Search - Art Pepper :: Hollywood All Star Sessions

The Hollywood All-Star Sessions chronicle an important part of Art Pepper's comeback in the late '70s, when the altoist was surmounting years of heroin addiction and imprisonment to play with renewed energy and an impassioned creativity. His Complete Galaxy Recordings from the period have already been collected in a 16-CD set, but Pepper was also recording for the small Japanese label Atlas, appearing as "sideman" on a series of sessions that he usually led in all but name. This five-CD set gathers music from seven LPs recorded between 1979 and 1982, sessions that haven't been issued in the U.S. on CD, and adds two unissued alternate takes and an insightful essay by Laurie Pepper, Art's widow. The Atlas intention was to recapture the flavor of West Coast jazz of the '50s, and the label matched Peeper with associates and material that would suggest the earlier era. Nominal leaders of the Hollywood All-Stars included West Coast veterans such as trumpeter Jack Sheldon, drummer Shelly Manne, and pianist Pete Jolly, as well as the younger trombonist Bill Watrous, with Pepper himself as the only constant. The material emphasizes standards and jazz tunes from the earlier era, and the group style is suavely relaxed, often with touches of counterpoint. If Pepper's intensity had always marked him as something of an outsider in the cool school, it was also an inspiration: this is small-group modern jazz that's often as lively as it is polished, with Pepper prodding Sheldon, Watrous, and tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper to outdo themselves. Pepper's ballad playing had a uniquely visceral quality and it often stands out here, especially in a quartet session under pianist Pete Jolly's name, with Pepper unfettered by other horns. There are also meetings with two other giants of modern jazz alto, Sonny Stitt and Lee Konitz. The sessions with Stitt produced two LPs, with the focus strongly on blues and bop. It's spirited music, with Stitt's Parker-like lines contrasting with Pepper's alternately jagged and convoluted phrasing. If Stitt challenged Pepper's competitiveness, then Konitz ignited his imagination. Recorded just five months before Pepper's death, it's an encounter between two of the genuine improvisers, each shaping music anew with every gesture, phrase, and inflection, whether the material at hand is as novel as Konitz's "A Minor Blues in F" or as hackneyed as "Anniversary Song." --Stuart Broomer