Customer Reviews

Straight Life

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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.

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.

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.

What everyone else has said here, I wholeheartedly endorse. This is a hauntingly beautiful album, and every real jazz fan knows this. Pepper bares his soul and breaks your heart, and everyone involved--pianist Tommy Flanagan, bassist Red Mitchell, drummer Billy Higgins--seems to have recognized that this session was something special: None of these great musicians has ever sounded better or more committed than they do here. This is Art's cri de coeur, his tragic lament for a wasted life, his proud determination to make amends. He reaches deep and gives us the most moving performances ever. Thank you, Art, and may your troubled soul rest in peace.

This is one of the definitive records made by altoist Art Pepper. Eventhough Art had many personal problems, he managed to consistently produce records of a very high calibre.

The music here is either furious and up tempo (Surf Ride, Straight Life) or immensely emotional. Close the lights, sit back and listen to "Nature Boy" and "September Song". They will blow you away with emotion as Art explores and searches with his sax. If this does not move your heart then nothing will.

This is simply brilliant and passionate music which few other artists could match.