: excitement, beauty, passion, humour, pathos, joy, sadness, urgency ... it's all there, which is why I find myself listening to his albums almost every day.

I was very fortunate last year to do some gigs with a former associate of Pepper, Hod O'Brien, who, incidentally, is one of the nicest people I've ever met. I took the opportunity to quiz him about Pepper Adams the man. You won't be surprised to hear that Hod thought the world of Pepper, saying that he was an incredible musician, an intellectual (the phrase "Renaissance Man" occurred) and great company. He also said that he was very funny and recounted a story of when he was sitting outside a cafe somewhere with Pepper. Across the road was a hardware store. They noticed a couple of kids hurry out the door, looking rather suspicious. Sure enough, when the boys approached Hod and Pepper's table, they offered to sell them some decorator's paint brushes. Pepper immediately replied, "No thanks, I only paint miniatures"--which completely cracked Hod up (he was in tears of laughter as he told the story!)--and sent the boys away looking nonplussed. It's always nice to hear that your musical heroes are also witty, nice people. I also recorded a couple of albums with Pepper's former bassist George Mraz recently but I didn't manage to prize out any P. A. anecdotes out of him in the brief time we had to talk. I'm hoping to work with him again so I'll keep trying!

Osian Roberts

Prague, 2010

↧

Lost Detroit Session

March 21, 2015, 11:24 am

≫ Next: Pepperadams.com Improvements

≪ Previous: Osian Roberts on Pepper Adams

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 Monday and 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 Kennny 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 Story's, 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 backrupt 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.

DETROIT, 1958, courtesy of Lonnie Hillyer. Barry Harris (fourth from left), Rudy Tucich beside/behind him, Charles McPherson at far right. Others include Donald Walden, Lonnie Hillyer and Ira Jackson. Three are unidentified.

↧

Pepperadams.com Improvements

March 28, 2015, 8:45 am

≫ Next: On the Trail

≪ Previous: Lost Detroit Session

Dan Olson, my trusty webmaster since pepperadams.com's inception, has been visiting this week. Apart from four rounds of golf in wonderfully balmy Georgia weather, we've spent time making refinements to the website. The main issue is pepperadams.com's compatibility with iPads and laptops or desktop computers. Over the last year we've found that newer versions of popular browsers don't support some of the older features of Quicktime that we used to build out the site. Because of that, our links, mouse-overs and other "cool" features aren't working as originally intended. Over the last few days we've fixed typos and repaired captions. Text has been rewritten, dead links have been removed and other tasks are ongoing. You can expect more improvements in the coming weeks.

A long discussion ensued yesterday about what to do about Pepper's compositions. For quite some time I've been eager to correct the total number of Adams compositions from 43 to 42 but Dan has resisted. Without belaboring the point, from a technical point of view it's very involved to change the Composition List without having to update scads of other pages linked to it. A seemingly simple task, as it turns out, isn't simple at all. Moreover, all sorts of philosophical issues regarding the nature of research are involved. Is it best to retain a record of what was once thought to be correct or is it better to reveal newly discovered information and expunge the old information entirely? For us, a New Yorker article (see"Discards" by Nicholson Baker, 4 April 1994; http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1994/04/04/discards) describing the wholesale destruction of card catalogs about 20 years ago was a chilling reminder of how important it is to show the progression of knowledge. Much like the Nazis burning books, the New Yorker piece described how card catalogs were destroyed when libraries transitioned to the digital age. But the rush to embrace the new technology was done without care to preserve all the research contained in those card records and much information, such as handwritten notations, was lost in the process. It reminds me of America's urban renewal movement in the 1960s and the ensuing loss of many great public buildings.

Ultimately, we decided to keep the Compositions page as is but append it with a new mouse-over explaining how 43 Adams compositions became 42. For those not aware of the need for the revision, see "Like . . . What Is This." It's written by Kiane Zawadi (formerly Bernard McKinney), not Pepper. Nevertheless, where appropriate, we've also decided to change "43" to "42" throughout the site.

Another thing Dan and I discussed was how to reconstitute Solos of the Month. No longer should we update the page every month, we agreed, or scramble to catch up because it wasn't updated in time. We've decided instead to post all of the samples, rename the page "Rare Performances" and add new things as we go. Stay tuned for that update.

"Audio from 2012 Tour" is a work in progress. It will take some time before that's repaired. "Dedications" will also receive a make-over soon. We have music samples and lead sheets to add.

"Pepper Adams and John Coltrane" is due for a major overhaul. That will wait until Osian Roberts and John Vana share their insights in this blog. Also, an old thread about "Mary's Blues" will be appended. So much to do!

(Kiane Zawadi and Howard Johnson,1966)

(Kiane Zawadi/Bernard McKinney)

↧

On the Trail

April 4, 2015, 11:33 am

≫ Next: Prologue Anew

≪ Previous: Pepperadams.com Improvements

Last week I wrote about the long-lost 1955 live recording done by many of the greatest Detroit musicians. I got a text about it from saxophonist Adam Schroeder, saying he wanted to search Los Angeles for the tapes if I could just give him some more information. Adam, a very positive guy (and a very fine player in his own right) said, "I know they're here. I can feel it." After a smile and a chuckle, I called producer Rudy Tucich. All I was able to learn from him is that the tapes were mailed out in April, 1955, just a few weeks after the concert. Maybe Schroeder can do the impossible? Until something turns up, however, I'm requalifying the session in my Pepper discography as "Broadcasts and Recordings That No Longer Survive." A new version will appear soon at "Joy Road (Discography) Updates."

As you can see, I'm not only trying to discover brand new discographical things. I'm also trying to solve longstanding riddles. One example was last week's post. Still another is embedded within an Author's Note on Page 4 of my Joy Road:

"Private recordings made during the period 1953-1956 at the Blue Bird Inn, Klein's Show Bar and probably the World Stage and West End Hotel comprise part of the collections of saxophonist Joe Brazil, impressario Willie Bolar and jazz fan Terry Weiss. These collections contain recordings of Pepper Adams in performance with Wardell Gray, Sonny Stitt, Miles Davis, Thad Jones, Billy Mitchell and many of the foremost Detroit musicians of Adams' generation, such as Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Barry Harris, Frank Foster, Elvin Jones, Yusef Lateef, Curtis Fuller, Doug Watkins and Paul Chambers. Additionally, because Detroit in the 1950s was one of the major jazz centers in the United States and, thus, an important destination for traveling musicians, these three collections also contain recordings that capture in performance many significant soloists of that time who were touring as singles or with ensembles."

As with the Detroit Institute of Arts recording of 1955, I've long wondered about these collectors; my "Big Three," vaguely reminiscent of Detroit's Big Three Automakers. I once interviewed Willie Bolar but he refused to discuss the contents of his collection. I also got pretty close to Joe Brazil, interviewing a musician friend of his in Seattle, Pete Leinonen, who said he would try to speak to Brazil for me. Terry Weiss, for her part, remains a complete mystery. I'm not even sure how I learned about her. When it was time to finish the Pepper discography, all I could do was publish the above excerpt with the hope that someone else would make another attempt. Fortunately, there's been some progress.

Some time ago, Mark Stryker, who covers jazz for the Detroit Free Press and who's nearly done writing a book about Detroit jazz musicians--not Pepper though, because he feels it would be redundant considering my work--let me know that a researcher in Washington State has been working with the estate of Joe Brazil to finally assess what's in Brazil's collection. Hallelujah! I hope to speak directly with him soon to see what he's discovered regarding Pepper.

What about Bolar and Weiss? I had a conversation with Stryker today about them. I mentioned to Mark that he's probably the last person who could possibly make something happen with Bolar, considering Bolar's age and Stryker's position at the newspaper and his connections with the Detroit jazz community. My fear, as it is with Donald Byrd and anyone in jazz that has important papers and recordings, is that they'll die and their estate, not knowing its value, throws everything away. If Stryker's able to get anywhere with Bolar I'll let you know.

Stryker never heard of Terry Weiss but he's promised to ask around about her. I was told many years ago that Weiss lugged around a reel-to-reel at the Bluebird, Klein's and possibly even the West End Hotel and World Stage.

(Mark Stryker)

↧

Prologue Anew

April 11, 2015, 9:33 am

≫ Next: Walkin' About: Strolling Through Pepper's Chronology

≪ Previous: On the Trail

I started a new full-time job this week but somehow fit in some editing work on the Prologue to my Pepper Adams biography. I took a few weeks off from it and I think it helped me to look at it anew. John Gennari, the very fine cultural historian who is functioning as one of my readers, suggested that I add two things. One is some kind of contextualization about the late 1970s and early 1980s and what was going on in jazz as Pepper's life changed so dramatically. The other was a mention of Pepper's place in ithe baritone saxophone lineage, particularly in light of the fact that, historically speaking, it's not a typical jazz solo instrument. That alone has implications, Gennari pointed out. Pepper's choice of the baritone sax would signal certain aspects of Pepper's personality that should be hinted at in the Prologue.

Here's the updated Prologue that I'll be sending to Gennari. If you notice anything that needs amending, please comment below. It's not likely perfect but at least good enough so I can at last move on to Chapter One.

Prologue

In the Summer of 1977 Pepper Adams was at a crossroads. For twelve years he had anchored the reed section of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, one of jazz’s greatest big bands, but at age 46 desperately needed to reinvent himself. Adams never wanted to be in the group in the first place. After too many years of accepting section work with big bands, he was eager to break free and work exclusively with small ensembles so he could stretch as a soloist. But Thad Jones—one of his dearest friends, whom he admired more than anyone—needed him in his newly formed orchestra, leaned on him, reminded him of all the things his mother did for him back in Pontiac, Michigan in the early 1950s and convinced him to stay. That was in 1966. Now, after hundreds of Monday nights at the Village Vanguard and countless tours of the U.S., Europe and Japan, Adams was more restive than ever.

Pepper had voiced his frustration at least a year prior to the ’77 summer tour. He told Thad and Mel that he was unhappy with his lack of solos, citing the baseball expression, “Play me or trade me!” as some indication of his discontentment. Pepper’s clever use of the phrase, so characteristic of his understated sense of humor, has since become part of the band’s mythology. When it was uttered, they laughed and ignored it. This time around Adams wasn’t joking.

Pepper’s situation came to a head in Stockholm at the midpoint of the band’s two-month European tour. Before their August 1 evening performance at Tivoli Gardens, Adams met privately with Jones and Lewis. He told them that he wanted a pay raise and star billing as a featured soloist. Adams, though, was unaware that it was band policy to never give inordinate solo space, nor pay any musician, more than anyone else. Even if he had known, Pepper still would’ve felt entitled to it because of his twelve-year participation in the band and his longstanding relationship with both Thad and Mel dating back to the early 1950s. As things turned out, neither his tenure or rapport mattered. Much to Pepper’s surprise, Thad and Mel declined his request, steadfastly adhering to band protocol. An aggrieved Pepper Adams, left with no alternative, said he’d be leaving the band at the end of the month when the tour concluded. The news of Pepper’s imminent departure saddened everyone in the band, but none more than Thad Jones and Mel Lewis. That night at Tivoli, Adams again had no solos to play. Adams had sublimated his feelings by getting so drunk before the gig that he could barely comport himself onstage.

Adams’ close friend Ron Ley traveled with the orchestra part of the way through Scandinavia that summer and witnessed Pepper’s transition out of the band. A day or so after Adams submitted his resignation, Ley and Thad Jones had a moment alone. Jones reminded Ley that Pepper was jazz’s greatest living baritone saxophonist. Later on, said Ley, “Mel shared Thad’s opinion of Pepper’s playing and added that his opinion was shared by all fellow musicians of the period. It may have been that Thad and Mel made a point of telling me this because they knew that Pepper and I were close, and wanted to express their feelings so that I wouldn’t be left with an impression that they were indifferent to Pepper’s feelings of disappointment.”

After the tour concluded, Adams returned to New York and began forging his identity as an itinerant soloist. He already possessed an international reputation based on more than twenty years of commercial recordings with many of the greatest musicians, including Phil Woods, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Elvin Jones, Paul Chambers, Chet Baker, Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and so many others. In no time Pepper found himself in demand throughout Europe and North America. Then, in 1978 and 1980 he recorded two of his greatest albums, Reflectory and The Master, featuring his original compositions. Both were nominated for Grammy Awards as the best instrumental albums of the year by a jazz soloist. Building a book of originals he could perform had finally pushed him to put his mind to composition. Between 1977 and 1983 Adams wrote nearly half his oeuvre of 42 tunes.

At last, success was coming his way from all directions. His 1979 project with singer Helen Merrill, Chasin’ the Bird/Gershwin, was nominated for a Grammy Award (his third in three years) as the best jazz recording of the year by a vocalist. He received yet another Grammy nomination for his 1983 album Live at Fat Tuesday’s and, clad in a tuxedo, Adams appeared on the 1982 nationally broadcast Grammy Awards telecast, performing (appropriately enough) the jazz standard “My Shining Hour.”

Besides being a personal triumph for Adams, his high-profile television performance was less overtly some indication of cultural and political forces that were sweeping the globe. Just a few years earlier, radical Islam had toppled the Shah of Iran and, in the West, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were elected to dismantle “progressive” social programs. In the jazz world, as in politics, a return to conservative values would become a fact of life. In the early 1980s large American record companies, led by Columbia, concocted a media campaign (lasting a decade and penetrating even the mainstream press) that a new movement was afoot. Central to their argument was trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Columbia first signed Marsalis as a double-threat jazz and classical recording artist. Then, while showering Marsalis with publicity, it anointed him as the leader of a new wave of fledgling African-American jazz musicians chosen in his image. These neoclassicist “Young Lions,” it was said, abhorred rock rhythms and electronic instruments. Instead, they yearned for the “nobility” of late 1950’s jazz, the post-Charlie Parker style of music that Pepper Adams never abandoned.

The altered landscape, that suddenly favored hard-swinging acoustic jazz more than at any time since the early ’60s, helped Pepper Adams. He was working steadily, winning all the readers and critics polls as the world’s premier baritone saxophonist, and had the ongoing support of a record company. A younger generation of musicians was seeking him out for their gigs and, due to numerous radio and television appearances, the public was becoming familiar with this soft-spoken gentle man who let his big horn and bigger sound speak for him.

Then, like a sand castle at high tide, it all washed away. With so much forward momentum propelling him, in December, 1983 Adams had a bizarre car accident that forced him to cancel seven months of work, including a week at Lush Life, his first prominent New York City club date in years. His marriage, already on shaky ground, ended during his convalescence, then lung cancer was discovered half a year later, leaving him with only eighteen months to live.

Adams’ career can be measured by a long, slowly ascending arc of success that increased exponentially once he left the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra. Without a doubt, his first six years as a traveling soloist were triumphant—a time when he burnished his legacy as a virtuoso performer and composer—making his dramatic three-year fall that much more lamentable. Nonetheless, Adams had a rich, very influential forty-year run. Consider for a moment the most notable jazz musicians of Adams’ generation. How many bonafide stylists are there among them who are instantaneously identifiable on their instrument and have had a profound effect on the art form? John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Wes Montgomery spring to mind. Clifford Brown? Cannonball Adderley and Phineas Newborn perhaps? Equally noteworthy in his own way is Pepper Adams, the father of modern baritone sax playing. Just like Coltrane, Wes Montgomery and other stylists on their instruments, Pepper’s unique sound and innovative melodic and harmonic concept, just as surely as his dazzling technical mastery, have shaped all baritone saxophonists to follow. This book is an attempt to contextualize Pepper Adams’ accomplishments and reveal the man who revolutionized the baritone saxophone.

On September 28, 1986, our first wedding anniversary, my wife and I attended Pepper Adams’ memorial service at St. Peter’s Church. Adams had waged a courageous battle against an aggressive form of lung cancer that was first diagnosed in early March, 1985 while touring in northern Sweden. St. Peter’s, with its modern ash-paneled interior and large multi-tiered sanctuary, is tucked under the enormous 915-foot-tall Citicorp Center at East 54th Street and Lexington Avenue. On that somber but bright Sunday afternoon, St. Peter’s chapel was packed with musicians, friends and admirers. Reverend John Garcia Gensel presided over the service and many jazz greats—George Mraz, Elvin Jones, Frank Foster, Louis Hayes, Roland Hanna, Barry Harris, Sheila Jordan, Tommy Flanagan, Gerry Mulligan and others—performed and paid their final respects.

For over a year Adams’ plight had galvanized the jazz community, who heard varying stories about his wife leaving him, his declining health and his dire financial situation. Between September, 1985 and March, 1986 two benefits were organized to raise funds for Pepper’s medical care. One at the 880 Club in Hartford, Connecticut was organized by alto saxophonist Jackie McLean and Adams was able to attend. The other took place at the Universal Jazz Coalition on Lafayette Street in New York and featured performances by Milt Jackson, Louis Hayes, Frank Foster, Kenny Burrell, Jerry Dodgion, Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Flanagan and the entire Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. Pepper, gaunt and bald from chemotherapy treatments, was out of town for that one, working a weekend gig in Memphis. He sent a letter of gratitude that was read to the audience by singer Lodi Carr.

