Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.10: Toronto (3 CD, 2018/FLAC)

 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 - Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section (stereo 1957-2021) [24-192]

By the time of this, Art Pepper's tenth recording as a leader, he was making his individual voice on the alto saxophone leave the cozy confines of his heroes Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. Joining the Miles Davis rhythm section of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones made the transformation all that more illuminating. It's a classic east meets west, cool plus hot but never lukewarm combination that provides many bright moments for the quartet during this exceptional date from that great year in music, 1957. 

• Art Pepper - alto saxophone
• Red Garland - piano
• Paul Chambers - bass
• Philly Joe Jones - drums

01 - You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To 05:26

02 - Red Pepper Blues 03:39

03 - Imagination 05:54

04 - Waltz Me Blues 02:58

05 - Straight Life 04:01

06 - Jazz Me Blues 04:49

07 - Tin Tin Deo 07:44

08 - Star Eyes 05:14

09 - Birks Works 04:19

Art Pepper - 12 Classic Albums 1954-1962 (6 CD, 2015, FLAC)

 

This six CD set contains the 12 albums, in their newly digitised, re-mastered glory, that Pepper released between 1954 and 1962, the period during which he undoubtedly made the finest music of his career. Showcasing the most exhilarating and challenging work Art ever produced, the collection demonstrates lucidly why this pioneering musician continues to receive such vast acclaim and praise in the jazz community.

 

Art Pepper - Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings [5 CD, 2019] (FLAC-HD + 320)

 

Art Pepper had had a brilliant career as a jazz soloist and band leader until the mid-1950s when he started using heroin. After that, incarcerations and treatments in prisons and hospitals, kept him off the stages and out of the studios. He was only able to record sporadically until he got (relatively) sober in Synanon in 1972, and married Laurie—me. Then, in the last ten years of his life, he composed, recorded, and toured more ambitiously than ever before, focused on securing his place among the true jazz greats—where he knew he belonged.”

Art Pepper - The Complete Galaxy Recordings (1978-1982) [16 CD, 1989] [FLAC]

 THE COMPLETE GALAXY RECORDINGS contains 16 CDs worth of material recorded by Art Pepper during his 1978 to 1982 tenure with the Galaxy record label. This box set has 137 selections, including 53 previously unreleased tracks, with a total running time of 18 hours and 39 minutes. Also included is a 28-page booklet with an essay by Gary Giddins and rarely seen photos of Pepper from this period.

Personnel includes: Art Pepper (saxophone); Carl Burnett, George Cables, Ron Carter, Stanley Cowell, Tony Dumas, Tommy Flanagan, Al Foster, Charlie Haden, Roy Haynes, Billy Higgins, Hank Jones, Cecil McBee, Red Mitchel, Kenneth Nash, Howard Roberts, David Williams.

 

 

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.8: Live at the Winery September 6, 1976 (2013/FLAC)

 Live At The Winery, September 6, 1976 is made up of six songs inner-dispersed with Pepper's grateful and sincere stage banter. The disc opens with possibly Pepper's most passionate reading of the Juan Tizol classic "Caravan." Written for the Duke Ellington orchestra, "Caravan" was composed with a Middle Eastern flavor in mind, but in the hands of Pepper and local pianist Smith Dobson, it is a samba bullet shot from a Latin jazz gun. Pepper gives a long introduction before steering into the familiar theme, fighting a guerrilla war for the next ten minutes of exhilarating performance.

 

 

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.7: Sankei Hall - Osaka, Japan, November 18, 1980 (2 CD, 2012/FLAC)

 Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. VII presents Pepper's November 18, 1980 show in Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan. This show was presented at the halfway point of Pepper's Japan tour, which took place between Pepper's appearances on trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's Mistrial (Liberty, 1980) and drummer Shelly Manne's Hollywood Jam (Atlas, 1981) and shortly after the release of his strings album Winter Moon (Galaxy, 1980). The concert was recorded using a cassette recorder and remastered by Wayne Peet, providing a sound that is surprisingly good for an audience recording. For purists, this is not soundboard quality, but it turns out that it is okay.

