Gary Carner’s Pepper Adams’ Joy Road includes annotations with detailed biographical information and can, among many other things, serve as a collector’s guide to Adams’ recordings or as a source of information for research about this iconic American jazz baritone saxophonist and composer. The author’s interviews with Pepper Adam’s associates imbue the annotations with a wealth of previously unpublished information.
This discography covers professional and non-professional recordings involving Pepper Adams from 1947 to 1986, both issued and non-issued. Carner includes audience tapes, film, videotapes, TV and radio broadcasts, private recordings, overdubs, 78s, 45s, 16rpms, EPs, LPs, 45rpm LPs, and CDs. He excludes issues on 8-track or cassette tape.
The discography is divided into five chapters by career period. All entries are in chronological order of recording session date and time. Each entry includes group leader or ensemble name, album name, author-assigned alphanumeric code derived from the session’s recording date, recording date, location, personnel (with instrumentation), titles recorded, title’s original issue with label information and record company matrix numbers, titles with Adams solos, annotation with known reissues and supporting historical data derived mostly from the author’s interviews with Adams’ associates. There are two appendices. The first lists sessions in which Adams served as leader or co-leader, and the second lists broadcasts and recordings that no longer survive. Carner also provides a bibliography, a filmography, and an integrated index.
Published by the Scarecrow Press, this book won the ARSC award for best jazz discography in 2013.
Abraham Myler, research assistant