Pepper Adams was a friend of mine, but, sadly, I knew him only during the last two tumultuous years of his life. During that time, only partly recovered from a horrible leg accident that had kept him immobilized 22 hours a day for six months, Adams was separated from his wife and had been diagnosed with the cancer that would in short order kill him. Although it was an utterly miserable time for him, it was a fascinating and complex ride for me. I was a 28-year-old grad student; a passionate jazz fan and record collector who was trying to interest a jazz musician just enough to work with me on his memoir. As fate would have it, because of his leg injury Pepper had some time on his hands. He was so gracious, so prepared, so articulate and engaging.

Then, seven months later his cancer was diagnosed. I visited him at St. Luke’s Hospital when he started his medical treatments. I saw him perform whenever he had a gig around New York. On one occasion, between sets at the Blue Note, I saw him bark at a pianist whom he misperceived was harassing him for a gig. Another time, in New Jersey, I heard the pain pour out of him during a magnificent ballad performance that brought me to tears. I spent time with Pepper at his home in Canarsie, eating pizza, watching football games and dubbing copies of his tapes. Although I was trying to gather as much information as I could in the little time that was left, I always had to reign in my curiosity and not push too hard. Things had changed drastically since the summer and I had to make the shift with him. Mostly, I had to respect that he was fighting for his life and that the cancer treatments made him feel awful. It was simply inappropriate to think that every time we got together Pepper would feel like analyzing aspects of his life.

In January, 1986, Pepper worked a four-night stint in bitterly cold Minneapolis. I urged a friend of mine to attend as some show of support. During intermission Dan Olson said hello for me, bought Pepper a beer and the two had a chance to talk at the bar. Dan told me that my gesture meant a lot to Pepper, that he was obviously quite fond of me. My final experience with Pepper was equally poignant. A month before his death, bedridden at home and under the care of a hospice nurse, I called to see if there was anything I could do for him. His nurse asked me to hold on. I waited anxiously for at least five minutes while Pepper somehow found the energy to drag himself to the telephone. In a sentence or two he acknowledged that time was short, thanked me for calling, said a final goodbye and hung up the phone. That would’ve been in August, 1986, right around the time that Dizzy Gillespie called him to say that Thad Jones had died in Copenhagen.

About a year later, once I began interviewing Adams’ colleagues, I spent a very memorable afternoon in Cambridge, Massachusetts with Tommy Flanagan. I was meeting him for the first time and was completely starstruck. Flanagan was one of the last people to see Pepper alive. He wanted me to know that transcripts of my interviews were stacked high on Pepper’s nightstand just before he died. At one point, while sitting next to Pepper on the edge of his bed, Flanagan explained, Pepper awoke and tried feebly to push my manuscript towards him. As you can imagine, I was completely stunned by this story. At first I was touched that my work comforted Pepper at the end of his life. Then I began to take my role a lot more seriously, knowing how important it was to Pepper that his work carry on after him. Of course my resolve to do this book and all the other work that’s preceded it was strengthened. But, truth be told, I’ve wanted to tell Pepper’s story since June 28, 1984, the memorable day I conducted the first of several lengthy interviews with him. His recollections of his childhood and early career (see pepperadams.com) were stunning in their depth and historical sweep. I knew right away that I had something very special.

Flanagan’s interview was one of more than 100 I conducted, mostly in the late 1980s before my daughter was born. Those I interviewed portrayed Adams as a complex figure: a hero, a genius, an intellectual, a model of grace, a virtuoso musician and stylist, yet someone also very hard to calibrate. Their remembrances revealed a brilliant artist full of interesting ambiguities and contradictions; an unworldly looking sophisticate, a white musician often mistaken for a black one, a engaging raconteur in public who was emotionally guarded in private, and a full-throated exuberant saxophonist who was mild-mannered and soft-spoken.

Many spoke of Adams’ unprecedented agility on his instrument, how he “played it like an alto.” Before Adams, the baritone sax was a cumbersome low-pitched fringe instrument rarely played outside of big bands. Because of his innovations, a baritone saxophonist with a rhythm section or as part of a small jazz ensemble is now commonplace and no longer viewed as a novelty.

Pepper Adams was fond of saying that the range of the instrument was similar to his speaking voice. But much more about him can be divined from his adoption of the baritone sax. For one thing, Adams prized individuality above all else and scorned cliche. Becoming a baritone saxophonist in the late 1940s gave him an opportunity to create something completely unique on a little heard instrument. Like Duke Ellington, who he greatly admired, Adams could similarly stand apart from everyone else.

Paradoxically, despite enhancing the idiom and securing his place in jazz history, Adams’ fealty to his instrument also hurt him. The public’s bias against low-pitched instruments forever stood in the way of him fronting a band or recording far more albums as a leader. Furthermore, stubbornly refusing to double on bass clarinet disqualified him from studio work that would’ve helped him immeasurably, especially during the early 1960s when work was sporadic. Throughout his career, Adams was exclusively a baritone saxophonist for hire. He never taught saxophone on the side or experimented here and there with other instruments. Always the fierce individualist, Adams lack of pragmatism was a constant and it interfered with other aspects of his life.

Part biography and part musical study, this book is the culmination of more than forty years of research on Pepper Adams. When I began working with him in 1984 I knew he was a fine saxophonist but I had little idea of the extent of his contribution or how much his colleagues admired him. I consider myself incredibly lucky to have known Pepper Adams. After so many years of researching his life and living with his music, in 2012 I produced a five-volume box set of Adams’ complete compositions that was co-branded with my book Pepper Adams’ Joy Road: An Annotated Discography. Now, with this companion work, I at long last fulfill my promise to him and myself.

I’m especially pleased that John Vana agreed to co-author the book. John’s an alto player on the faculty at Western Illinois University. We first met when he invited me to speak at WIU in late 2013. John’s an ardent Pepper Adams fan. Soon after my visit he agreed to write a major piece on Pepper’s early style (to 1960) for a possible Adams anthology. Not long after that, John started asking me to send him, bit by bit, every Pepper Adams LP, cassette and videotape in my collection. Clearly, listening only to Adams’ early work wasn’t enough for him. He wanted to consider Pepper’s entire oeuvre. Eventually, it occurred to me that John’s piece would likely cover much of the same terrain I’d be exploring in the second half of this book. Considering the demands of my day job, wouldn’t it be better for me to write the biography and have John (with my input, additions and editorial oversight) write the second section? John thought it was a really good idea. The anthology might not even happen, I pointed out, so what better place for his study? For those either already hip to Adams’ life and recordings or encountering him for the first time, it’s our sincere hope that we convey his extraordinary contribution to the history of Twentieth Century music and inspire readers everywhere to listen anew to his glorious work.

Gary Carner

Braselton GA

Notes

Ron Ley, email to the author, 2013.

(John Gennari)

↧

Walkin' About: Strolling Through Pepper's Chronology

April 18, 2015, 8:14 am

≫ Next: Biography Updates and Those Dusty 10-Inchers

≪ Previous: Prologue Anew

I hope you enjoyed reading the Prologue to my forthcoming Pepper Adams biography that I posted last week. I've re-read it a few times since then and I'm pleased with it. It took me several months and numerous revisions to get it to this point, and this after first writing an entirely different draft more than a year ago. Two of my distinguished readers, John Gennari and Ron Ley, have given me the "thumbs up" on the new version. That gives me the assurance that I can finally move on to Chapter 1. To that end I've been pulling together my notes about Rex Stewart and listening again and again to Pepper's 8-track material featuring Rex with the Ellington band.

How many of you have listened to Rex Stewart? I'm quite familiar with contemporaneous Ellington trumpeter and growl master Cootie Williams. Somehow I never really knew much about Stewart until now. Rex is terrific! He had an impressive plasticity with his time and could play with tremendous drama, power and technique. But mostly it's the playfulness and joyousness and incredible creativity that makes him so compelling. Like Cootie, Rex's half-valve inflexions and smears add a "badness" and soulfulness to his solos. They serve as such a beautiful counterpoint to his exuberance and sometimes wild sense of humor. I'm starting to understand why Pepper loved his playing. Rex, above all else, was a stylist.

I'm also reminded of what Kenny Berger wrote in this blog a few months ago about Rex's influence on Thad Jones. Pepper, for his part, was a huge Rex Stewart fan for at least ten years before he met Thad in the early '50s. One can only imagine how their mutual affection for Rex Stewart, among other things (such as Pepper's close friendship with Elvin, Thad's younger brother), must have brought them quickly together as soulmates. Pepper and Thad's relationship was complicated. It will be explored in the biography.

Besides signing off on the Prologue and getting deeper into Rex Stewart, I've also been updating "Thaddeus." That's the part of Pepper's chronology that begins with the early 1965 formation of the Thad Jones-Pepper Adams Quintet and ends with Adams leaving Thad/Mel in late August, 1977. The new version has been posted. Please check it out: http://www.pepperadams.com/Chronology/Thaddeus.pdf

Although the Chronology can be easily overlooked as a less sexy part of pepperadams.com, it's really the bedrock of the site and of all my research. I can't begin to tell you how many times I've consulted the Chronology when I'm assessing aspects of Pepper's life. Because new data is always being discovered--ads for gigs, broadcasts, audience tapes, memorabilia--you can expect that I'll be continually updating it over time. The new version of "Thaddeus" has been enlarged about 10% with new discoveries and deletions. At around 50 pages, it accounts for at least a third of Pepper's entire five-part Chronology. Fortunately, now that "Thaddeus" is updated, I can turn to more manageable sections and get them out soon.

One thing that I'd like to add to the Chronology, if it's possible to build it directly into the site, is some kind of search function. When the database was on my old Macintosh laptop, it was really quick and easy to do searches of musicians, dates or whatever was needed. If I wanted to check all the times Pepper recorded for a certain label, for example, or check how many times he recorded with a certain musician, or even see all the times he visited a certain location, the computer did it effortlessly. Now, with an iPad, I have to convert my original PDF files to iBooks and search it there. It's doable but not as good as if I could do it directly at pepperadams.com.

Can you do Chronology searches on your computer? Please let me know. I'll be sure to discuss this with my trusty webmaster. If there's other things you think can improve the utility of the Chronology or other parts of the site, please volunteer that too.

Regarding the update of "Thaddeus," a few things attracted my attention. One was learning that Duke Pearson returned to New York from Atlanta in late November, 1972 to reconstitute his big band. From what I can tell, he kept his steady Half Note gig until the Summer of 1973.

Another thing that struck me was that Pepper participated in a number of benefits. Whether it was to assist the family of writer Ed Sherman, perform at the Dave Lambert Memorial Concert, participate at a benefit to restore the Apollo Theater, etc, Pepper was involved with the community.

Many sporting events are listed in "Thaddeus," thanks to Pepper's penchant for saving all sorts of memorabilia. When possible, links to my Instagram site show the original ticket stub or program. Pepper especially liked football and hockey but enjoyed spectator sports of all types.

I was reminded about the one-month gig Pepper did in New York with Ella Fitzgerald in 1967. Ironically, that was at a time when Tommy Flanagan was not her music director. Tee Carson was her pianist.

I also forgot that my reader, Ron Ley, was Pepper's Best Man. Imagine that! Ley's comments will be some of the most compelling in the biography. As you can tell from his quote in the Prologue, he was very close with Pepper and witnessed him at pivotal moments.

Pepper's early role in jazz education also jumped out at me. With Thad Jones, Tom McIntosh and others (such as Herbie Hancock and Donald Byrd), starting in the late 1960s Pepper was involved with the Wilmington Band Camp. Pepper also participated at the National Stage Band Camp.

The amount of "hit-and-runs," with those long, early-morning bus rides back to New York, was pretty startling. Adams' many gigs directly after long airplane flights, too, was a pretty frequent occurrence. The touring jazz life is grueling. Add to the lack of sleep cigarettes, alcohol, late nights and financial twists and turns and you get some sense of why so many jazz musicians, such as Pepper Adams, died far too young.

Another thing I was reminded of was the finite amount of time Pepper spent in the New York studios. He only got involved doing session work in about 1967. His participation, though limited by not doubling on bass clarinet, lasted until about 1976. He mostly did overdubs, especially on CTI dates in the early 1970s. But he was on some unusual projects, such as those by The Cowsills, Sonny Bono, The Nice and others. Of course, he also appears on many of the great early Aretha Franklin tracks for Atlantic. These were done as overdubs. He had no idea at the time for whom the music was crafted.

The number of gigs Pepper had in Baltimore for the Left Bank Jazz Society surprised me. There must be at least ten, maybe more? Also, the amount of work Pepper did with David Amram over the years is substantial.

If anyone knows of the 2 June 1974 WBAI interview that Pepper did in New York with Larry Davis, I'd really like to hear it. That and a Phil Schaap telephone interview done on Mingus' birthday for WKCR (New York) are two radio interviews I'm eager to hear.

The length of "Thaddeus" is surprising. But, then again, Pepper's date books and memorabilia (including many band itineraries) helped me chronicle that part of his career more than any other. The sheer number of gigs and presumed gigs--at colleges, in California, or those many "possible" nights at the Vanguard--is staggering. Because so many remain unsubstantiated, much work remains to prove they actually happened. Please email me any discoveries.

(Thaddeus Joseph Jones)

↧

Biography Updates and Those Dusty 10-Inchers

April 25, 2015, 3:15 pm

≫ Next: "Early Years" Is Updated!

≪ Previous: Walkin' About: Strolling Through Pepper's Chronology

Now that the Prologue to Pepper's biography is finally put to bed, I've turned to Chapter 1. This week I had a breakthrough of sorts and things started to flow. My first draft is just a few pages so far, but with notes that will lead to more.

The Prologue is my argument for why a reader should read the book. It's intended for those not familiar with Pepper Adams or those who need a kick in the pants to pony up a few bucks to buy it.

As happy as I am about Chapter 1, I'm especially pleased to report that Pepper's closest friend and Best Man, Ronald Ley, has agreed to write the Foreword. Ley (quoted in my Prologue; see the blog post of 11 March 2015) is a retired psychology professor from SUNY-Albany. He's a very fine writer and has been instrumental in proofing my drafts. No one knew Pepper better than Ron Ley. I expect the Foreword to be an important contribution in its own right.

The distinguished musicologist Andrew Homzy had already agreed to write the Foreword but Ley is 85 years old. It's an opportunity too important to pass up. Alternatively, I've asked Andrew to consider writing an Epilogue. Why an epilogue, you might wonder? I especially like the idea because the reader will be taken from my 100-page bio to John Vana's 100-page discussion of Pepper's saxophone playing. An epilogue would unify both parts, bringing the reader back full circle to the Prologue and bio, with a chance to make some strong concluding comments.

Homzy would be able to make some important historical observations about Pepper and respond, as an accomplished musician, to some of the things that John Vana will be making. Homzy's reach is broad. He's familiar with the entire history of jazz and many other genres of music too. I hope he can write it.

Book updates aside, I thought I'd amuse myself this week by beginning a list of Pepper's 78s and 10-inch LP collections. Every time I do a seemingly pedantic task like this, I learn something suprisingly new about Pepper.

For those of you interested in what 10-inchers Pepper kept in his collection, here's the list of his classical recordings first. (I'll address the jazz stuff next week.) I've included all of them, except for two that weren't germane. I'm interested to hear what you think of these. From what I can tell, some of them were copywritten (= released?) around 1949-51, when Pepper was 18-21 years old, prior to his induction in the Army. I suspect they were kept at his mother's home and he took them, with her piano, furniture and other belongings in 1972 after her death, when he moved into his house at 8715 Avenue B in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn.

Adam, Giselle

Bartok, Allegro Barbaro

Bartok, Bagatelle No. 2

Bartok, Burlesque No. 2

Bartok, Contrasts

Bartok, Portrait, Op. 5, No. 1

Bartok, Music for String Instruments, Percussion and Celesta

Bartok, Rhapsody No. 1

Bartok, Roumanian Dance

Bartok, Suite

Berg, Lyric Suite

Berg, Wozzeck

Bliss, Miracle in the Gorbals

Bliss, String Quartet No. 2

Bowles, Concerto for Two Pianos, Winds and Percussion

Bowles, Sonata for Two Pianos

Copeland, Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo

Copeland, El Salon Mexico

Debussy, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn

DeFalla, Suite Popular Espangole

Dukas, The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Harris, Symphony No. 3

Hindemith, Mathis der Maler

Hindemith, String Quartet #4

Hindemith, Sonata

Hindemith, Symphonic Dances

Hindemith, Theme and Four Variations

Honnegger, Concertino for Piano and Orchestra

Ibert, Ports of Call

Milhaud, Carnaval a la Nouvelle-Orleans

Milhaud, Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra

Milhaud, La Creation du Monde

Milhaud, The Nothing Doing Bar

Milhaud, Les Songs

Milhaud, Suite Francaise

Milhaud, Symphony #1

Piston, Symphony #2

Prokofiev, Concerto No. 2

Ravel, Le Tombeau de Couperin

Sessions, The Black Maskers

Sessions, Symphony No. 2

Schoenberg, Song of the Wood Dove

Schuman, American Festival Overture

Stravinsky, Cinq Pieces Facilies

Stravinsky, The Firebird Suite

Stravinsky, Mass

Stravinsky, Piano Concerto

Stravinsky, Sonato for Two Pianos

Thomson, Five Portraits

Thomson, Louisiana Story

Villa Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 2

Villa Lobos, Choros No. 10

Williams, Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

(Arthur Honneger, 1952)

↧

"Early Years" Is Updated!

