Customer Reviews

Roadgame

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Art announces the first tune, a blues in B flat, by saying "This will be our last chance, so it's got to be the best one." Recorded a year before his death, this "live," in-person session conveys what was unique about Pepper. He doesn't sound as cohesive or fluent as on his late 1950s work, but there's a strange "emotional logic" to his solos that's suggestive of an artist in quest of the moment of truth. It seems as though he's working more with sound and emotions than melodic/harmonic invention, as each of his solos consists of fragmented motifs climaxing in a sudden, brief moment of sonic illumination.

A big bonus on the album is Art's clarinet solo on "When You're Smiling." Instead of the glib fluency associated with the renowned saints of the instrument--Goodman, Shaw, DeFranco--Art comes closer to the raw emotional quality of a Pee Wee Russell.

All in all, a memorable last set, well worth hanging around for.

Art Pepper has been my favorite alto player for forty years and for good reason. If you're at all familiar with his later work this album won't be a surprise as ALL of his output on Galaxy Records was excellent. If you're new to Art's music this might just be a great place to start. For starters he's featured with the only "official" Art Pepper Quartet of his career and one he was extremely proud of (and who wouldn't be). Pepper really had two careers: the one that began in the early 1940s when he started playing on Central Ave. in Los Angeles sitting in, as a teenager, with big bands such as the legendary Benny Carter. This ultimately led to his landing an alto chair with Stan Kenton in his early days at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa Beach, California. Art wasn't a schooled musician and actually had to have his sax side-kicks play his parts for him to memorize as he wasn't able to sight read his parts. Then a stint in the Army after which he rejoined Kenton. He cut some of his most famous material with Stanley's orchestra (see "Stan Kenton Presents...Art Pepper" on CD. By the early fifties Art Pepper was recognized as one of the leading sax men in the business. As a matter of fact, he finished only a few votes short of beating Charlie Parker for top alto spot in two Downbeat magazine polls in the mid-fifties. Pepper always felt that he was the victim of reverse discrimination in that the most popular jazz players of the day were black (all of this info comes from the essential oral-autobiography "Straight Life" written by Art with his beloved wife Laurie...who actually did most of the writing while Art talked. It's been called by more than one critic one of the two best jazz autobios ever written (along with that of Jelly Roll Morton. Available from Amazon). He dreamed for decades of seeing his picture on the cover of Downbeat but it was not to be until the week after he died in the early 1980s. Pepper was absent from music during most of the seventies due to drug addiction and resultant incarceration. But he came back stronger than ever leaving a string of highly desirable LPs on Contemporary Records. Also don't miss his solos on Buddy Rich's great album "Mercy, Mercy" recorded live in Vegas shortly after Art was discovered working as a baker and living over said bakery in the L.A. area. A feature story in the Los Angeles Times led to countless offers from the jazz world for Art to return. A major instrument company surprised him with a complete set of their finest instruments, from altos to tenors to clarinets. This began the second career and we're all better off because of it.

This album features, along with Mr. Pepper, the fabulous (adjectives are insufficient) George Cables on piano, the equally talented Carl Burnett on drums and the sublime bass playing of David Williams. The CD/LP consists of four top drawer, extended jazz tracks but one very special ballad number. I've found five references to this one track in five different books on jazz including "Straight Life." His take on the classic Matt Dennis-Tom Adair tune "Everything Happens to Me" is so wonderful...and unbelievable at the same time...that it must be heard to be appreciated as any words or praise are bound to miss the mark. Cables solo is...well, simply beautiful. David Williams proves to be a world class bassman and Burnett smokes in ballad tempo. Art did a take, live at the Galaxy, that is a keeper for the ages. He plays softly and sweetly...he honks...wheezes...swings...and takes it home leaving the listener completely worn out and a fan for life. Don't pass this up. That one ten plus minute track is worth the cost alone but the entire CD is brilliant. Must hear! (By the way, Art was so proud of this quartet due to the other three members being black men with him being the only white. This was the realization of his dream of acceptance within the jazz world. He was accepted as an equal, in his mind, even though it was his group.) Like Mozart, Art Pepper has no serious detractors.

Joe M. Hayes
Del Mar. CA




















Joe M. Hayes
Del Mar, CA