Pepper's set lists are typical of the period. "Cherokee" and "Over the Rainbow" are present as are Pepper originals "Landscape" and a very fast "Straight Life." Pepper's clarinet piece is "Avalon" (he often reprised his take on "Anthropology" from Art Pepper + Eleven (Contemporary, 1959). The real treat is perhaps the only live performance of "Winter Moon" from Pepper's with strings recording of the same title . Pepper is in comfortable company, making this concert a very good one indeed.

Pepper was touring with two of his favorite sidemen, pianist George Cables, who Pepper called "Mr. Beautiful" and drummer Carl Burnett, who Pepper greatly admired. Bassist Tony Dumas replaced Pepper's previous bassist Bob Magnusson, who had retired from touring to be with his family. Amply talented, Tony Dumas was not Bob Magnusson, a fact that glares when comparing the performance of "Make a List (Make a Wish)" here with Magnusson's on Art Pepper: Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. III—The Croydon Concert, May 14, 1981. But no matter, Dumas still adds plenty of swing to the festivities, making Pepper's working unit a fine one.

Cable's presence here steadies the more sanguine egos on this tour. The pianist was provided a solo spot where he played his ballad "Quiet Fire." Elsewhere, "Mr. Beautiful" provides only the most appropriate support to the soaring leader as he continued to work out all of his angels and demons, a performance practice he employed to the very end. Pepper's own personal goal was to become the greatest alto saxophone player in the world. Between 1975 and 1982, that is exactly what he was. Laurie Pepper, we the listeners owe you big.

• Art Pepper - alto saxophone, clarinet
• George Cables - piano
• Tony Dumas - bass
• Carl Burnett - drums

 

CD1 

01. Landscape (Pepper) - 11:50

02. Talk, band intros - 2:11

03. Ophelia (Pepper) - 9:52

04. Cherokee (Noble) - 12:40

05. Talk, about Cherokee - 0:17

06. (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow (Arlen-Harburg) - 12:37

07. Talk, presenting George Cables - 0:11

08. Quiet Fire (piano solo) (Cables) - 6:29

09. Talk, introducing Straight Life - 0:43

10. Straight Life (Pepper) - 7:00

CD2 

01. Y.I. Blues (Pepper) - 9:30

02. Talk, about Y.I. Blues - 0:55

03. Avalon (Jolsen-Rose-DeSylva) - 7:26

04. Talk, about Avalon - 0:32

05. Make a List (Pepper) - 19:01

06. Talk, about Make a List - 0:43

07. Winter Moon (Carmichael) - 11:12

08. Talk, about Winter Moon - 0:25

09. Donna Lee (Parker) - 10:18

Art Pepper - Blues for the Fisherman: Unreleased Art Pepper Vol VI [4 CD, 2011/FLAC]

  

The four sets recorded over two evenings reflect Pepper's late period aesthetic of kicking things off with a mid- to up-tempo blues, typically introduced by an alto flourish followed by a driving walk in the double bass. These sets are no exception. All originals: "Blues for Blanche," "True Blues" and the twice played "Untitled #34" demonstrate, in microcosmal fashion, Pepper's compositional and performance paradoxes, his coexistent selfishness and generosity. Late in his life, Pepper preferred the quartet format over those implying a second horn. This was his prerogative. Like Beethoven, Pepper believed himself an artist and afforded himself that luxury. He wrote difficult and challenging charts and expected much from his sidemen. He rewarded them with praise and plenty of solo time. The result was this music.