May 2, 2015, 5:32 am

≫ Next: From Wollensak with Love

≪ Previous: Biography Updates and Those Dusty 10-Inchers

This week I spent a lot of time reworking the first section of Pepper's chronology (1930-1958): http://www.pepperadams.com/Chronology/EarlyYears.pdf This is the second one I've finished and posted in the last month. ("Thaddeus" was posted three weeks ago.) Getting the updated "Early Years" posted at pepperadams.com is important to me because I'm soon going to be writing Chapter 2 of Pepper's biography. That chapter will be about Detroit, the real center of Pepper's experience. I'll be covering the city's history, culture and jazz lineage to create a context for Adams' artistic flowering. Having an updated, fleshed out chronology helps me position things in time when I write.

I'm especially grateful to drummer Rudy Tucich. He's been a trusty guide to me all these years. I met Rudy in the late 1980s when he invited me to appear on his Detroit radio show "52nd Street." Woefully, the show was cancelled after a very long and influential run. Now, at 80 years old, he's still an invaluable source of information about Detroit. Tucich attended Cass Tech, worked with Pepper at Al's Record Mart in Detroit, and ran with a group of fine musicians, including Charles McPherson, that were the next wave of Detroit jazz musicians after Adams, Yusef Lateef, Donald Byrd, Paul Chambers, Tommy Flanagan, Bary Harris, Donald Byrd, Doug Watkins, Elvin Jones and the rest. Rudy knew everyone on the scene and was a witness to so much important Detroit musicial history.

This past week Tucich helped me with the 1954 and 1955 parts of the chronology by advising me about the early history of the World Stage. That helped me figure out on what days the Blue Bird Inn and Klein's were dark, thus spurring me to figure out the final pieces of the puzzle of Pepper's wherabouts.

From pepperadams.com, here's "Early Years":

EARLY YEARS: 1930-1958

Posted in April, 2015. Please send updates, corrections or comments to info@pepperadams.com.

1930

Oct 8: Highland Park MI: Park Frederick Adams III is born at Highland Park General Hospital. His parents, Park Adams II and Cleo Marie Coyle, reside at 4695 Courville Road, Grosse Pointe Village, Michigan in suburban Detroit. See birth certificate at http://instagram.com/p/rmrBrDJnqf/?modal=true and photo at http://instagram.com/p/tuoEqwJnqT/?modal=true.

1931

Fall: Grosse Pointe Village MI: As the effects of the Great Depression deepen, Adams’ father loses eight months of back salary and his employer goes bankrupt. Adams’ parents lose their house, then decide to separate temporarily so that Adams Sr. can search the U.S. for work while his wife and son relocate to his wife’s family farm near Columbia City, Indiana. See http://instagram.com/p/sAfZmyJngz/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/sAemgwpnvO/?modal=true.

1932

---- Columbia City IN: Adams lives at grandparents’ or uncle’s farm.

1933

---- Columbia City IN: Adams lives at grandparents’ or uncle’s farm and begins to play piano. See 1932.

1934

---- Columbia City IN: Adams lives at grandparents’ or uncle’s farm. See 1933. He continues playing the piano and attends a rural one-room schoolhouse. See http://instagram.com/p/r65xgSpnu2/?modal=true.

Summer: Rome NY: Adams and his mother move to upstate New York to reunite the family after a three year breach. Joining them was Adams’ father and Mina Elizabeth Adams, Pepper’s half-sister from his father’s first marriage. Living nearby was Adams’ paternal grandmother, Frances Cleveland Adams (bJuly 13, 1863). Adams’ father has his first heart attack prior to Mina’s return from Miami, Florida.

cAug: Rome NY: The Adams move to 806 Jerris (or Jervis) Avenue.

Sept-Dec: Rome NY: Adams’ half-sister, Mina Adams, attends 12th grade at Rome Free Academy, where she meets George G. Gifford, her future husband. See photo at http://instagram.com/p/sAi8I_JnnJ/?modal=true.

1935

Jan: Rochester NY: The Adams’ move to 627 Park Avenue in time for Mina Adams to enroll at Monroe High School.

June 25: Rochester NY: Mina Adams graduates from Monroe High School.

Summer: Utica NY: The Adamses move two hours east of Rochester, near Rome.

Sept: Utica NY: Pepper Adams begins Kindergarten.

1936

---- Utica NY: Pepper Adams listens to Fats Waller’s daily 15-minute afternoon radio show.

Sept: Utica NY: Adams begins 1st Grade.

1937

Summer: Irondequoit NY: The Adams family move to 128 Belcoda Drive.

Sept: Irondequoit NY: Adams begins 2nd grade. Sight-reading is a part of the curriculum.

Oct 14: Terre Haute IN: Mina Adams, Adams’ half-sister, marries George G. Gifford.

1938

---- Irondequoit NY: Adams listens to John Kirby Sextet’s Sunday radio broadcasts.

Sept: Irondequoit NY: Adams begins 3rd Grade.

1939

Summer: Irondequoit NY: Adams’ family moves to 190 Hoover Road.

Sept: Irondequoit NY: Adams begins 4th Grade. Adams sells candy and cigarettes door-to-door after school to help his family pay for bare essentials.

1940

---- Irondequoit NY: Adams hears late night Fletcher Henderson Big Band radio broadcasts, originating from Nashville, with trumpet soloist Willie Wells.

early Apr: Rochester NY: Adams and his mother go downtown to attend the Capitol Theater opening of My Little Chickadee starring W.C. Fields and Mae West. The movie opened on 4 April. This is one of the only times in Adams’ life that he attends a movie premiere. See http://instagram.com/p/voR7M_png6/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/r695ndpnlA/?modal=true.

May 19: Irondequoit NY: Adams’ father (bJanuary 19, 1896) dies from his second heart attack at age 44. He’s buried besides his father, Nathaniel Adams (bApril 15, 1858, d1929), at New Union Cemetery on Happy Valley Road in Verona, New York. See http://instagram.com/p/voBqwFpnkF/?modal=true.

Summer: Rome NY: Frances Cleveland Adams, Pepper Adams’ paternal grandmother (the wife of Nathaniel Adams) dies. She’s buried in Verona beside her husband and son. See http://instagram.com/p/sAXo7oJniW/?modal=true.

Sept: Irondequoit NY: Adams begins 5th Grade.

1941

Sept: Greece NY: Adams begins 6th Grade at Central School #1 on Hoover Road. It was also known as Hoover Drive Middle School or the Willis N. Britton School. Adams’ mother teaches Second Grade there. Rochester schools loaned musical instruments to any students interested in playing them but instruction wasn’t provided. One could gain entrance into the school band, taught by Prescott Whitney, if they learned how to play on their own. Adams first borrows a trumpet, then a trombone, before settling on a clarinet, and joins the school band. See http://instagram.com/p/sA0pWvpnlB/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/voMykSpnt5/?modal=true.

1942

---- Rochester NY: Adams visits regularly with Everett Gates at Gates’ home, where they have dinner, listen to jazz recordings and discuss music theory. See http://instagram.com/p/t20Ku4pnv3/?modal=true.

Summer: Seattle: Adams travels by car from Rochester, New York to Seattle with his half-sister Mina, her husband George Gifford and their first child Gary (b c1939). They stay in Seattle at the home of Harold and Marie Gifford (George’s older brother) with their son Skip. Adams spends some of his evenings alone, touring the city or seeking out the local music scene, often returning after midnight. After his mother threatens to have George and Mina arrested if Adams isn’t returned home, Adams is put on a Greyhound Bus back to Rochester.

Sept: Greece NY: Begins 7th Grade at Central School #1. See http://instagram.com/p/voMykSpnt5/?modal=true.

1943

Jan 8: Brighton NY: St. Louis Cardinals’ World Series baseball star Pepper Martin creates a local media sensation by signing a contract to play and manage the Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings was one of the Cardinals’ minor league affiliates and with whom Martin had played in 1930 just before joining the Major Leagues. Adams acquires his lifelong nickname "Pepper" soon after Adams’ schoolmates see Martin’s picture on the front page of the Rochester newspapers and recognize a facial similarity between the two of them. See http://instagram.com/p/ttEbrGpnkE/?all_comments_on_ad=undefined.

Sept 22: Greece NY: Pepper begins 8th Grade at Central School #1 while living at 195 Rye Road with his remarried mom and step-father, Harold Hopkins. Hopkins worked for Langie Coal Company. See http://instagram.com/p/tysNGAJnqI/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/voMykSpnt5/?modal=true.

Oct 1: Greece NY: Adams’ brief short story is published in his hometown newspaper, The Greece Press. The article is very likely the first time "Pepper" was ever used for him or by him in print. See http://instagram.com/p/tsWDlcJnqE/?modal=true.

cFall: Rochester NY: Adams takes a bus after school to downtown Rochester to work three hours a day cutting boxes in the mail order room of a jazz specialty record store. Afterwards, he works as an usher in a theater until midnight. With his earnings Adams buys a tenor sax and begins emulating Coleman Hawkins and Don Byas.

1944

----- Rochester NY: Adams plays clarinet-piano duets with Meade Lux Lewis at the Golden Rooster. See http://instagram.com/p/r4a9zaJni6/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/rzg_QPJnsl/?modal=true.

Jan 7-9: Rochester NY: Adams hears the Cootie Williams Orchestra (with Bud Powell on piano) at the RKO Temple Theater. See http://instagram.com/p/voQtudJnop/?modal=true.

Mar 3-5: Rochester NY: Adams skips school to attend Duke Ellington’s entire run at the RKO Temple Theater. The Temple was a movie palace built in 1909 at 35 Clinton Avenue South in downtown Rochester. On the third and final evening of the engagement, Ellington trumpeter Rex Stewart was curious about the enthusiastic, short-haired thirteen-year-old kid he noticed sitting by himself each night in the balcony. Intrigued, Stewart made his way upstairs, introduced himself, then brought Adams backstage to meet Ellington’s illustrious musicians including Harry Carney. Soon thereafter Adams takes tenor sax lessons with Skippy Williams, the tenor saxophonist in Ellington’s band who first replaced Ben Webster. See http://instagram.com/p/voQWRFJnmB/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/ulFqhrJnuk/?modal=true.

Summer: New York: Adams and his mother travel to New York to meet Bob Wilber at a Max Kaminsky gig at the Pied Piper.

Sept: Rochester NY: Adams begins 9th Grade at John Marshall High School while living at 160 Elmguard Street in suburban Greece NY. Greece had no high schools at the time. Students attended either John Marshall or Hilton High School. Adams plays in the John Marshall High School band. See http://instagram.com/p/tyuB3PJntF/?modal=true.

1945

mid year: Rochester NY: Adams meets Oscar Pettiford and Coleman Hawkins, and later Denzil Best and Thelonious Monk, when Hawkins’ quartet works a week gig.

Sept: Rochester NY: Adams begins 10th Grade at John Marshall High School. See http://instagram.com/p/tyuB3PJntF/?modal=true.

1946

Jan 1: Rochester NY: Off.

Jan 2-31: Rochester NY: Adams begins a steady, long-term gig at the Elite Dance Hall with a 6-piece group (three horns, three rhythm) led by former Lunceford trumpeter Ben "Smitty" Smith. Ralph Dickinson on tenor sax (later John Huggler) is in the ensemble with Teddy Lancaster on drums.

Feb 1-28: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 2-31 Jan.

Mar 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-28 Feb.

Apr 1-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 Mar.

May 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-30 Apr.

June 1-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 May.

July 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-30 June.

Aug 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 July.

Sept 1-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 Aug. Adams withdraws from school before beginning 11th Grade at Monroe High School because he was working six nights a week at the Elite. Adams is living at 196 Chestnut Street near the Eastman School of Music. Adams spends time listening to records with Bob Wilber, who was attending the Eastman School of Music. See http://instagram.com/p/r98zAKpnos/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/voD4XeJnhR/?modal=true.

Oct 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-30 Sept.

Nov 1-27: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 Oct.

Nov 28: Rochester NY: Off.

Nov 29-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-27 Nov.

Dec 1-23: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 29-30 Nov.

Dec 24-25: Rochester NY: Off.

Dec 26-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-23 Dec.

1947

Jan 1: Rochester NY: Off.

Jan 2-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 26-31 Dec 1946.

Feb 1-28: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 2-31 Jan.

Mar 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-28 Feb.

Apr 1-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 Mar.

May 1-31: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-30 Apr.

June 1-30: Rochester NY: Gig at the Elite Dance Hall. See 1-31 May.

July: New York: Adams moves with his mother to New York City while their belongings are transported to Detroit. They live at the Edison Hotel for the month before moving to Detroit. She decided to relocate because elementary school teaching jobs paid far more in Detroit than in Rochester. Pepper meets Sidney Bechet, probably through Bob Wilber.

Aug: Detroit: Within three days after arriving in town Adams looks up Oscar Pettiford’s friend, Willie Wells, who was rooming with Fats Navarro. On clarinet Adams plays trios from the Arban trumpet book with Wells and Navarro. A few days later Adams meets Tommy Flanagan (at a jam session) and pianist Willie Anderson.

Sept 1-30: Detroit: Adams works on the assembly line at a Dodge automobile foundry, then at the Briggs Manufacturing plant assembling auto bodies. He records his first session with Oliver Shearer: a private recording at United Sound, with Willie Wells, Adams (on clarinet), Tommy Flanagan, et al. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/radiospike/2391588106/.

Oct: Detroit: Possibly still working at Briggs Manufacturing. See Sept.

cNov 15-26: Detroit: Adams takes a six-week job as a Christmas extra in the Classical Music Record Department of Grinnell’s, Detroit’s largest music store (on Woodward Avenue). See http://instagram.com/p/undtLMJnv4/?modal=true.

Nov 27: Detroit: Off.

Nov 28-30: Detroit: Adams works at Grinnell’s. See c15-26 Nov.

Dec 1-24: Detroit: Adams works at Grinnell’s. See 28-30 Nov. Adams buys with his Grinnell’s employee discount a used Bundy baritone saxophone that had come in on trade and soon after adopts it as his main instrument.

Dec 25: Detroit: Off.

late Dec: Detroit: Charlie Parker 5 plays El Sino. Adams may have attended this gig.

1948

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

Jan 2-31: Detroit: As a baritone player Adams starts getting hired consistently for gigs. Adams works at the Plymouth Body Plant for a few months.

Feb 1-29: Detroit: Work at the Plymouth Body Plant. See Jan.

Mar 1-31: Detroit: Possible work at the Plymouth Body Plant. See Feb.

Summer: Detroit: Adams rehearses for a few months with Lucky Thompson’s 9-10 piece band. Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell and Alvin Jackson are in the group. Because of its under-aged members, they only work a few gigs, including one on Michigan Avenue.

late Summer: Detroit: Wardell Gray returns with a new Berg Larsen tenor mouthpiece. Adams for several months had been experimenting with different mouthpieces but Gray’s tenor mouthpiece was the perfect solution. Adams mail-orders a comparable mouthpiece to fit his baritone sax for delivery in Windsor, Ontario because, at that time, it was not available for purchase in the U.S.

Aug 28: Detroit: The Junior Beboppers (Claire Roquemore tp; Bob Pierson, Charlie Gabriel ts; Pepper Adams bs; Clarence Beasley p; Bob Smith dm) perform with the rhythm section of Lionel Hampton’s big band (including Fats Navarro, Milt Buckner and Charles Mingus) at the Paradise Theater after Hampton’s band finishes their set. Navarro was so impressed with Rocquemore that he joined the group to trade solos with him.

Sept 1-30: Detroit: Adams begins studies as an English Literature major at Wayne University (later renamed Wayne State) after passing an entrance exam. He takes Freshman English in his first term. Adams pays tuition by continuing to work local jazz gigs. The Junior Beboppers (see 28 Aug), sponsored by Lionel Hampton, work a few shows in town with the Hampton band over a six week period.

