For many jazz fans, the high point of Art Pepper’s late-’70s comeback was a fournight stand at New York’s Village Vanguard that was recorded for Contemporary Records and released, at first, as four albums, and later as a nine-CD set. These rangy, sometimes raucous performances with pianist George Cables, bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones, captured the questing, Coltrane-inflected sound of his later years, while still reflecting the lyric, bop schooled virtuosity of his early work.
This 3 CD set (Vol. 10) from Widows Taste just released may well be among the most interesting and historically significant, as any in the series. On June 16, 1977, Art appeared with a quartet at the Bourbon Street club in Toronto. It is a dry run for those sessions recorded six weeks before the Vanguard shows and it finds Pepper in front of a different rhythm section, but obtaining much the same results.
- Art Pepper - alto saxophone
- Bernie Senensky - piano
- Gene Perla, Dave Piltch - bass
- Terry Clarke - drums
Recorded at Bourbon Street, Toronto on June 16, 1977.
CD1 {01:00:36}
01. A Song for Richard (Gordon) - 16:55
02. Long Ago & Far Away (Kern-Gershwin) - 13:25
03. Here's That Rainy Day (Van Heusen-Burke) - 10:20
04. Blues for Heard (Pepper) - 4:19
05. What Is This Thing Called Love? (Porter) - 15:37
CD2 {00:50:48}
01. All the Things You Are (Kern-Hammerstein) - 17:02
02. Band Intros - 2:23
03. The Summer Knows (Legrand-Bergman-Bergman) - 16:53
04. I'll Remember April (DePaul-Raye-Johnston) - 14:30
CD3 {01:03:11}
01. Samba Mom Mom (Pepper) - 17:43
02. Star Eyes (DePaul-Raye) - 12:29
03. Art Pepper Interview - 32:59
