Book review (sort of): Gary Garner - Reflectory, The Life and Music of Pepper Adams

Not a review of a complete book although, had I had a  bricks and mortar copy to read in bed I'd have still been reading come breakfast time and savouring each word better than anything Kellogg's could have served up but, 527 pages online is a tall order for anyone.

However, I read enough in the first couple of lengthy chapters to realise that this is one of the better biographies - maybe even the best.

Garner has avoided the time-honoured biographer's route that begins when the subject is born and ends with his/her death. Instead, the writer has intermingled the facts with the observations of Pepper's friends, mentors and musical colleagues. They all reach the same conclusion - as did the author and myself - that Adams was one of the greatest jazz baritone saxophonists in modern jazz. This is, of course, indisputable but there's much more to the book than that.

The intriguing memories of the background in which he lived and worked (in his early days he worked in record stores - welcome to the club - before his career took off). The racial abuse he faced in Detroit as a white man hanging out with black musicians. His mother's relationships with young musicians, his first bari (a Selmer Bundy), learning to project and get a big sound. Interestingly, he never played a bari with a low A on the grounds that it made the instrument too heavy. As I gleaned all this in the opening chapters I'll leave you to surmise how much more there is to follow ...

It may seem somewhat presumptuous of me to recommend such a lengthy tome on the strength of the first 100 pages but I'm confident that the other 400 won't be a letdown.

I'll be catching up on them ... Lance

Gary Garner - Reflectory, The Life and Music of Pepper Adams. © 2021 Gary Garner ISBN [978-329-49156-4]