Pepper Adams' Joy Road - (Studies in Jazz) by Gary Carner (Paperback)

About the Book

Pepper Adams' Joy Road not only compiles the sessions and gigs of the greatest baritone saxophone soloist in history, but it's a fascinating overview of Adams' life and times through colorful interviews with Adams and other musicians. These candid observations open a window on...

Book Synopsis

Pepper Adams' Joy Road not only compiles the sessions and gigs of the greatest baritone saxophone soloist in history, but it's a fascinating overview of Adams' life and times through colorful interviews with Adams and other musicians. These candid observations open a window onto the behind-the-scenes drama that surrounded legendary recordings by John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Pearson, Thad Jones, David Amram, Elvin Jones, and many others.

Review Quotes

A 2012 Holiday Gift Guide Choice!

This book is a comprehensive listing of the baritone saxophonist's recordings, often expanded upon with illuminating comments and interviews.


Good discographies are certainly very useful tools, but it is highly uncommon for a discography, even an annotated one, to also qualify as a good read. But Pepper Adams' Joy Road most definitely is. It brings the man as well as his music to life. Read--and listen--well!

In recent years a few exemplary discographies have appeared that enhance the original purpose of the discography (namely, to list recordings) by adding information of a biographical nature or details about the music. Gary Carner's thick work on baritone saxophone player Pepper Adams belongs to this new species of discographies that provide much more than dates and facts. In the mid-1980s Carner worked together with Adams on his autobiography and after Adams died in 1986, Carner interviewed many of Adams's colleagues that had either made music with him or met him in the studio. With the help of many friends of discography he discovered several unpublished recordings.... Carner's Pepper Adams' Joy Road is a definitive book on baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams.


In 1984, while recuperating from a leg injury, baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams was visited by Gary Carner, who was at the time a City College of New York graduate student researching a thesis on Adams' life and works. The temporarily incapacitated Adams was happy to relate stories to his student biographer, but plans to publish his memoirs were shelved when Adams was diagnosed with lung cancer. Adams passed away in 1986, and while he did see a version of Carner's manuscript, it's doubtful he would have imagined the massive collection of material Carner has released 26 years after the saxophonist's death. First is an annotated discography "Pepper Adams' Joy Road" (Scarecrow) which in its 552 pages lists Adams' entire recorded history, including unissued sessions dating back to 1947, and several filmed appearances. In addition, Carner produced a series of recordings that present all 43 of Adams' compositions, and commissioned lyrics for seven of the ballads.


The work Carner has put into this is just unmeasureable, truly staggering, and does justice to a neglected giant, a musician respected by his peers, for his harmonic prowess, his energy with the larger saxophone, his enthusiasm for music, his imagination... like drummer Bill Goodwin describes him: "someone who played as if there was no tomorrow; at all times!"


This book is peppered with interviews with Adams and other great musicians as well as vignettes drawn from the author's conversations with Adams. There are many behind-the-scenes anecdotes of other famous musicians, including john Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, and Duke Pearson....This first comprehensive discography to the works of Pepper Adams is a valuable addition to the jazz research literature.


This is an overwhelming work of research that goes well beyond the usual concept of a discography, or even annotated discography. Carner's dedication to documenting this under-honored musical giant shines throughout the book. Fans of Adams and jazz will be both greatly satisfied, and left wanting more as Carner finishes what will surely be a masterful biography.

This is, on the surface, a book-sized discography, a listing of all known recordings of the great baritone saxophonist Pepper Adams. But the academic-sounding discography category does not adequately describe the exhaustive work that author Gary Carner has done to tell the story of Adams' life in what amount to a gig-by-gig, session-by-session biography.


When I received a copy of Pepper Adams' Joy Road, I opened it at random, out of curiosity. I had not been terribly involved in Adams' work -- coming from a long immersion in Harry Carney and Ernie Caceres, among others. But I stood in the middle of the living room, reading eagerly for a half hour, before remembering that a) I could sit down, and b) other tasks had to be taken care of. If a book can 'stop me in my tracks, ' it is one I will read, keep, and value.

About the Author

Gary Carner, an independent jazz researcher, is the author of Jazz Performers and The Miles Davis Companion. From 1984 until Adams's death in 1986, Carner collaborated with Pepper Adams on his memoirs. Carner's research on Adams spans four decades.