Oct 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. The Junior Beboppers (see 28 Aug and 1-30 Sept), sponsored by Lionel Hampton, work a few shows in town with the Hampton band through mid-October. Later in the month Adams trades in his Bundy for a new Selmer "Balanced Action" B-flat baritone saxophone, the instrument he would play until 1978. He buys it at Ivan C. Kay’s. Adams brought Harry Carney to the store with him to check out the instrument. The Duke Ellington Orchestra was in town, playing the Paradise Theater, from 15-30 October.

Nov 1-30: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Dec 1-10: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

1949

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

cmid Jan: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Feb 1-28: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Adams sits in often with Charles Johnson’s trio (with Willie Wells and an unknown pianist).

Mar 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Adams sits in often with Charles Johnson’s trio. See 1-28 Feb.

Apr 1-30: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Adams sits in often with Charles Johnson’s trio. See 1-31 Mar.

May 1-10: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Adams sits in often with Charles Johnson’s trio. See 1-30 Apr.

Sept: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Oct 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Charlie Parker plays the Blue Bird with Phil Hill’s trio plus baritone saxophonist Tate Houston. Pepper might have attended this.

Nov: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

early Dec: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

1950

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

c mid Jan: Detroit: Adams continues studies at Wayne University.

Feb 1-28: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Gig with Little John and his Merrymen at the Club Valley opposite Wardell Gray. Little John’s septet includes Little John Wilson (tp); Cleveland Willie Smith (as); Frank Foster; Pepper Adams; Barry Harris; Ali Mohammed Jackson (b); and various drummers including Lawrence “Jacktown” Jackson and Frant Gant.

Mar 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Adams rehearses with Charles Johnson’s big band at Sunnie Wilson’s Show Bar. Personnel: Cleveland Willie Smith (as), Frank Foster, Pepper Adams, Barry Harris, Kenny Burrell, Paul Chambers and Billy Frazier (dm). They play only two or three gigs, probably because some of the musicians are underage.

Apr 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University. Wardell Gray plays various local venues, such as Club Valley and the Bowl-o-Drome. Pepper might have attended these.

May: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Summer: Detroit: Charles Johnson date for Prize, with Yusef Lateef, Willie Anderson, et al.

Sept: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Oct 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Nov 1-31: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Dec: Detroit: Adams continues his studies at Wayne University.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

1951

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

cMay: Detroit: Gig with Frank Rosolino and Kenny Burrell at the Bowl-o-Drome.

July 12: Detroit: Adams enlists in the U.S. Army. He was hoping to fail the induction physical and be found unfit for service. Flat feet or poor eyesight may have been his “maladies.”

July 13-14: Detroit: Off.

cJuly 15: Travel to Waynesville MO.

cJuly 16-31: Waynesville MO: Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood.

Aug 1-31: Waynesville MO: Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood. See c15-31 July.

Sept 1-15: Waynesville MO: Basic Training at Ft. Leonard Wood. See 1-31 Aug.

cSept 16-30: Waynesville MO: Work on base (Ft. Leonard Wood) with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. The band stays busy with rehearsals, parades and the full Armored Division playing "Retreat" every day at sundown (flag lowering). Bill Evans and Tommy Flanagan are both at the post in other units.

Oct 1-31: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept.

Nov 1-30: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept and 1-31 Oct.

Dec 1-31: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept and 1-30 Nov.

1952

Jan 1-31: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-31 Dec 1951.

Feb 1-29: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-31 Jan 1952.

Mar 1-31: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 16-29 Feb.

Apr 1-30: Waynesville MO: Work on base with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-31 Mar. Sometime in the Spring, Adams receives an emergency furlough at Ft. Leonard Wood as a ruse, engineered by Charlie Parker (posing as Adams’ mother's doctor), so that Adams could play a gig with Parker in Kansas City. When Adams learns that Parker didn’t show up at his gig, Adams sees a movie, stays overnight at the Y, then returns to the base the following day.

May 1-31: Waynesville MO: Work with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-30 Apr.

June 1-30: Waynesville MO: Work with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-31 May.

July 1-11: Waynesville MO: Work with in the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-30 June.

cJuly 12: Travel. Adams, after completing his first full year in the Army, drives home to Detroit on leave.

cJuly 13-26: Detroit: Adams on leave from the U.S. Army. In Ann Arbor MI he does a Hugh Jackson private recording with Bu Bu Turner, et al. In Pontiac MI Adams goes to Thad Jones’ parents’ house for a jam session soon after meeting Thad for the first time. See http://instagram.com/p/r61ap3pnpZ/?modal=true.

cJuly 27: Travel. Adams returns to Ft. Leonard Wood.

July 28-31: Waynesville MO: Work with the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-11 July.

Aug 1-31: Waynesville MO: Adams works in the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-11 July.

Sept 1-27: Waynesville MO: Adams works in the 6th Armored Division’s Special Service Section. See c16-30 Sept 1951 and 1-31 Aug.

cSept 26: Travel to Detroit.

cSept 27-29: Detroit: Adams’ final leave from the U.S. Army before going to Korea. Adams visits with Thad Jones.

cSept 30: Travel to San Francisco.

cOct 1-2: San Francisco: Awaiting orders to ship off for Korea.

cOct 3-21: San Francisco: Adams is shipped off to Korea by way of Ft. Lott in Seattle with the 10th Special Services Company on the USS Walker. He’s likely part of a small combo unit that entertained aboard the ship twice a day. Those in the band were given better sleeping quarters and a small space to practice. See http://instagram.com/p/vrOk7CJnv3/?modal=true.

cOct 22-31: Asaka, Japan: Adams is stationed at Camp Drake awaiting re-assignment in Korea. He plays pickup shows, including some at the Ernie Pyle Theater and the Rocker Four Club, both in Tokyo. See http://instagram.com/p/sAM2unJnvj/?modal=true.

cNov 1-14: Asaka, Japan: Adams is stationed at Camp Drake awaiting re-assignment in Korea. He plays pickup shows, including some at the Ernie Pyle Theater and the Rocker Four Club, both in Tokyo. Possible gig at the Rocker Club with Al Gould. See http://instagram.com/p/sAM2unJnvj/?modal=true.

Nov 15: Korea: Adams travels by boat to Korea.

Nov 16: Seoul: Adams reports to the 10th Special Services headquarters, then is taken by Jeep to join the 2nd Platoon for his first performance in the Eighth Army’s 10th Special Services band. See http://instagram.com/p/sAZ9EdpnmL/?modal=true.

Nov-17-30: Korea: Unknown performances with the 10th Special Services.

Dec 1-2: Korea: Unknown performances with the 10th Special Services.

Dec 3-26: Korea: Performances for the 40th Infantry Division.

Dec 27-30: Korea: Performances for the 25th Infantry Division and the 40th Infantry Division.

Dec 31: Korea: Performances for the 25th Infantry Division.

1953

Jan 1-23: Korea: Performances for the 25th Infantry Division. See 31 Dec.

Jan 23: Korea: Performances for the 25th Infantry Division and I CORPS ARTY.

Jan 24-31: Korea: Performances for the I CORPS ARTY.

Feb 1: Korea: Performances for the I CORPS ARTY. See 23-31 Jan.

Feb 1-6: Korea: Performances for the 1169th Engineering Construction Group.

Feb 7: Korea: Performances for the 1169th Engineering Construction Group and the 1st Commonwealth Division.

Feb 8-16: Korea: Performances for the 1st Commonwealth Division.

Feb 17: Korea: Performances for the 1st Commonwealth Division and the IX Corps ARTY.

Feb 18: Kumwah Valley, Korea: Performances for the IX Corps ARTY. On the 18th one of the trucks had to be replaced.

Feb 19-26: Kumwah Valley, Korea: Performances for the IX Corps ARTY.

Feb 27: Korea: Performances for the IX Corps ARTY and the 5th F.A.G.

Feb 28: Korea: Performances for the 5th F.A.G.

Mar 1-3: Korea: Performances for the 5th F.A.G. See 27-28 Feb. See http://instagram.com/p/sAd60lpnt6/?modal=true.

Mar 4-8: Chunchon, Korea: Performances for the 351st TRK TRANS LP.

Mar 9: Chunchon, Korea: Performances for the 351st TRK TRANS LP. Later, in Sokcho-Ri, Korea, performances for the 8206th ASU or ATU.

Mar 10-13: Sokcho-Ri, Korea: Performances for the 8206th ASU or ATU.

Mar 14: Sokcho-Ri, Korea: Performances for the 8206th ASU or ATU and performances for the X CORPS HQ.

Mar 15: Korea: Performances for the X CORPS HQ. See http://instagram.com/p/r9-zjGJnr_/?modal=true.

Mar 16: Korea: Performances for the X CORPS HQ and the 45th Division Forward LP.

Mar 17: Sokcho Ri, Korea: Performances for the 45th Division Forward LP.

Mar 18-19: Korea: Performances for the 45th Division Forward LP.

Mar 20: Korea: Performances for the 45th Division Forward LP and the 160th Infantry REG 40th Division.

Mar 21-22: Korea: Performances for the 160th Infantry REG 40th Division.

Mar 23: Korea: Performances for the 160th Infantry REG 40th Division and an unknown gig in Seoul.

Mar 24-31: Seoul: Unknown performances, including the Seoul City Command Theater and possibly a command performance for the President of Korea. See http://instagram.com/p/sAdKJ5pnsf/?modal=true.

Apr 1-4: Korea: Unknown performances with the 10th Services Company. See http://instagram.com/p/vrR-uYpnqU/?modal=true.

Apr 5: near Kunsan, Korea: Tommy Flanagan trio plus Jerry Lehmeier (alto sax), recorded on Easter, possibly at Base K-8 by Pepper Adams, who was in the audience.

Apr 6-11: Korea: Unknown performances with the 10th Services Company.

Apr 12: near Kunsan, Korea: Tommy Flanagan trio plus Jerry Lehmeier (alto sax), recorded at Base K-8, possibly by Pepper Adams, who was in the audience.

Apr 13-30: Tague, Kimpo Airfield and Taejon: Various performances for the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army and Seabees.

May 1-16: Tague, Kimpo Airfield and Taejon: Various 10th Special Services performances for the Marines, Navy, Air Force, Army and Seabees.

May 17-31: Pacific Ocean: Embarking from Pusan, Korea, Adams is aboard the Marine Phoenix troopship on his return home. On cMay 23 he performs on alto sax for returning troops in a quintet with Doc Holladay. See http://instagram.com/p/sAlhLvpnrg/?modal=true.

June 1: Pacific Ocean: Adams is aboard the Marine Phoenix on his return from Korea. See 17-31 May.

cJune 2: Seattle: Adams arrives at Ft. Lott.

June 2-4: Travel home to Detroit.

June 5: Ft. Custer MI: Adams, with the rank of Corporal, files his paperwork, receives his U.S. Army Reserve ID Card and is relieved from active duty, possibly one year early for an enlistee. He’s officially transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve the following day. Adams “serves” in this capacity for six years but there’s no evidence that he’s ever called again to duty. See ID card at http://instagram.com/p/r7tA7cpnlZ/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/r7uDnIJnm8/?modal=true.

Aug: Detroit: Charlie Parker, opposite Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb, plays the Graystone Ballroom. Pepper might have attended this gig.

Fall: Detroit: Possible gigs with Errol Buddle.

Nov 26: Detroit: Off.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

1954

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

cJan 27-31: Detroit: Bassist “Beans” Richardson assumes leadership of the house band at the Blue Bird Inn, formerly led by tenor saxophonist Billy Mitchell. Adams replaces Mitchell and joins Thad Jones in the front line. The rhythm section includes Tommy Flanagan and Elvin Jones. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

Feb 1: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See c27-31 Jan.

Feb 2: Detroit: Off?

Feb 3-8: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1 Feb.

Feb 9: Detroit: Off?

Feb 10-15: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 3-8 Feb.

Feb 16: Detroit: Off?

Feb 17-22: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 10-15 Feb.

Feb 23: Detroit: Off?

Feb 24-28: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 17-22 Feb.

Mar: Detroit: Sonny Stitt is guest soloist for at least one week at the Blue Bird. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

Mar 1: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 24-28 Feb.

Mar 2: Detroit: Off?

Mar 3-8: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1 Mar. On 6 March, Kenny Burrell formally established the New Music Society with a mandate to promote concerts in town and ongoing Tuesday night jam sessions at the World Stage Theater. Sunday jam sessions were also started at first, but suspended after 3-4 weeks.

Mar 9: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Mar 10-13: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 3-8 Mar.

Mar 14: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. Later in Detroit, gig at the Blue Bird. See 10-13 Mar.

Mar 15: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 14 Mar.

Mar 16: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Mar 17-20: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 15 Mar.

Mar 21: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. Later in Detroit, gig at the Blue Bird. See 17-20 Mar.

Mar 22: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 21 Mar.

Mar 23: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Mar 24-27: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 22 Mar.

Mar 28: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. Later in Detroit, gig at the Blue Bird. See 24-27 Mar.

Mar 29: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 28 Mar.

Mar 30: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Mar 31: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 29 Mar.

Apr: Thad Jones-Pepper Adams piano-less quartet, with Major Holley and Walter Smith (dm), record demos at United Sound. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/radiospike/2391588106/.

Apr 1-3: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 31 Mar.

Apr 4: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. Later in Detroit, gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-3 Apr.

Apr 5: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 4 Apr.

Apr 6: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Apr 7-12: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 5 Apr. On c7 April Charlie Parker plays the Crystal Show Bar with Will Davis and Major Holley. Pepper might have attended this gig.

Apr 13: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Apr 14-19: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 7-12 Apr.

Apr 20: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Apr 21-26: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 14-19 Apr.

Apr 27: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Apr 28-30: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 21-26 Apr.

May: Barry Harris replaces Tommy Flanagan in the Blue Bird rhythm section.

May 1-3: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 28-30 Apr.

May 4: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

May 5-10: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-3 May.

May 11: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

May 12-17: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 5-10 May. On the 12th Thad Jones joins Count Basie and Adams may have Adams become the music director at the Blue Bird. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

May 18: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

May 19-24: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 12-17 May.

May 25: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

May 26-31: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 19-24 May.

cJune: Detroit: Elvin Jones, with the working Blue Bird band (Pepper Adams, Barry Harris and James “Beans” Richardson), makes demo recording at United Sound. See https://www.flickr.com/photos/radiospike/2391588106/.

June 1: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

June 2-7: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 26-31 May.

June 8: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

June 9-14: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 2-7 June.

June 15: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

June 16-21: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 9-14 June.

June 22: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

June 23-28: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 16-21 June.

June 29: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

June 30: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 23-28 June.

July 1-5: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 30 June.

July 6: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

July 7-12: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-5 June.

July 13: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

July 14-19: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 7-12 June.

July 20: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

July 21-26: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 14-19 June. In late July, Wardell Gray is guest soloist for at least a week. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

July 27: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

July 28-31: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 21-26 June.

Aug 1-2: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 28-31 July.

Aug 3: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Aug 4-9: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-2 Aug.

Aug 10: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Aug 11-16: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 4-9 Aug. In mid August, Miles Davis is guest soloist for two weeks. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

Aug 17: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Aug 18-23: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. In mid August, Miles Davis is guest soloist for two weeks. See 11-16 Aug. See http://instagram.com/p/t1D-2opnow/?modal=true.

Aug 24: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Aug 25-30: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 18-23 Aug.

Aug 31: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

cSept: New York: Taking approximately a week off, Adams drives to New York to meet with Bob Weinstock at Prestige Records and Alfred Lion at Blue Note Records. He attempts to secure a record deal by playing the demo recording made in Detroit a few months earlier. (See cJune.) During the visit Adams sits in at Birdland with Miles Davis, playing Sonny Rollins’ tenor saxophone.

Sept: Detroit: Charlie Parker plays two weeks at the Crystal Show Bar backed by Gene Nero’s group. Pepper might have attended this gig.

Sept 1-6 Detroit: Possible gig at the Blue Bird. See 25-30 Aug.

Sept 7: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Sept 8-13 Detroit: Possible gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-6 Sept.

Sept 14: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Sept 15-20 Detroit: Possible gig at the Blue Bird. See 8-13 Sept.

Sept 21: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Sept 22-27 Detroit: Possible gig at the Blue Bird. See 15-20 Sept.

Sept 28-30: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Oct 1-4: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 22-27 Sept.

Oct 5: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Oct 6-11: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-4 Oct.

Oct 12: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Oct 13-18: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 6-11 Oct.

Oct 19: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Oct 20-25: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 13-18 Oct.

Oct 26: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Oct 27-31: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 20-25 Oct.

Nov 1: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 27-31 Oct.

Nov 2: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Nov 3-8: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1 Nov.

Nov 9: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Nov 10-15: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 3-8 Nov.

Nov 16: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Nov 17-22: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 10-15 Nov.

Nov 23: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Nov 24: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 17-22 Nov.

Nov 25: Detroit: Off.