• Art Pepper - alto sax with
• Milcho Leviev - Piano,
• Tony Dumas - Bass,
• Carl Burnett - Drums.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.3: The Croydon Concert May 14, 1981 (2 CD, 2008/FLAC)

 

In Unreleased Art, Vol. 3 of the Unreleased Art series, Laurie Pepper unearths yet another unreleased tape of a late-period Art Pepper performance -- this time courtesy of an obsessive fan who had access to prime-sounding material. This double-CD set takes in a full concert from Pepper's working band of 1981, caught while on an exhausting tour of Europe and the U.K. -- 18 dates in 21 days. By this time, after two years on the road, the team of Pepper, pianist Milcho Leviev -- who from the testimony of Laurie Pepper's notes evidently had a tempestuous working relationship with the alto saxophonist -- bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett had the mutual ESP going good and hard.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol 1: The Complete Abashiri Concert - November 22, 1981 (2 CD, 2006/FLAC)

 

Despite his precarious health, wrecked by decades of doping, Art Pepper was performing and recording at a furious pace during his last seven years, trying to make up for lost time. There is a tremendous amount of material already issued from those years -- and since this initial release from Laurie Pepper's label Widow's Taste is designated Vol. 1, there must be much more on the shelf. Hopefully the rest of the booty is as good as this one, a souvenir of Pepper's last tour of Japan, where he had become the country's number one jazz alto sax star even before he returned to performing.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.4: The Art History Project (3 CD, 2009/FLAC)

 There are several Art Pepper boxed sets on the market but none that tried to cover the entire sweep of his checkered career until this one, the fourth in his widow Laurie Pepper's series of Unreleased Art projects for her own label. The three-CD set is thoughtfully divided by disc into three periods -- early Pepper from the cool 1950s, his lost years in the '60s when he spent most of the decade in jail on dope charges, and the final comeback from the mid-'70s until his death in 1982.

Art Pepper - Mosaic Select 15 (3 CD, 2005/FLAC)

  Featuring Art Pepper's 1956 and 1957 Aladdin sessions, Mosaic's 3-CD boxed set portrays the alto saxophonist in familiar company, full of life and at his best. The collection includes several bonus tracks, alternate takes, and material that was previously available only on reel-to-reel tape.

Mosaic's 24-bit re-mastering provides a clear sound that lets you appreciate this artist who "grew" from Bird and who helped pioneer the cool school of West Coast Jazz. Pepper's attack was fast, fluid, and quick to turn on a dime. He was equally adept at animated bebop antics as with a tender ballad.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol.11: Atlanta (2 CD, 2020/FLAC)

 

• Art Pepper - alto saxophone
• Milcho Leviev - piano
• Bob Magnusson - bass
• Carl Burnett - drums

Recorded in Atlanta, GA in May 1980.

Art Pepper - Kind Of Pepper 1954-1959 (10 CD, 2009)

 

CD01 - Diablo’s Dance (00:57:10)

CD02 - Long Ago And Far Away (00:59:01)

CD03 - Angel Wings (00:58:13)

CD04 - Blues In (01:03:07)

CD05 - Red Pepper Blues (00:47:01)

CD06 - Road Waltz (00:41:44)

CD07 - Art Pepper Big Band (00:32:22)

CD08 - Art Pepper & Marty Paich Quartet (00:26:20)

CD09 - Spices (00:36:58)

CD10 - With Mel Torme & The Marty Paich Quartet (00:37:24)

Art Pepper - Live At The Village Vanguard (4 CD, 1987/FLAC)

 Alto saxophonist Art Pepper recorded several albums during an extended stint at the Village Vanguard in 1977. They were originally issued as Live at the Vanguard, Vols. 1-4, then reissued using various weeknights as the reference. Either way, all are exceptional, with burning Pepper solos, outstanding secondary solos by pianist George Cables, and equally fine work from bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones. 

Shorty Rogers - Creative West Coast Swing Featuring Art Pepper, Shelly Manne (1951-54) [4 CD, 2005]

 

Milton "Shorty" Rogers (born Milton Rajonsky; April 14, 1924 – November 7, 1994) was one of the principal creators of West Coast jazz. He played trumpet and flugelhorn and was in demand for his skills as an arranger.