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 3-CD set, lovingly compiled by the alto saxophonist's widow,
Laurie Pepper, and set for release on June 23, includes a 20-page booklet filled with previously unpublished photographs as well as anecdotes, impressions, and information from her life with Art and from the book they wrote together,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 was able to convey.
In keeping with the goals of the Widow's Taste
Unreleased Art series, two-thirds of the music here has never been released before. 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 a couple of months before Pepper's June 1982 death, at age 56. "It's a natural elaboration of the goals I started with when I began the label," says Laurie. "I wanted to displace the pirates and give terrific unheard Art a really high-quality vehicle, each release a kind of jewel. I just got a little more ambitious with this fourth set. I thought it was important to show where Art was coming from."
Disc 1.
Pure Art is a story told by the young fellow who placed second only to Charlie Parker in the
Down Beat 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 gave it his own bright little edge of adrenaline so it never was lightweight. Many of the tunes are his originals. Sidemen here include
Warne Marsh, Jack Sheldon, and
Shorty Rogers (
pictured with Pepper above). "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. The 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. (
Photo at right: Art Pepper with George Mraz.) He is "a knowing athlete, trained and poised" (Gary Giddins,
Village Voice), who brought from deep inside the beauty of his own passion angst and glee and connected so unerringly with ours. He was "an architect of emotion" (John Litweiler,
Chicago Sun-Times) who "played with controlled intensity, clean articulation, and a command of his instrument that make his virtuosity seem almost casual and easy" (John S. Wilson,
New York Times).
The new set is an ideal companion piece to Art's book
Straight Life and, like the other volumes in the
Unreleased Art series, it is an instant collector's item. Each volume has been compiled by the partner who knew Art most completely, and in irreverent anecdotes she gives him to us whole, his music reverentially reproduced and packaged.