Nov 26-30: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 24 Nov.

Dec 1-6: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 26-30 Nov.

Dec 7: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Dec 8-13: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 1-6 Dec.

Dec 14: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Dec 15-20: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 8-13Dec.

Dec 21: Highland Park MI: Off or possible jam session at the World Stage.

Dec 22-23: Detroit: Gig at the Blue Bird. See 15-20 Dec.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

cDec 26-27: Detroit: Adams leaves the Blue Bird to join Kenny Burrell’s group at Klein’s Show Bar, typically with Tommy Flanagan and Elvin Jones. Bassist might have been Ernie Farrow.

Dec 28: Detroit: Off?

Dec 29-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s. See c26-27 Dec.

1955

Jan 1: Detroit: Off.

Jan 2-3: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s. See 29-31 Dec 1954. Also, Adams begins a day job at Al’s Record Mart (1536 Broadway).

Jan 4: Detroit: Off?

Jan 5-10: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 2-3 Jan.

Jan 11: Detroit: Off?

Jan 12-17: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 5-10 Jan.

Jan 18: Detroit: Off?

Jan 19-24: Detroit: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 12-17 Jan.

Jan 25: Detroit: Off?

Jan 26-31: Detroit: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 19-24 Jan.

Feb 1: Detroit: Off?

Feb 2-7: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 26-31 Jan. On the 4th, Charlie Parker opens a two week stint at the Madison Ballroom with Candy Johnson’s quartet. Pepper might have attended this gig.

Feb 8: Detroit: Off?

Feb 9-14: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 2-7 Feb. On the 14th, Charlie Parker opens a one week engagement at the Rouge Lounge. Pepper might have attended this.

cFeb 15: Highland Park MI: Adams, Tommy Flanagan (occasionally Hugh Lawson), Ernie Farrow and Hindal Butts start their nearly year-long run at the World Stage’s Tuesday jam session. At that time, Oliver Shearer and Yusef Lateef take charge of the World Stage programming after Kenny Burrell leaves to join Jazz at the Philharmonic. In addition to Tuesday jam sessions from 9pm-12, they re-establish Sunday afternoon concerts, though now on alternating Sundays.

Feb 16-21: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 9-14 Feb.

Feb 22: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See c15 Feb.

Feb 23-28: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 16-21 Feb.

Mar 1: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 22 Feb.

Mar 2-7: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 23-28 Feb.

Mar 8: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 1 Mar.

Mar 9-14: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 2-7 Mar. On the 12th Charlie Parker dies in New York at age 34.

Mar 15: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 8 Mar.

Mar 16-21: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 9-14 Mar.

Mar 22: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 15 Mar.

Mar 23-27: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 16-21 Mar.

Mar 28: Detroit: New Music Society date for Free Arts, recorded at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Earlier, Adams possibly works at Al’s Record Mart and, later, possibly drops in at Klein’s.

Mar 29: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 22 Mar.

Mar 30-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 23-27 Mar.

Apr: Detroit: Wardell Gray plays Klein’s as guest soloist.

Apr 1-4: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 30-31 Mar. Adams lives in or near Arden Park, across Meyer Road.

Apr 5: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 29 Mar.

Apr 6-11: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-4 Apr.

Apr 12: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 5 Apr.

Apr 13-18: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 6-11 Apr.

Apr 19: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 12 Apr.

Apr 20-25: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 13-18 Apr.

Apr 26: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 19 Apr.

Apr 27-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 20-25 Apr.

cMay: Detroit: Pepper Adams date at the World Stage, recorded by Transition, with Yusef Lateef, Tommy Flanagan or Barry Harris, possibly Elvin Jones, et al. Pepper Adams date in Dave Usher’s basement, possibly for Dee Gee, with Curtis Fuller, Tommy Flanagan or Barry Harris, Ernie Farrow and Hindal Butts.

May 1-2: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 27-31 April.

May 3: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 26 Apr.

May 4-9: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-2 May.

May 10: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 3 May.

May 11-16: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 4-9 May.

May 17: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 10 May.

May 18-23: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 11-16 May.

May 24: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 197 May.

May 25-30: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 18-23 May. On the 25th Wardell Gray dies at age 34 in Las Vegas.

May 31: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 24 May.

June 1-6: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 25-30 May. On c1 June, Adams, invited by Wardell Gray’s family, serves as a pallbearer at Wardell Gray’s funeral.

June 7: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 31 May.

June 8-13: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-6 June.

June 14: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 7 June.

June 15-20: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 8-13 June.

June 21: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 14 June.

June 22-27: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 15-20 June.

June 28: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 21 June.

June 29-30: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 22-27 June.

July: Detroit: Upon Kenny Burrell’s departure to join Oscar Peterson, Adams becomes musical director at Klein’s. The steady group is Adams and Curtis Fuller, with Tommy Flanagan or Hugh Lawson, Ernie Farrow and Hindal Butts.

July 1-4: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 29-30 June.

July 5: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 28 June.

July 6-11: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-4 July.

July 12: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 5 July.

July 13-18: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 6-11 July.

July 19: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 12 July.

July 20-25: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 13-18 July.

July 26: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 19 July.

July 27-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 20-25 July.

Aug 1: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 26 July.

Aug 2-8: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 27-31 July.

Aug 9: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 1 Aug.

Aug 10-15: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 2-8 Aug.

Aug 16: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 9 Aug.

Aug 17-22: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 10-15 Aug.

Aug 23: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 16 Aug.

Aug 24-29: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 17-22 Aug.

Aug 30: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 23 Aug.

Aug 31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 24-29 Aug.

Sept 1-5: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 31 Aug.

Sept 6: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 30 Aug.

Sept 7-12: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-5 Sept.

Sept 13: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 7 Sept.

cSept 14-17: Toronto: Adams gig with Charles Mingus, Teddy Charles, Doug Watkins and Elvin Jones. Adams drives from Detroit with Carol Thompson.

Sept 18: Travel?

Sept 19: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 7-12 Sept.

Sept 20: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 13 Sept.

Sept 21-26: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 19 Sept.

Sept 27: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 20 Sept.

Sept 28-30: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 21-26 Sept.

Oct 1-3: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 28-30 Sept.

Oct 4: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 27 Sept.

Oct 5-10: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-3 Oct.

Oct 11: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 4 Oct.

Oct 12-17: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 5-10 Oct.

Oct 18: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 11 Oct.

Oct 19-24: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 12-17 Oct.

Oct 25: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 16 Oct.

Oct 26-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 19-24 Oct. On the 31st Pepper and Janet Muir go on their first date.

Nov 1: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 25 Oct.

Nov 2-7: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 26-31 Oct.

Nov 8: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 1 Nov.

Nov 9: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 2-7 Nov.

Nov 10: Travel?

Nov 11: Cambridge MA: Dave Coleman date for Transition, with violinist Dick Wetmore, et al.

Nov 12: Travel?

Nov 13-14: Detroit: Possible gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 9 Nov.

Nov 15: Highland Park MI: Possible jam session at the World Stage. See 8 Nov.

Nov 16-21: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 13-14 Nov.

Nov 22: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 15 Nov.

Nov 23: Detroit: Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 16-21 Nov.

Nov 24: Detroit: Off.

Nov 25-30: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 23 Nov.

Dec 1-5: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 25-30 Nov.

Dec 6: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 22 Nov.

Dec 7-12: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 1-5 Dec.

Dec 13: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 6 Dec.

Dec 14-19: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 7-12 Dec.

Dec 20: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 13 Dec.

Dec 21-23: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 14-19 Dec.

Dec 24-25: Detroit: Off.

Dec 26: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 21-23 Dec.

Dec 27: Highland Park MI: Jam session at the World Stage. See 20 Dec.

Dec 28-31: Detroit: Gig at Klein’s and day job at Al’s Record Mart. See 26 Dec. Gig at a private party on 31 Dec.

1956

Jan 1: Detroit: Gig at a private party. See 31 Dec 1955.

cJan 2-7: Detroit: Adams prepares to move to New York.

cJan 8: Travel. Adams drives to New York with Janet Muir.

cJan 8-31: Adams and Janet Muir take an apartment at 410 West End Avenue. Adams works at Glen Falls Insurance Company on Wall Street while awaiting the transfer of his union card. Adams sits in with Oscar Pettiford and Kenny Clarke at Café Bohemia.

cFeb-Mar: New York: Adams attends Ken Karpe’s Friday night invitation-only jam sessions with Oscar Pettiford on East 23rd St.

Feb-Mar: Adams and Janet Muir live together at 410 West End Avenue.

Apr: Adams and Janet Muir live together at 410 West End Avenue.

Apr 20: Cambridge MA: Curtis Fuller date for Transition, with John Coltrane, Roland Alexander, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. See http://instagram.com/p/r7zLUcpngW/?modal=true. Then, Cambridge MA gig after the recording session, with Fuller, Coltrane, Chambers and Jones.

Apr 21: Travel?

Apr 30: Hackensack NJ: Kenny Clarke date for Savoy, with Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell and Paul Chambers. See http://instagram.com/p/sFPlpTJnso/?modal=true.

May 9: Hackensack NJ: Kenny Clarke date for Savoy, with Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell and Paul Chambers. See http://instagram.com/p/sFPlpTJnso/?modal=true.

May 25: Boston: Upon Oscar Pettiford’s recommendation, Adams joins the Stan Kenton Orchestra, leaving by bus from New York for a gig at the State Ballroom. With some minor exceptions, Kenton’s personnel (with Lee Katzman, Richie Kamuca, Mel Lewis, et al.) is constant through November.

May 26: Taunton MA: Kenton at Roseland Ballroom.

May 27: South River NJ: Kenton at Liberty Ballroom.

May 28: Off.

May 29: Kent OH: Kenton at Kent University.

May 30: Youngstown OH: Kenton at Idora Park.

May 31: Pittsburgh: Kenton at Westview Park.

June 1: Buckeye Lake OH: Kenton at Crystal Beach Ballroom.

June 2: Monticello IN: Kenton at Indiana Beach Ballroom.

June 3: Milwaukee: Kenton at Million Dollar Ballroom.

June 4: Off.

June 5: Des Moines IA: Kenton at Val Air Ballroom.

June 6: Off.

June 7-9: St. Louis: Kenton at Riviera Ballroom.

June 10: Collinsville IL: Kenton at Collinsville Park Pavilion.

June 11: Belleville IL: Kenton at Belleville Township High School.

June 12: Off.

June 13-23: Chicago: Kenton at the Blue Note.

June 24: North Shore, Suburban Chicago: Afternoon barbecue and jam session with Chet Baker and Bobby Timmons. Then, Kenton gig at the Blue Note. See 13-23 June.

June 25: Cedar Lake IN: Kenton at Midway Ballroom.

June 26: Madison WI: Kenton at Edgewater Hotel.

June 27: Lake Geneva WI: Kenton at Riviera Ballroom.

June 28: Janesville IA: Kenton at Riviera Ballroom.

June 29: Marinette WI: Kenton at the Silver Dome.

June 30: Coloma MI: Kenton at the Crystal Palace.

July 1: Chicago: Kenton at Trianon Ballroom.

July 2: Off.

July 3: Kansas City: Kenton at Pla Mor Ballroom.

July 4: Omaha: Kenton at Peony Park.

July 5: Clear Lake IA: Kenton at Surf Ballroom.

July 6-7: St. Paul: Kenton at Prom Ballroom.

July 8: Austin MN: Kenton at Terp Ballroom.

July 9: Off.

July 10: La Crosse WI: Kenton at Avalon Ballroom.

July 11: Elgin IL: Kenton at Blue Moon Ballroom.

July 12: Russells Point OH: Kenton at Sandy Beach Park at Indian Lake.

July 13: Leesburg IN: Kenton at Tippecanoe Gardens.

July 14: Lansing MI: Kenton at the Dells at Lake Lansing.

July 15: Celina OH: Kenton at Edgewater Park.

July 16: Off.

July 17: Indianapolis: Kenton at Westlake Terrace.

July 18: Chippewa Lake OH: Kenton at Chippewa Lake.

July 19: Brooklyn MI: Kenton at Wamplers Lake.

July 20: Fruitport MI: Kenton at Fruitport Pavilion.

July 21: Flint MI: Kenton at IMA Auditorium.

July 22: Vermilion OH: Kenton at Crystal Beach Ballroom.

July 23: Detroit: Kenton at Motor City Arena.

July 24: Windsor, Ontario: Kenton at Crystal Beach.

July 25: Burlington, Ontario: Kenton at Brant Inn.

July 26: Cheswick PA: Kenton at Ches Arena.

July 27-31: Atlantic City NJ: Kenton at the Steel Pier.

Aug 1-2: Atlantic City NJ: Kenton at the Steel Pier. See 27-31 July.

Aug 3: Off.

Aug 4: Hershey PA: Kenton at Hershey Park.

Aug 5: Canton OH: Kenton at Moonlight Gardens at Meyers Lake.

Aug 6-7: Off.

Aug 8-14: Chicago: Kenton at Blue Note.

Aug 15: Spirit City IA: Kenton at the Roof Garden.

Aug 16-17: Huron SD: Kenton at the Huron Theatre.

Aug 18-20: Off/Travel?

Aug 21-26: Denver: Kenton at El Patio Ballroom in Lakeside Park. Adams visits with Doc Holladay.

Aug 27-31: Off/Travel?

Sept 1-2: Balboa Beach CA: Kenton at Rendezvous Ballroom.

Sept 7: Los Angeles: Kenton concert, produced by Gene Norman.

Sept 8-23: Hollywood CA: Kenton at Zardi’s.

Oct: Detroit: During a gap in Kenton’s itinerary, Adams travels from California to Detroit to pick up his car and drive it back to the West Coast.

Oct 30: Pasadena CA: Kenton at Civic Auditorium.

Nov 1: Sausalito CA: Adams begins his stay, for most of the month, at a hotel run by a retired French sea captain with a view of inner San Francisco Bay.

Nov 2-18: San Francisco: Kenton at Macumba Club. Ralph J. Gleason writes in the San Francisco Chronicle the first notice about Adams to appear in a major publication. Mel Lewis afternoon rehearsal on the 14th at the Macumba Club for his recording date on 19-20 Nov.

Nov 19: Berkeley: Kenton at University of California. Then, Mel Lewis date in Oakland for San Francisco, with Richie Kamuca, John Marabuto, et al.

Nov 20: San Francisco: Kenton at University of San Francisco. Then, Mel Lewis date in Oakland for San Francisco, with Richie Kamuca, John Marabuto, et al.

Nov 21: San Francisco: Kenton at San Francisco State College.

Nov 22: Palo Alto: Kenton at Stanford University.

Nov 23: Oakland: Kenton at Sweet’s Ballroom.

Nov 24: San Francisco: Adams, Lee Katzman and Mel Lewis quit Kenton and move to Los Angeles to form a quintet.

Nov 25: Los Angeles: Adams composes Mary’s Blues. See http://instagram.com/p/r2vHCWJnhk/?modal=true, http://instagram.com/p/r2vzl-pni4/?modal=true and http://instagram.com/p/r2tANnJntX/?modal=true.

Nov 26-30: Los Angeles: Adams, Lee Katzman and Mel Lewis rehearse.

Dec: Pasadena: Gig at Zucca’s Cottage with Lee Katzman, Ernest Crawford (p), Red Kelly (b) and Mel Lewis. Los Angeles: Possible gigs with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band. Mel Lewis, Richie Kamuca and other members of Kenton’s band are in the 13-piece group. Los Angeles: Unknown studio dates with Conrad Gozzo.

cDec. 4: San Fernando CA: Adams moves to 14354 Germain Street to stay for a time with Lee Katzman and his family.

Dec 10: Los Angeles: Lennie Niehaus date for Contemporary, with Frank Rosolino, Bill Perkins, Red Mitchell, Mel Lewis, et al.

Dec 12: Hollywood CA: Stan Kenton date for Capitol.

Dec 24-25: Los Angeles: Off.

1957

cJan: Hollywood CA: Adams sits in on Pete Jolly gig at Sherry’s, with Ralph Pena and Larry Bunker.

Jan: Los Angeles and Hollywood: Various jam sessions, including those at Carl Perkins’ house, with Leroy Vinnegar. Los Angeles: Unknown studio dates with Conrad Gozzo.

Jan 1: Los Angeles: Off.

Jan 5-6: Los Angeles: Possible gig with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band.

cJan 15: Los Angeles: Possible gig on Sunset Strip with Dave Pell’s Octet prior to 17 Jan date.

Jan 17: Los Angeles and Hollywood: Dave Pell date for RCA (with Jack Sheldon, Mel Lewis, et al.) and Kenton Orchestra date for Capitol.

Jan 23: Los Angeles: Dave Pell date for RCA, with Jack Sheldon, Mel Lewis, et al.

