Customer Reviews

The Return of Art Pepper: The Complete Art Pepper Aladdin Recordings: Volume 1

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This album embodies the West Coast Cool sound of the late 50's/early 60's. Pepper is unfailingly melodic and lays back behind the beat. It's much different than the explosive approach of Charlie Parker. "Your Mean to Me" which includes vibes is a perfect example of the ambience. "Mambo de la Pinta" is a great pick-me-up. My mood is always better after hearing that selection. If you like straight-ahead melodic jazz of that era I think you will enjoy this album. A wonderful musician expressing a particular time and place.

A great album and no doubt about it. Most notable for me are "You Go To My Head", "Patricia" & "Mambo De La Pinta". Art's control and subtlety of expression in his ballad playing is on another level - to the point, unsentimental and emotionally charged. On "Mambo De La Pinta", Art again displays absolute fluency with a understated rhythmic punch typical of his style. On this album, as with so many of his recordings, Pepper never overplays. Great musical conviction and clarity.

My vinyl copy of this is badly warped, so it's a pleasure to have the digital version. With an artist as prolific as Art Pepper was it's hard to come right out and say that any collection of tracks was his BEST, but this is one the things I listen to most often. Both volumes are highly recommended, and by rights should be packaged in one jewel case. For anyone new to Pepper, check out "Yardbird Suite," "Straight Life," or "You Go To My Head" (or anything else on this CD for that matter) for proof that he was a first-echelon bopper.

The Aladdin sessions represent Pepper at close to his peak (technically speaking--some prefer the raw emotionalism and altissimo shrieks of the later, 1970s Pepper recordings). The prize out of this uniquely successful bunch made for a tiny, "audiophile" label, is the one with the supremely gifted, heroic, innovative Carl Perkins on piano. The chemistry between Pepper and Perkins is explosive, resulting in some of Art's best playing on records, more memorable than "Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section." The only hitch is audio quality. On my two copies (ordered 2 years apart) of this frequently remastered and ultimately digitalized session, the piano is slightly distorted (tantamount to a tragedy in the case of the glorious, rhapsodic touch of Perkins), and the ride cymbal sounds like a trash can (fortunately Chuck Flores goes with brushes most of the way through).

Few dates have confused me more than "the Aladdin sessions" (which one?). The album "Return of Art Pepper" can be recommended primarily for the playing of trumpeter Jack Sheldon, who had a personal, inimitable tone and technique no less impressive than the same of Carl Perkins. This album, unfortunately, does not include Carl Perkins. But the recorded sound is also better. This one can be recommended not for the presence of Carl Perkins (Russ Freeman is a gifted but far less brilliant, creative pianist), but the utterly remarkable, facile, clean and articulate playing of the sadly underrated Jack Sheldon. The album is out of print and dearly priced, so do yourself a favor and download a few of the tunes--especially "Straight Life" and some of the up-tempo, humorous and latin numbers--to marvel at the precision of the ensemble playing and the unbroken excellence of the solos by both horn players.

I believe the priceless session with Perkins is simply called "The Aladdin Sessions, Vol. 3".

For the best of all possible worlds, the one to own is: "The Curtis Counce Sessions." You won't encounter the alto of Pepper but the tenor of Harold Land, about whom some critics and musicians at the time felt there was none better--no small claim at a time when Rollins and Coltrane along with numerous other descendants of Hawk and Prez were in full bloom. In addition to Perkins and Land is the peerless trumpet of Sheldon, the practically incredible percussion work of Frank Butler, and the exacting leadership of bassist Curtis Counce. The music this quintet made together rivals that of the Miles Davis Quintet and, in some instances, surpasses it.