Search - Art Pepper :: Unreleased Art, Vol. 4, Pts. 1-3

These are precious discs, been playing them continually for days. Art's playing never fails to destroy me, always greasy funky as the devil but lyrical & soaringly sweet. Love the liner notes too, behind-the-scenes, honest as hell, they give us great insight into what was happening.
DAVID RITZ, Co-Author of   BROTHER RAY - RAY CHARLES, ARETHA: FROM THESE ROOTS, RHYTHM AND THE BLUES - JERRY WEXLER and many others. 3-CD SET TRACES PEPPER S DEVELOPMENT FROM POLL-WINNING EARLY DAYS WITH STAN KENTON TO THE WILD, SWEET PERSONAL MUSIC OF HIS OWN BANDS AT THE END Art Pepper played the most autobiographical instrumental music in the world. The 17 selections on the forthcoming Widow s Taste release, The Art History Project, describe the emotional and musical evolution of an artist as he reacted, always intensely, to the events of his own life and to the events of the music world in general. The program begins in 1950 ("Art Pepper" with Stan Kenton) and concludes with tracks from a previously unreleased New York gig, featuring Stanley Cowell, George Mraz, and Ben Riley, played just two months before Pepper s June 1982 death. The 3-CD set, lovingly compiled by the alto saxophonist s widow, Laurie, includes a 20-page booklet filled with previously unpublished photographs as well as anecdotes, impressions, and information from her life with Art and from the book they wrote together, Straight Life. But the musical emphasis throughout is more on Art than on history. No track has been included purely for its historical value. Each performance is of good-to-excellent audio quality, all have been remastered by the truly masterly Wayne Peet., and together they embody the heights and depths Art felt and could convey. Disc 1. Pure Art is a story told by the young fellow who placed second only to Charlie Parker in the Downbeat polls, and who, by his own account, musically, at least, had the world by the tail.That, "at least" is typical Art Pepper. Nothing was ever was quite perfect enough. Nothing was ever quite right. He began to use drugs during this period, in an effort to escape the universal lack that prodded and plagued him. This disc is mostly "West Coast Jazz" with all its contrapuntal cleverness and loveliness though Art always brought to it his own poignant edge of adrenaline; it was never glib. Many of the tunes are Art's originals. Sidemen here include Warne Marsh and Jack Sheldon. This music is sublime and really timeless, says Laurie. Disc 2. Hard Art consists of mostly unreleased material from a rehearsal recorded at Contemporary Studios in 1964 a few weeks after Art's first release from San Quentin. It reveals his love for Coltrane and for the new sound of jazz. Art's songs still swing and have moments of lyricism, but he uses the license given him by freer musical conventions to express the grief, anger, and alienation he felt in the midst of serving what seemed like an only-occasionally-interrupted life sentence -- doing time in jails and prisons just for using drugs. Disc 3. Consummate Art is just that. This is a narrative of reconciliation. In this music, most of which has never been released, Art embraces his past and his pain in music that is delicate, lively, and touching, and, at the same time, free: It rages and celebrates. That edge of desperation is still there, but Art has found a way to use it. He is again at the top of the jazz polls, respected and even adored, playing all over the world. He is "A knowing athlete, trained and poised" (Gary Giddins The Village Voice)