Jan 30: Los Angeles: Shorty Rogers big band date for RCA, with Harry Edison, Frank Rosolino, Herb Geller, Red Mitchell, Stan Levey, et al.

Feb: Los Angeles: Unknown studio dates with Conrad Gozzo.

Feb 1: Los Angeles: Shorty Rogers big band date for RCA. See 30 Jan.

Feb 4: Los Angeles: Shorty Rogers big band date for RCA. See 1 Feb.

cmid Feb: Los Angeles: Gigs with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band: Ferguson, Joe Burnett, Ed Leddy, Tom Slaney tp; Bob Burgess, Frank Strong tb; Joe Maini, Jimmy Ford as, ts; Willie Maiden ts; Adams bs; John Bannister p; Moe Edwards b; Larry Bunker dm.

Feb 22: Hollywood CA: Stan Kenton date for Capitol, with Richie Kamuca, Red Mitchell, Mel Lewis, et al.

Mar: Los Angeles: Gigs with Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band, possibly at Peacock Lane. See cmid Feb personnel. Unknown studio dates with Conrad Gozzo.

Mar 1: Los Angeles: Quincy Jones date for ABC, with Carl Perkins, Leroy Vinnegar, Shelly Manne, et al.

Mar 4: Hollywood CA: Stan Kenton date for Capitol, with Red Mitchell and Mel Lewis.

Mar 11: Los Angeles: Bob Keene date for Andex, with Red Norvo, et al.

Mar 12: Los Angeles: Lennie Niehaus date for Contemporary, with Frank Rosolino, Richie Kamuca, Stan Levey, et al.

Mar 19: Pasadena: Mel Lewis-Pepper Adams Quintet gig at Zucca’s, with Lee Katzman, et al.

Mar 20: Los Angeles: Dave Pell date for RCA, with Jack Sheldon, Mel Lewis, et al. See 23 Jan.

Mar 21: Los Angeles: Bob Keene date for Andex, with Red Norvo, Red Mitchell, Shelly Manne, et al. Later in Los Angeles, Herbie Harper date at Jazz City for Bethlehem, with Claude Williamson, Curtis Counce, Mel Lewis, et al.

cMar 22: Los Angeles: Adams leaves by car for New York with three members of Ferguson’s band. All three were junkies and it was a very difficult trip for Adams. One was likely Joe Maini. Another might have been Larry Bunker.

cMar 28: Omaha: Maynard Ferguson Big Band gig.

cMar 30: St. Louis: Maynard Ferguson Big Band gig at auditorium adjoining another auditorium at which Elvis Presley was performing.

cApr 1: Minneapolis: Maynard Ferguson Big Band gig.

cApr 4-14: New York: Maynard Ferguson Big Band at Birdland. Live broadcasts by the Mutual Radio Network on 6 and 13 April.

cApr 15: New York: Adams joins Chet Baker’s group.

Apr 20: Hackensack NJ: Date for Prestige with John Coltrane, Cecil Payne, Doug Watkins, et al.

cMay 14: Travel?

cMay 15-31: Chicago: Chet Baker gig at the Preview Lounge.

June 1-15: Chicago: Chet Baker gig at Preview Lounge. See c15-31 May.

June 16: Chicago: Off?

June 17-23: Milwaukee: Chet Baker gig at the Brass Rail, with Elmo Hope, Doug Watkins and Philly Joe Jones.

June 24: Milwaukee: Off?

June 25-30: Minneapolis: Chet Baker gig with Phil Urso, Elmo Hope, Doug Watkins and Philly Joe Jones.

July 1: Travel?

July 2-11: Hollywood CA: Gig with Chet Baker at Peacock Lane with Doug Watkins. Don Friedman works the second week with Larance Marable.

July 12: Los Angeles: First date as leader, for Mode, with Stu Williamson, Carl Perkins, Leroy Vinnegar and Mel Lewis. Later, gig with Chet Baker gig in Hollywood at Peacock Lane. See 2-11 July.

July 13-14: Hollywood CA: Gig with Chet Baker at Peacock Lane. See 12 July.

July 15: Los Angeles: Shorty Rogers big band date for RCA, with Frank Rosolino, Richie Kamuca, Stan Levey, et al.

July 16-21: San Francisco: Chet Baker gig at The Blackhawk, with Philly Joe Jones, et al.

July 22-31: San Francisco: Chet Baker gig at Blackhawk with Bob de Graaf (ts), Don Friedman, Doug Watkins and Philly Joe Jones.

Aug 1-4: San Francisco: Chet Baker gig at Blackhawk. See 22-31 July.

Aug 11: Los Angeles: Shorty Rogers big band date for RCA, with Frank Rosolino, Richie Kamuca, Stan Levey, et al.

Aug 13: Hollywood CA: Bud Shank date for Pacific Jazz, featuring Chet Baker, with Charlie Mariano, Richie Kamuca, Claude Williamson and Mel Lewis. See http://instagram.com/p/rhyBTZJngv/?modal=true.

Aug 14: Hollywood CA: Bud Shank date for Pacific Jazz, featuring Chet Baker, with Charlie Mariano, Richie Kamuca, Claude Williamson and Mel Lewis. See http://instagram.com/p/rhyBTZJngv/?modal=true.

Aug 22: Down Beat’s Jazz Critic’s Poll awards Adams their New Star Award.

Aug 23: Hollywood CA: Second date as leader, for World Pacific, with Lee Katzman, Jimmy Rowles, Doug Watkins and Mel Lewis. See http://instagram.com/p/sFM0gEpnoJ/?modal=true.

cAug 24: Travel to Detroit?

cSept 1: Detroit: Soupy Sales TV Show appearance with Curtis Fuller, Tommy Flanagan, probably Ernie Farrow and Frank Gant.

cSept 2-5: Detroit: Gigs with Alvin Jackson.

cSept 9: Ann Arbor MI: Gig with Alvin Jackson.

cSept 10: Ann Arbor MI: Hugh Jackson (dm) private date, with Frank Keys (tp), Bernard McKinney, Barry Harris and Beans Richardson.

Sept 11: Travel?

Sept 15: New York: Shafi Hadi date for Debut, with Wynton Kelly, Henry Grimes, et al.

Sept 17: New York: A.K. Salim date for Savoy, with Kenny Dorham, Johnny Griffin, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Max Roach, et al.

Sept 29: Hackensack NJ: Lee Morgan date for Blue Note, with Bobby Timmons, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones. See http://instagram.com/p/sFOWqopnqe/?modal=true

Oct: Atlantic City NJ: Week-long quartet gig (with Kenny Burrell) opposite Lee Morgan Quartet. This was the same week that the "Rat Pack" performed at Club 500 with Carmen McCrae and the Ike Isaacs Trio.

Oct 20: Hackensack NJ: Hank Mobley date for Blue Note, with Art Farmer, Sonny Clark, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.

Nov: New York: Gigs with the Maynard Ferguson Big Band.

Nov 12: Hackensack NJ: Sonny Red date for Savoy, with Wynton Kelly, Doug Watkins and Elvin Jones.

Nov 19: Hackensack NJ: Third Adams date as leader, for Savoy, with Bernard McKinney, Hank Jones, George Duvivier and Elvin Jones.

cDec: New York: Adams works during the holidays at Macy’s department store and at the main branch of the New York Post Office.

Dec 6: Hackensack NJ: Doug Watkins date for Prestige, with Bill Evans, Doug Watkins, Louis Hayes, et al.

Dec 24-25: New York: Off.

cDec 28: New York: Adams takes an apartment with Elvin Jones at 314 East 6 Street, #10.

Dec 30: New York: Toots Thielemans date for Riverside, with Kenny Drew, Wilbur Ware and Arthur Taylor.

1958

Jan 1: New York: Off.

Jan 3: Hackensack NJ: Gene Ammons date for Savoy, with John Coltrane on alto, et al.

(c. Rudy Tucich. Tucich is in the rear with eyeglasses. Barry Harris

is to Tucich's right. Charles McPherson is at the far right.)

↧

From Wollensak with Love

May 9, 2015, 2:31 pm

≫ Next: Adams Biography, Straight Ahead

≪ Previous: "Early Years" Is Updated!

Below are the titles on Pepper's Rex Stewart 8-track tape. Thanks again to Atlanta bassist Neil Starkey for so ably dubbing it for me. Pepper prepared this and many other 8-tracks for his own amusement while driving around or to and from gigs. When I met Pepper in 1984 he may have still had his very old Volvo with a stick shift. I'm not sure what car he was driving with the 8-track player. As for his 8-track home recorder, here's a link to a picture of his 3M Wollensak from my Instagram site:

https://instagram.com/p/rm4zHfpnj3/?taken-by=pepperadamsblog

Wollensak ceased production in 1972. That seems to be around the time that 8-tracks faded into oblivion. As I recall, I got my first cassette player in 1969. Was I excited! It was a Panasonic: a portable combination recorder/radio.

I've been loving listening to Rex with Ellington and others! He was such an inventive player. He's best known as a growl and half-valve cornetist in the Bubber Miley tradition. But he has his own arsenal of artificial notes. He was also a high-note player of tremendous skill, and one with enormous rhythmic and melodic resourcefulness. As Andrew Homzy recently wrote, "Rex is a treasure!"

Pepper denoted those recordings with Ellington with an asterisk. I'll adopt his convention.

Bulge Breaks*

Poor Bubber

Tea & Trumpets

Morrning Glory*

Rex' Time

Solid Old Man

Trumpet in Spades*

5 O'Clock Drag*

Love in My Heart

Subtle Slough

Chatterbox*

Dusk*

Buglle Call Rag

Boy Meets Horn*

I Know That You Know

Harlem Air Shaft*

My Sunday Gal

Zaza

What Am I Here For*

Fat Stuff Serenade

Montmartre

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea*

Digga Digga Doo

Pepper included live versions of Harlem Air Shaft and Boy Meets Horn (albeit at a slower tempo than what's commonly heard). The version of Subltle Slough is a masterpiece! If you want to hear an early 1940s big band groove, here it is.

Rex Stewart, (c) Valerie Wilmer

↧

Adams Biography, Straight Ahead

May 16, 2015, 11:06 am

≫ Next: The Main Line of Resistance

≪ Previous: From Wollensak with Love

This week has been a busy one for me. Apart from the heavy demands of my day job, all of my free time has been put into polishing up Chapter 1 of Pepper's biography. For the last six weeks or so I've been thinking about Pepper's boyhood and how significant elders stepped in after the early death of his father. The music of Duke Ellington and Rex Stewart (one of those elders) has been playing non-stop in my car--and, now, constantly in my head--as the unofficial soundtrack to my work.

The first chapter is in tip-top shape now, though I endless tweak things (a writer's curse) while I await word from my gifted readers Ron Ley and John Gennari. For the Prologue, they recommended other topics to discuss, as well as grammatical issues to repair. I expect much the same this time around. Then, it's back to writing.

Next week I'll start listening to Pepper's Duke Ellington 8-track material, then eventually move to his Charlie Parker and Tommy Flanagan compilations. Bird, of course, was a huge influence on Pepper, but so was Flanagan. Tenor saxophonist Bill Perkins pointed out in an article in Cadence that Pepper was playing Flanagan lines. Can anyone recommend specific Flanagan solos that I should check out that are markedly similar to Pepper's playing style? I know that Chicago drummer George Fludas felt that the head of Pepper's composition "Conjuration" was very much written in a graceful Flanagan/Detroit feel, but how about some solos to compare? So far, I'm only hearing a similarity when they play fast double-time passages.

While tweaking Chapter 1, I'll move on to researching Chapter 2. That chapter will involve discussing Pepper's father, his side of the family and Pepper's early days in Rochester, New York. It will probably dovetail into a long discussion about Detroit. I'll need to go back and listen again to many interviews I conducted more than twenty years ago. That will be lots of fun and quite nostalgic. I shared many phone calls with so many great musicians, many of whom are no longer with us. In addition, I'll be reaquainting myself with the music of Coleman Hawkins, Don Byas, Art Tatum, Wardell Gray and Sonny Stitt, all important early influences on Pepper. I don't expect a first draft of Chapter 2 for quite some time, but you never know!

↧

The Main Line of Resistance

May 23, 2015, 5:40 am

≫ Next: Thad, Etc.

≪ Previous: Adams Biography, Straight Ahead

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)

↧

Thad, Etc.

May 30, 2015, 5:20 pm

≫ Next: Pepper and Fish

≪ Previous: The Main Line of Resistance

Here's a really nice note I received this week, completely out of the blue:

Hi, my name is Dave Schiff. My father had a jazz workshop in Wilmington, Delaware that he put together in the late 1960s to the mid '70s. In the early years he had many of the members of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra come down and work with the students (including myself) for a week. Pepper Adams and I became pretty close friends during that time. I had the opportunity to study with him and hang out with him. I have some cassette tapes of some of the clinic concerts with Pepper Adams performing. They are some of my most cherished things. I am in the middle of reading your book and find myself hearing his voice as I am reading the quotes of his. I would be interested in sharing the tapes if you would be interested. Pepper was a great influence in my playing and a good friend. Thank you for your time and consideration, and, most of all, bringing attention to this wonderful musician and human being.
Dave Schiff

Of course, when someone like that reaches out for me, I follow up. I'll be speaking with Schiff tomorrow by phone. I've already learned that at least one tape exists of Pepper with Roland Hanna, Wayne Andre and a few student musicians. (See photo below.) Schiff is looking for other tapes. I also asked if he knew whether Pepper taught at his dad's Wilmington Music School in 1971, 1972 and 1973. So far, there's no record of it in Pepper's materials. Also, Schiff's father was responsible for producing Thad-Mel at The Playhouse in Wilmington, 1967. I'm trying to see if that was recorded.

Speaking of Thad Jones, this week I posted a large update to the Thaddeus chronology (1965-1977) at pepperadams.com. The thrust of my research was to identify those tunes in Thad-Mel's baritone book in which Pepper would have been asked to play either clarinet or bass clarinet parts. I was motivated by the recent YouTube video posting of Central Park North (1969). Pepper is seen playing clarinet in one part of the performance.

Here's a link to the new section of the pepperadams.com chronology and the link to the video of Three and One from the same 1969 concert as Central Park North, with dazzling solos by Thad and Pepper:

http://www.pepperadams.com/Chronology/Thaddeus.pdf

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WaCfDeZJPIU

While working my way through YouTube today I discovered a few videos of the band that are new to me. First, is a performance of Thad-Mel in Nice, at the picturesque setting of Les Jardin des Arenes de Cimiez. Recorded by RF TV on 15 July 1977, what a magnificent television production of the band!; clearly the finest video quality of any film that exists of the band to date. Tunes: Evol Deklaw Ni, It Only Happens Every Time, 61st and Richard, and Ambiance.

The second video is this dazzling vocal chart by Thad Jones, Route 66:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLxyax9Wgh_JwhNJR10yDsuCRrZitkm3VI&v=ECv8fQcA0Pw.

Can you believe how harmonically adventurous it is? It was recorded in Denmark in very late July or early August, 1977, Pepper's last tour with the band.

While we're on the topic of vocal charts--often overlooked in Thad's oeuvre--check out this brilliant performance by Dee Dee Bridgewater and the band doing Bye Bye Blackbird from a TV brodcast from Tokyo on 26 February 1974:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLxyax9Wgh_JwhNJR10yDsuCRrZitkm3VI&v=R31s5We3JmQ

Also discovered today on YouTube are three performances by the band at Montreux on 5 July 1974:

Once Around: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLxyax9Wgh_JwhNJR10yDsuCRrZitkm3VI&v=0Sgm7G8yzyE

I Love You: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLxyax9Wgh_JwhNJR10yDsuCRrZitkm3VI&v=Ylt8g4dlfOk

Blues in a Minute: https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=PLxyax9Wgh_JwhNJR10yDsuCRrZitkm3VI&v=QNL4FTPjyjA

Sorry if they're not showing up as links. I'm still struggling with that. Please paste them into your browser and enjoy. They'll also be included in the next update of "Thaddeus."

Photo (c) Dave Schiff, 20 June 1974. Left to right: Roland Hanna p; Don

Schiff b; Wayne Andre tb; Dave Schiff ts; unknown dm; Pepper Adams bs.

↧

Pepper and Fish

June 6, 2015, 11:13 am

≫ Next: Playing Along with Hawk and the Condon Gang

≪ Previous: Thad, Etc.

My interview last Sunday with Delaware tenor saxophonist Dave Schiff was absolutely groundbreaking! Much of it will be included in my forthcoming Pepper Adams biography because Schiff goes into great detail about Pepper's approach to playing. Apart from Curtis Fuller and others that Pepper may have mentored in Detroit, it turns out that Schiff was very likely Pepper's only student after Pepper moved to New York at age 29. How Schiff knows so much about Pepper is that his memory is razor-sharp about many of the important things that Pepper taught him when he was an aspiring teenage saxophonist.

