Straight Life

Art Pepper | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 1, 1991)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ojc
• ASIN: B000000YQN
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #126,315 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Surf Ride

2. Nature Boy

3. Straight Life

4. September Song

5. Make a List (Make a Wish)

6. Long Ago (And Far Away) [*]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Late Pepper Masterpiece, July 1, 2003

By 

John Stark (Bellingham, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Straight Life (Audio CD)

The sensitive interplay between Art Pepper, Tommy Flanagan, Billy Higgins and Red Mitchell make this 1979 session a classic from Art Pepper's "late" period, when he emerged from the seemingly irreversible oblivion of heroin and prison to once again scale the musical heights he had reached earlier in recordings such as "Modern Art."
Art Pepper was not a jazz pioneer. He invented no new approaches to the music, and it is too easy to deconstruct his playing into the sum of influences that are obvious to educated ears.
On this recording (and on nearly everything else he ever recorded) he demonstrates that the greatness of a jazz performance is based on far more than the daring innovations that win critical accolades and ample space in books and essays on the history of jazz.
Pepper's performance on "September Song" demonstrates what really matters in jazz: eloquent expression of emotion. Pepper poured his heart and soul into this ballad, as his own days dwindled down to a precious few. His solos here -- along with incandescent solo breaks from Flanagan and Mitchell -- are among the most heartrending things he ever did.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Favorite Pepper Album, August 8, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Straight Life (Audio CD)

I cannot hope to improve on John Stark's very perceptive and eloquent review. But I would like to second it.

This is the finest album from Pepper's late period, and my personal favorite. His renditions of Kurt Weill's "September Song" and Eden Ahbez's "Nature Boy," in particular, are hauntingly lovely and heartbreaking, with superbly delicate solos from pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Red Mitchell (the most shamefully underrated bassist in jazz history), and thoughtful brushwork, as always, from drummer Billy Higgins. The hugely enjoyable "Make A List" sounds like a Latin-tinged Vince Guaraldi tune, and the rollicking version of Pepper's classic tune "Straight Life" presented here is definitive.

I have listened to this album at least 100 times over the past year: it never fails to move me deeply. A real treasure.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What Great Jazz Is All About, March 23, 2004

By 

Tom Dellums (Detroit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Straight Life (Audio CD)

This is a great album, really deep and heartfelt, like everything Art Pepper did. The other soloists--Flanagan, Mitchell, Higgins--are just as great as Pepper, really subtle and responsive. The tracks "Nature Boy" and "September Song" are particularly touching--not stale old standards, but transmuted into something profound. It's like hearing them for the first time. I love this album.