Search - Art Pepper :: Trip

This CD is mindblowing!

02/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is definitely one of Art Pepper's greatest records. Everybody in the quartet is outstanding. Great to hear Art interacting with the great Elvin Jones. Pepper mixes sensitive ballad playing with hard edged blowing that shows the Coltrane influence that he picked up on. You can really hear this cat's life come out of the horn, including his many years in jails like San Quentin.
This is as good as it gets!"

Fantastic listening

01/15/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"as a long-time art pepper fan, i can say that this album is at the very heart of pepper's playing. His raw and rich sound is as obvious as ever on this album, and is a definite must-have for all those people out there who consider themselves to be loyal pepper fans."

Other planes of there

Matthew Watters | Vietnam | 07/16/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If the monumental Village Vanguard box set is the most important single document from Pepper's post-San Quentin 'comeback' period, The Trip has to rate as the greatest studio album of this part of his career. Driven by Elvin Jones' hypnotic drumming, the title track is one of the most amazing things Pepper ever did. It has this 'acid jazz' quality and also reminds me of Coltrane's "Ole", an impression reinforced by OJC's habit of inserting bonus tracks directly into the running order of its reissues. Thus heard back-to-back, the two versions of "The Trip" here tend to meld naturally into one long space-out, similar to the Trane piece. The effect is utterly transporting, able to lull this listener into an almost trance-like state. The other cuts hew closer to other things Pepper was doing in the 70s, but his longtime partner George Cables and Pepper himself sound particularly inspired on this outing, perhaps due to the presence of Jones, who would go on to back Pepper for the Vanguard dates. The Trip is one of my favourite Art Pepper records, and this is a man who recorded an unusually high number of beautiful albums. A must-own CD, and one Trip I would eagerly recommend be taken by even the most casual of jazz fans."