Schiff was fifteen when Pepper, Thad Jones, Roland Hanna, Tom McIntosh and a few other top New York-based jazz musicians came to Wilmington, Delaware, beginning in 1968, to do five-day workshops with young students from the area. Pepper was an instructor at the Wilmington Music School each June from 1968 to 1970, then again one last time in 1974. At the School, directed by Schiff's father, Hal Schiff, Pepper had a chance to work with small ensembles and individually with students. Some were very promising inner-city students who couldn't afford tuition. For them, Schiff's father arranged scholarship money, underwritten by the Dupont and Hercules corporations. Dave Schiff was one of the lucky students who studied individually with Pepper.

One year, in the late '60s, after Pepper finished teaching at the Wilmington Music School, he invited Dave Schiff (whom he regarded as a very promising instrumentalist) to New York to study with him for a day. By then, according to Schiff, he had become quite close with Pepper. Schiff and his dad (also a tenor player) took the train early on a Monday morning from Wilmington and were greeted by Pepper at either Penn or Grand Central Station. Pepper assured Hal that he would look after him and all would be fine. Hal went home on the train. Pepper and Dave went back to Pepper's one-bedroom apartment at 84 Jane Street, and they studied together for much of the day.

That night Pepper brought Dave with him to the Village Vanguard, ostensibly to hear the band. Pepper told Schiff to bring his horn. For the last tune of the last set Pepper asked Schiff to sit in on Back Bone. Schiff was petrified, but Pepper assured him it would be OK. Schiff would only play two choruses after Pepper's solo, he'd first sit next to Pepper on the bandstand and play the chart with him, and he'd do fine. Schiff already knew Thad from his Wilmington experience, but that hardly calmed his nerves. Schiff told me, "I was so scared I thought I was going to vomit." Before they played the tune, Pepper introduced Schiff to Jerry Dodgion, who, as always, was very warm and welcoming. "Very nice meeting you," said Dodgion to Schiff. "I'm looking forward to hearing you play." As it turned out, Schiff got through the experience. Another challenge for the young player was overcome and Pepper's lesson was learned. That is, always play when you're invited.

Schiff, nicknamed "Fish" by Pepper, thought he might move to New York and become a professional musician. He certainly had an important ally in Pepper, he thought, and he would seek out other players his own age and develop that way. But the Vietnam War changed his plans. His father, worried that his son would be drafted and would have to fight overseas, got his son enlisted in the Navy Band in 1972.

Not entirely unlike Pepper's Korean War experience, I still don't know if Schiff had a tour of duty or, instead, if he stayed mostly at the base at Annapolis, Maryland. Schiff did stay with the Navy's Commodores band for about 20 years and later was also a member of Bill Potts' Big Band that had a long residency two weeks a month at Blues Alley in Washington, D.C. Interestingly, Schiff was in Potts' band on 11 October 1979, the night Pepper came in, as a guest soloist, at Frankie Condon's Supper Club in Rockville Maryland. Schiff made corrections to that entry in Pepper Adams' Joy Road (pages 384-85). The changes will be posted in the next few months at "Discographical Updates" at pepperadams.com.

Obviously, I look forward to transcribing the Schiff interview and following up. Schiff was the first person to describe the inside of Pepper's apartment on Jane Street. Most importantly, of course, was Schiff's extremely important observations about Pepper's approach to playing. Although I've done more than 100 interviews, no one has presented these kinds of insights.

Why "Fish?" Pepper was a voracious crossword puzzle enthusiast. When Pepper was dying at home, he passed the time doing New York Times crossword puzzles and reading the Flashman Papers, a series of twelve novels written by George MacDonald Fraser. Moreover, as Curtis Fuller put it about Pepper's playing, "Pepper was a speller." My theory is that Pepper heard "Schiff" and amused himself by reversing Schiff's surname as a kind of pseudo- reverse homonym.

So far, I only know of two other summer music camps for whom Pepper taught. One was the National Band Camps, based at Millikin University in Decatur IL and the University of Connecticut in Stoors CT. As such, he was in the forefront of jazz education in the U.S. He enjoyed working with young players, and I understand the compensation for clinicians was quite good. Additionally, Adams enjoyed doing college workshops, where the pay was even better. Two such programs he did late in life were at Eastman in March, 1978 and the University of North Texas in November, 1982. At one National Band Camps residency, one of his young students was Boston-based guitarist Jon Wheatley. In the Eastman jazz program was pianist Dave Loeb (see Joy Road, page 324 and "Discographical Updates.") At UNT was tenor saxophonist Chip McNeill.

About Pepper's disinterest in having private students, I think Pepper really prized his time alone, reading fiction, listening to Ellington and classical music, and nurturing his other hobbies, such as reading about fine art or watching sports on televsion, particularly football and hockey. For the most part, Pepper was busy enough to support himself by playing, and his mother's inheritance allowed him a measure of comfort. He bought his house in Canarsie with cash from her estate, acquired some furniture (his dad's kitchen table, mom's spinet, etc), and he freed up the rent money that he was paying for his flat in Greenwich Village.

The only other time I know of that Pepper had a private student was when he was already quite ill with cancer. Montreal-based baritone saxophonist Charles Papasoff got a grant from the Province of Quebec to study with Pepper. Unlike with Schiff, the situation was quite different. Pepper needed the subsidy because his medical benefits were dwindling and, with his cancer treatments, he wasn't able to work as much as he needed to support himself. Although I interviewed Papasoff years ago, I don't recall the nature of their interaction. That's just one of many interviews I need to review. I do know they became friends. I can't imagine Papasoff not asking Pepper a million questions about technique and his life in jazz but my recollection is that he and Pepper mostly hung out, and Pepper might not have even pulled out his instrument. Papasoff did help Pepper on his last visit to Montreal--a very poignant experience for all. Check out pages 505-507 of Joy Road regarding Adams' very last performance, with Papasoff and Denny Christianson's commentary.

(Dave Schiff)

↧

Playing Along with Hawk and the Condon Gang

June 13, 2015, 12:18 pm

≫ Next: The Early Rochester Jazz Scene

≪ Previous: Pepper and Fish

I've begun listening to interviews I did about Pepper's early years in Rochester, New York. I'm preparing for a lecture, "Pepper Adams in Rochester, 1935-1978," that I'm giving on Wednesday, October 21 at Rochester Institute of Technology. I haven't heard any of these tapes since conducting the interviews 28 years ago.

The first one I heard was two nights ago. It was an interview with Raymond Murphy. Ray was four years older than Pepper. During the summer of 1944, between high school and college, Murphy worked at Columbia Music Store, a jazz-specialty record shop in downtown Rochester. Sometime that summer Pepper stopped into the store. Pepper, thirteen years old and between 8th and 9th Grade, was introduced to Ray because Pepper said he was really interested in jazz and Ray was close in age and was managing their mail-order jazz record business. Ray and Pepper, it turned out, were equally enthralled with and totally dedicated to jazz. A fast friendship ensued. Ray, in a big-brother-kind-of-way, took Pepper under his wing. Murphy had already collected a number of records--far more than Pepper--particularly of the early New Orleans clarinetists, the Condon Gang and Coleman Hawkins. In fact, it was Murphy who first got Commodore and Blue Note records into the Rochester market. Almost every week for the next three years (until mid-1947 when Pepper left for Detroit), they would get together to play along (either trombone/clarinet or trombone/tenor sax) with Murphy's records.

They were best friends and attended performances together, such as the time when pianist Joe Sullivan appeared at a piano bar on Rochester's East Avenue. They would discuss things they read in the jazz press and other things they found amusing in The New Yorker. Murphy said that Pepper at thirteen didn't know very much about jazz but was totally focused on learning about it. He had just gotten his tenor and was beginning to get around on the instrument. When Murphy, as an undergraduate at the University of Rochester, hosted an evening commercial jazz radio show on WRNY, Pepper, then in high school, was an eager listener and made suggestions to his friend's playlists.

As you can imagine, I went to bed pretty excited about everything I relearned about Pepper's experience with Murphy. The following morning I wanted to know more about Murphy. I did a Google search for "Ray Murphy/trombone/Eastman" but kept getting data on Rayburn Wright, the very distinguished arranger, pedagogue and trombonist. What about Murphy? Why nothing on him? For much of the morning I wondered if maybe I interviewed Wright and not Murphy. Did I somehow write down the wrong name on my tape box? I read about Wright's amazing career, in which even Duke Ellington was a student! I had to find out what was going on! I emailed arranger Bill Kirchner, who studied with Wright. About an hour later I played him an excerpt from my interview. He didn't think it was Wright but suggested I contact trombonist and bandleader John Fedchock, who studied with him as a graduate student.

While waiting to hear from Fedchock, I tried again to find data on Murphy. Finally, I found a few citations that confirmed many of the things Murphy mentioned in my interview, such as his 1926 birth, that he entered the University of Rochester in 1948, and that he was a professor at the University of Rochester, of which the Eastman School of Music is one division. It turns out that Murphy returned to Rochester in 1968 to run the University of Rochester's sociology department. He also taught one course at Eastman. It seemed that it was Murphy after all, and just a weird confluence of facts. Woefully, I also learned that Murphy died earlier this year. Then I heard from Fedchock, who asked me to call today. A few hours ago I played some of my interview for him and he confirmed it definitely wasn't Wright on my tape.

Oh, well. No matter, really. Just the emotional rollercoaster process that biographers sometimes work their way through. I'm certainly happy to get to the bottom of that. Murphy's three-year friendship with Pepper Adams paved the way for Adams' immersion into the big league jazz world of Detroit. One could also say that the Murphy-Adams practicing team presaged the Adams/Curtis Fuller duo of 1955, in which Adams tutored Fuller in not a dissimilar way as what Murphy did for Adams. I'll be discussing the Murphy-Adams friendship in greater detail in the biography. For those who want to know more about Rayburn Wright, read this:

http://nepr.net/music/2012/10/08/jeff-holmesbill-kirchnerrayburn-wright/

Now, off to another interview.

(Rayburn Wright)

↧

The Early Rochester Jazz Scene

June 19, 2015, 7:19 am

≫ Next: The Frederick Douglass Voice and Other Ephemera

≪ Previous: Playing Along with Hawk and the Condon Gang

Why hasn't anyone written about Rochester's early jazz history? During the last few weeks I've been corresponding with reference librarians at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester. Nothing has been written about pre-1950s Rochester jazz, at least that they can locate. Lewis Porter suggested I contact Eastman because the most likely place for any work on early Rochester jazz would have been done by an Eastman student. As it turns out, if a paper or thesis on the topic was ever done at Eastman, it hasn't been saved by the library. For that matter, nothing in the way of pertinent clippings or articles at any library has turned up. Why?

As far as I can put it together, it's a multifactorial issue, although, admittedly, I'm still early in the gathering process. I do know that Eastman professor Everett Gates only established the very first jazz workshop at Eastman in the summer of 1959, one year after returning to Eastman after ten years (1948-58) of teaching at Oklahoma City University. He established his Eastman jazz arranging workshop in the midst of a fair amount of indifference (or should I say "hostility?") against jazz. Since that pioneering two-week class (at which Pepper Adams was the guest soloist), Eastman's jazz program has grown into one of the finest jazz programs in the world, graduating countless outstanding musicians, such as Ron Carter, Bob Sheppard and John Fedchock.

As a Rochester institution, The Eastman School goes back to 1921, when it was established by George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak. According to Wikipedia, "After a one-year interim under Acting Director Raymond Wilson, the young American composer and conductor Howard Hanson was appointed director of the school in 1924. Dr. Hanson is credited for transforming the Eastman School into one of the most prestigious music conservatories in the world." Hanson retired in 1964, after running the school for forty years. He still ran Eastman when Gates arrived. As I see it, Eastman set the tone for music performed in Rochester and Hanson set the tone for Eastman. Clearly, jazz wasn't part of the agenda under his watch. Eastman's summer session, however, was less restrictive. As Everett Gates told me, jazz, to some degree, was at first snuck in during the summer, when Hanson was out of town.

Apart from institutional indifference towards jazz, in 1935-47, when Pepper Adams lived in Rochester, the makeup of Rochester's black population was another mitigating factor in jazz not being embraced. As Rochester resident and University of Rochester sociology professor Raymond Murphy explained to me, African-Americans in Rochester comprised only 1% of the city's population. As a very small subculture of around 3,400 people, Murphy said, they were mostly well-educated, middle-class citizens that historically regarded jazz quite poorly. That's not to say that black clubs didn't exist or thrive in Rochester. It's just that blacks in Rochester who supported the music were, in Murphy's view, very few in number.

How did Eastman's curriculum and the prevailing sentiments of Rochester's black community in the 1940s affect coverage in the press about jazz? Was it an anomaly as compared to other cities of its size at that time? Perhaps this is a question for cultural historian John Gennari, who has written extensively about the history of jazz criticism in America. To what degree did local Rochester black newspapers cover jazz? At this point, I don't know, though it doesn't appear to be extensive. Interestingly, from 1847-72 Rochester was home to Frederick Douglass. A newspaper named in his honor, The Frederick Douglass Voice, was established in 1934. How did that publication treat Rochester's music, if at all, and were there others, perhaps regionally?

I've seen announcements for dance bands and entertainment of all sorts in the 1940's Rochester mainstream press. Several examples are posted here: instagram.com/pepperadamsblog. But until some advocate for the music emerges in the Rochester press of that day, or until I see reporting that's respectful of the art form, it's hard to explain the absence of concert reviews, appreciations and biographical portraits of famous touring musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Count Basie as anything other than a barometer of America's pervasive and shameful disregard of African-American culture.

It's understandable that Rochester jazz would not necessarily be one of the more obvious places to research, especially as compared to the enormous amount of activity that took place in New Orleans, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Kansas City and other large cities. That's not to say that some diehard fan, journalist or disk jockey couldn't have written something about Rochester or broadcasted a retrospective. So far, however, nothing has shown up, and that still strikes me as odd.

In 1940, Rochester was America's 32nd largest city. Befitting a city of its size, Rochester had a local entertainment community. Rochester did lose many of its players over the years to touring ensembles, to the draw of big cities such as New York and Chicago, or, during Pepper's time growing up there, to World War II. Pepper told me that, during much of his time in Rochester in the 1940s, many of the established Rochester musicians had left to fight in World War II. Acccording to Wikipedia, "Some 29,000 Rochester-area men were drafted into military service." The exodus of male Rochesterians created an opportunty for young players such as Adams to perform with much older musicians who remained. At the Elite Dance Hall, where Adams played in 1946 and half of 1947, that's precisely how it went. The band included former Jimmie Lunceford trumpet player, Ben "Smitty" Smith, and a cigar chomping pianist, Jimmy "The Lion" Stewart. Smith was 62 and Stewart, by all accounts, was close in age. Pepper liked to joke about his time in Rochester doing gigs at age 14-16. "If you could see over the bar," said Adams, "you could get a gig."

A little over an hour away from Rochester is Buffalo. In 1940, Buffalo was America's fourteenth largest city, bigger than New Orleans, Kansas City, Newark or Indianapolis. The US Census for 1950 puts Buffalo's population at 580,132, as compared to the other New York cities of Rochester (332,488), Syracuse (220,583) and Utica (101,531)—all dwarfed, of course, as compared to America's largest city, New York, then at 7,891,957. Buffalo was for many years, through at least the mid-1960s, an important part of the touring circuit that musicians regularly visited. In that way, Buffalo was a ribbon that connected cities of the Great Lakes with those on the East Coast. Rochester partook of musicians who toured through the larger cities into secondary- and tertiary-sized ones. At slightly more than half Buffalo's size, Rochester was not a small town. Just prior to America's involvement in World War II, as Wikipedia points out, "by 1940 the population had decreased to 324,975, the first drop since Rochester was founded. It was still the 23rd largest city in the United States."

I knew very little about Rochester in 1988, when I first stepped into the early-Rochester jazz history vacuum. My early moves were a flurry of interviews with people who knew Pepper in the 1941-47 war and postwar period. Much can be learned about that time simply by peeking at the "Early Years" chronology at pepperadams.com. I'm currently in the process of adding a wealth of new information to it. An update will be posted next week.

As for existing information about Rochester jazz, there is an important collection of material at the University of Rochester. The Hoeffler Collection is comprised of materials from Paul Hoeffler, an avid jazz fan and photographer who lived in Rochester and documented Rochester jazz from about 1955 until the mid-60s. (See http://www.lib.rochester.edu/index.cfm?page=3123) His work roughly corresponded with the early growth of Eastman's jazz program. Hoeffler was a very gifted photographer, trained by Ansel Adams, Minor White and others at Rochester Institute of Technology. Hoeffler went on to photograph musicians for Verve, Prestige, Blue Note and Mercury. His stills were used to a great extent in the Ken Burns multi-volume PBS documentary Jazz. Nevertheless, Hoeffler's Rochester work begins about eight years after Pepper moved to Detroit. I can't use it, except maybe to check on a few Adams gigs. As a corollary to Hoeffler's collection is the ongoing research being done by drummer Noal Cohen, who performed in Rochester from 1955-1961. He's assembled this site: http://www.attictoys.com/Rochester_jazz/Rochester_jazz_music.php

As I wrote last week about pre-1950s Rochester jazz, during the mid-1940s Pepper Adams and trombonist and future sociology professor Raymond Murphy were the best of friends, practicing once a week for more than three years and sharing many experiences around town. I've since learned much more about Murphy from Paul Remington, who serendipitously stumbled upon last week's blog post. It turns out that Remington and Murphy were very close friends too, and Remington wasn't aware, until he read my post, that Murphy had passed away in January, 2015. Remington was trying valiantly to locate Murphy and somehow my piece fell into his lap.

In not too different a way from how Murphy befriended Pepper Adams, here's Remington's account of Raymond Murphy:

"I was rather curious why this older man would accept me. I was just a twenty-three year old, working as an electrical assembler at the time. He never differentiated people based on status. It all came down to interests and commonalities. I was a fierce music lover with very ecumenical tastes. From 1987 to about 1998 we met weekly for dinner, then a night of jazz listening in his home. He had the largest music collection I have ever seen. I would guess he had close to 100,000 LPs and CDs. I was like a kid in a candy store every time I went in his basement, which is where he had everything very carefully stored and cataloged. It was amazing! Ray taught me the world of classical music, including opera. I would spend forty hours a week working on the line listening to classical stations, then write down every composer I liked. On Friday I would head to his home with the sheet of paper and show it to him. I remember one time he looked at it, his face stretched a wide grin, and he said, 'You have very esoteric tastes!' We’d head to his basement, and of course he had everything on my sheet of paper. He’d pull out things and play them for me, teach me, share material… It was fabulous! I’d come over on Saturday and we’d spend the entire day together, go to music stores, book stores, out to dinner, back to his place and play jazz and classical all night, sometimes into the early hours of the morning. Absolutely wonderful! He was a best friend, mentor, and a father figure all rolled into one. A wonderful man!"

Obviously, Raymond Murphy played a huge role as a mentor to both Paul Remington and, much earlier, Pepper Adams. I'll go into much more detail about Murphy vis-a-vis Rochester's early jazz scene in my Adams biography.

Despite my handwringing about the dearth of information about 1940s Rochester jazz, I'm relieved to say that several key musicians have emerged from my own research who would have been on the scene when Pepper was evolving in Rochester as a young musician. The most important of these, so far at least, are pianist Herbie Brock, trombonist/pianist Dave Remington and organist Doug Duke. Brock, a blind pianist and part-time tenor saxophonist, was arguably the dominant small-group musician in town. He was, according to Raymond Murphy, an Art Tatum disciple who was finally recorded first by Savoy in 1955. A piece done by Marc Myers on Brock (see http://www.jazzwax.com/2014/07/herbie-brock-brocks-tops.html) discusses Brock's recordings and his adoption of a Bud Powell type of pianism. From the little I've heard, Brock—much like Hank Jones, Barry Harris and other Detroit pianists of that period—moved away from an overt Tatum sensibility to a more streamlined, less orchestral, swinging, right-hand-dominated approach more akin to Powell. I'm looking forward to hearing more Brock soon.

As for Dave Remington, I've learned much about the Remington family just in the last few days from Paul Remington, his cousin. The Remingtons are a very distinguished Rochester family of musicians, going back to Emory Remington. A fascinating Wikipedia piece discusses Emory Remington's role as a pioneering trombone teacher at Eastman for some sixty years. One of his greatest pupils is jazz trombonist Jim Pugh. Obviously, Dave Remington had as a father the ultimate trombone teacher and I'm eagerly looking forward to hearing recordings that Paul will be providing of Dave Remington in action, including Chicago Shouts and Live at the Abbey. There's nothing at Google about either recording, nor, I'm afraid, much about Dave Remington.

This from Wikipedia about Papa Remington (see https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Remington):

"Emory Brace Remington (1892–1971) was a trombonist and music teacher. His unique method made him one of the most well-known and influential trombone educators in history. He was a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra from 1923 to 1949, and on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY from 1922 until his death in 1971."

This about Emory and Dave from Paul Remington:

"Emory taught Dave early in his life but Dave was a bit of a rebel. He didn’t want to be confined in the bowels of an orchestra all his life. His sister, Janet, took a different approach. She became a very successful harpist and was a staple of the Pittsburgh Symphony, which was, at one point, under the direction of Andre Previn. She embraced life in an orchestra. But Dave was a bit of a disappointment to Emory. He didn’t want to see Dave live the jazz lifestyle. Dave wanted the freedom that jazz offers. So he left Rochester. I’ll never forget seeing, at Emory’s funeral—which was massive, by the way—David sitting in the pew down from me with tears streaming down his face. I always wondered if he regretted the estrangement he had with his mother and father. I suppose we’ll never know. But he did receive his early training from Emory.

Dave started with trombone and moved to piano later in his life. He was a very good piano player—very talented. He could cross over from trombone to piano quite easily, so on some recordings he's playing piano while on others he's playing trombone. The other aspect of Dave you should know about is his abilities as a leader. He was a natural born leader with a vibrant personality. He could also be very opinionated. In his lifetime, he alienated many people, including three of his four sons. But in terms of musicianship, he had a triune of talents: piano, trombone and band leadership.

The Remington Exercises, developed by Emory, are taught in conservatories all over the world as standard trombone pedagogy. Emory also helped to redefine the physical instrument. He had a different vision for the trombone, and this vision formed a sensibility that was the bedrock of his teaching at Eastman. He wanted to see it elevated as a serious instrument, not just a circus instrument (as it was popularly used in the 19^th century). He invented the trombone choir, which is a standard arrangement for trombone formations that is stunning to listen to (in my opinion). Emory was a brilliant man with a natural gift for teaching."

As for Doug Duke, I've learned that Pepper sat in with his band c. 1947 at Squeezer's, a club in downtown Rochester. "Doug Duke," a stage name for Ovidio Fernandez, was Argentinian by birth and came to Rochester in 1920. He was a gifted organist in a Swing Era, pre-Jimmy Smith, Wild Bill Davis kind of style. Duke at one time toured with Lionel Hampton. In the late 1960s, years after Pepper left town, Duke ran The Music Room, a Rochester jazz club in suburban Charlotte, that brought in many great Swing musicians, such as Roy Eldridge and Coleman Hawkins. An informative site explains Duke's life and work: http://www.dougduke.com

(Emory Remington)

(Doug Duke)

(1953 Doug Duke date for Regent)

(1961 Herbie Brock date for Art)

(Herbie Brock c. 1956)

↧

The Frederick Douglass Voice and Other Ephemera

June 27, 2015, 3:22 pm

≫ Next: Letter to Noal

≪ Previous: The Early Rochester Jazz Scene

The family is away for a few weeks, giving me a great opportunity to get lots of Pepper work done. The first thing to do is to prepare for a follow-up interview with Dave Schiff, about whom I wrote a few weeks ago. Also, I’m going to listen again to my Rochester interviews to prepare for an interview with Paul Remington’s father, Frederick. Frederick is Rochester trombonist Dave Remington’s first cousin and a fine Tatum-influenced pianist in his own right. Frederick Remington was on the scene in the mid-1940s when Adams was in Rochester. He knew a lot of the important musicians, including pianist Herbie Brock. Additionally, he trained as a psychiatrist. As a musician and a student of behavior, he might have insights regarding the personalities of that time.

Along with Brock and Remington, the third leg of the 1940s-Rochester-musician stool is Doug Duke. I’m receiving from researcher Sheron Wahl a set of interviews that she did about Duke, most significantly with Paul Preo and Dick Mulhaney. Both knew Duke in 1945. Here’s what Wahl told me about Preo:

At some point along the way I met Paul Preo, a Kodak engineer who lived in Rochester NY and who discovered Doug Duke at Squeezer’s back in 1945. Paul loved tinkering with the latest recording devices available. He began recording Doug while he still worked at Joe Squeezer’s and continued to record him until shortly before Doug’s death. Discovering Paul Preo along with his hundreds of recordings and memories was like discovering a gold mine. Paul and I worked together gathering materials to develop the Doug Duke page.

Trying to learn more about that time in Rochester, and to contextualize everything that went on, I’ve been working to locate a run of the Frederick Douglass Voice, the most important Rochester black newspaper of the 20th Century. Thanks to University of Rochester research librarian Melissa Mead, who’s been extraordinarily helpful, I reached archivists at the Rochester Museum and Science Center. The Museum houses what seems to be a complete set of the newspaper. Generally referred to as The Voice, because it changed names several times, here’s an overview of its incredible 63-year pedigree:

The Voice: October, 1933- November, 1942

The Rochester Voice: June, 1943- December, 1947

The Voice of New York: January, 1948- November, 1949

The Frederick Douglass Voice: January, 1950- July, 1960

The New Negro Voice: December, 1960- January, 1961

The Rochester Voice: October, 1961- March, 1967

The Frederick Douglass Voice: July, 1967- May, 1996

One of the Museum’s librarians sent me a “Finding Aid” to their Coles Collection. From the Coles website is this description of Howard Wilson Coles: “The legacy that Coles has left through this collection is unparalleled, not only in this community but also in the nation. It sheds light on the remarkable career of a trailblazer in human rights activism, journalism, history and culture, and at the same time offers a sweeping look at 20th century America.”
See Coles Collection and

http://www3.rmsc.org/museum/exhibits/coles/Howard%20Coles%20info-1.htm

Because jazz researchers don’t know about this Collection, as my tribute to Howard Coles and the astounding (and probably little known) work he did, here’s an excerpt from the Finding Aid’s “Historical/Biographical Note” about him (with footnotes deleted and lightly edited):

“Howard Wilson Coles was born on November 12, 1903 in Belcoda, New York. His family came to the Rochester area from Culpepper, Virginia in the 1880s. Howard was the grandson of the Reverend Clayton A. Coles, former “body servant” of Confederate General Thomas (Stonewall) Jackson and later founder of the Second Baptist Church of Mumford in the 1890s. Howard was one of two sons born to Charles and Grace Coles. Howard spent his childhood in Mumford, New York, [not far from Rochester,] and attended Scottsville High School. By his own admission he was not interested in an education and left at the age of fifteen ’to work and earn money to buy his own things.’ (He later regretted his decision and earned a diploma in June, 1947 from East Evening High School in Rochester, New York.) After traveling throughout the Northeast in the 1920s, working as a hotel bellboy and a waiter, Coles returned to Rochester in the early 1930s and settled there for the remainder of his life.

Coles borrowed $2,800 from his life insurance policy in the early 1930s and with the help of Elsie Scott Kilpatrick established The Voicenewspaper. Coles published and distributed the newspaper throughout Western New York from 1933 through 1996 and, at its apex, circulation reached approximately 10,000 copies. Throughout the newspaper’s life he worked as a real estate agent, insurance sales agent and court attendant to earn enough money to support the publication of the newspaper. The Voice helped chronicle the lives of African-Americans throughout the Twentieth Century and has been recognized as the longest continuously published African-American newspaper in Rochester history.

In 1938, Coles became Rochester’s first African-American radio personality at local radio station WSAY. Over the next forty years, Howard developed several radio shows such as “The Vignettes,” “The Gospel Hour,” “The Bronze Trombones,” and “The King Coles Show.” These shows provided entertainment and served as a sounding board for relevant issues in the African-American community.

The unhealthy living conditions in Rochester under which some African-American families were forced to survive during the late 1930s may have started Coles on his lifelong activist role. The New York State Legislature credited Coles in 1938 with conducting the first documented housing survey of Rochester’s low-income families. Information he presented to the New York State Temporary Commission of the Condition of the Urban Colored Population was later published in the 1939 report. City Manager Baker appointed Coles to the City Wide Housing Committee of the City of Rochester to help alleviate the poor conditions documented in the survey.

In 1939, Coles published the City Directory of Negro Business and Progress, which documented the socioeconomic progress of Rochester’s African-American community since 1926. He also authored The Cradle of Freedom, a history of Rochester’s African-American community, which was published by Oxford Press in 1941. Coles compiled “The Negro Family in Rochester,” documenting the African-American community’s progress during a century of living in Rochester, and “Nomads of the South,” illustrating the journey of various migrant groups to upstate New York. Neither work was published in book form but there is evidence that both ran as serials in The Voicenewspaper. . . .

Coles married publicist, dramatist, and journalist Alma Kelso in 1940. The two worked diligently on The Voice and collaborated on several other projects until they divorced in the late 1940s. . . .

On December 10, 1996, Coles died of complications from pneumonia. Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr. and several other ministers eulogized him at the historic Mt. Olivet Baptist Church, located in Rochester, New York. Coles has been called a “trailblazer” and the heir to his hero, Frederick Douglass.”

I’ve yet to determine the extent of Coles’ coverage of Rochester’s black entertainment scene but I’m intrigued by its possibilities and encouraged by the fact that Coles had several radio shows. It looks like I’ll be spending some time at the Museum when I’m in Rochester!

(Howard Wilson Coles in the studio of radio station WSAY)

↧

Letter to Noal

July 4, 2015, 3:37 pm

≫ Next: 8-Tracks Galore!

≪ Previous: The Frederick Douglass Voice and Other Ephemera

Here's a post in the form of a letter. I sent it to Rochester drummer and author Noal Cohen, who has helped me with my research of early Rochester jazz. Cohen currently lives in New Jersey, but worked with Chuck Mangione and Ron Carter in Rochester when he lived there in the late 1950s. He's the esteemed coauthor of Rat Race Blues, the biography of Gigi Gryce.

Hi Noal: I'm making great progress on the early days. I'll be doing one last interview tomorrow night with 88-year-old Fred Remington, Dave Remington's first cousin. He was a Tatum-style pianist who became a psychiatrist. He knew all the cats in the 1940s, including Herbie Brock. I'm hopeful he can put a useful spin on that time and answer some of my remaining questions.

With my various interviews, I now have a composite of those times, including how bop was slowly incorporated into Rochester's music. I'll be writing it up in a blog post. That post will also include some other research I've done about Rochester jazz in the early 1950s--not germane to my Pepper biography, of course--but it will include a mention of a clique of musicians, Jon Hendricks among them, and so forth.

It doesn't sound like the Frederick Douglass Voice covered the jazz scene. In my interview with saxophonist Ralph Dickinson, who read the paper then, he said that his six-month gig at the Elite wasn't mentioned in the Voice. Considering that, it seems doubtful it ever was mentioned during the time Pepper played in the band. Because of that, I've decided not to visit the Rochester Museum and peruse back issues. I have descriptions of the Elite from two different sources and that will suffice. The building and general area was torn down to build the Inner Loop [highway], so I'm not even visiting it to take photographs. I also get the sense that Howard Coles' radio shows were gospel oriented and inspirational in nature, plus I guess he relied on his sources and his newspaper work to also speak about affairs of the day?

The radio shows that would interest me are Raymond Murphy programs on WRNY in 1946 and '47, if any exist, because Pepper had some input into their preparation and listened to them while in high school. I've been told that a large collection of old radio programs are housed at St. John Fisher College. I'm researching that to see if they possibly exist, but it's a long shot indeed.

I've also been in touch with a blues harpist, Tom Hanney, who is on the faculty of RIT and is doing original research on the blues scene in Rochester. It looks like it doesn't go back that far, but, very significantly, Son House lived in obscurity in Rochester from the early 1940s until he was rediscovered by Alan Wilson of Canned Heat in the mid-1960s. I've asked Tom to try to determine whether House got any press or even occasionally surfaced to do a gig here and there when Pepper lived in Rochester. At this point, it seems doubtful but we'll see.

The series from the D&C [newspaper], "Whatever Happened to . . . ," gives me all sorts of color about what Rochester was like in the first half of the century. I'll be relying on that to give my chapter some more depth. There's a monograph written by Curt Gerling called Smugtown that was published in the 1940s in the American Journal of Sociology that I'd like to see. It measures the moral index of Rochester (disguised by the euphemism "Gorge City.")

An important urban history of Rochester was written in four volumes by Blake McKelvey, originally by Harvard U. Press. That's also something I'd like to check out. Volume 4 seems like the one I want.

Lastly, I'll be getting a thumb drive of info from Doug Duke researcher Sheron Dixon Wahl with all sorts of data on it. Clearly, Duke was one of the pioneers of the jazz organ and important in that way. He played for many years at Squeezer's.

I'll write my last historical blog post about Rochester, then send you the link. I'd be pleased if you could add it with my other ones to your site. It will in some ways be the core of my RIT talk on October 21.

All the best,

Gary Carner

pepperadams.com

(Drummer Noal Cohen)

↧

© Gary Carner. Copyright Protected. All rights reserved.