Art Pepper never had enough time. From the moment he put the alto saxophone in his mouth in the 1940s, Pepper was in a hyperactive hurry to record, to play gigs, to get press, to stand out. He seemed to be hounded by the clock and a dread that he was on borrowed time. The result could leave him uncertain and uneasy. By the late 1970s, Pepper faced a similar dread. Jazz was drying up, or at least the audiences and money for the music were. The walls were closing in. [Photo above of Art and Laurie Pepper, courtesy of Laurie Pepper]
Like Washington Irving's Ichabod Crane trying to outrun the headless horseman in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Pepper could sense doom bearing down on him. This anxiety sent him scrambling, emotionally. In the late 1970s, Pepper and his wife, Laurie, caught wind that his recording contract with Contemporary Records might be sold to A&M's Horizon jazz line. In a phone call, Lester assured the Peppers that this wasn't true.
Pepper's anxiety level had shot up initially, but he settled down once he and Laurie were introduced to John Snyder (above), Horizon's creative director. Snyder turned out to be an island of serenity and support. In addition to running Horizon, Snyder had started his own label called Artists House in 1977. As the label's name indicates, creative control was placed in the hands of recording artists.
Snyder's first move was to send Pepper out on tour in 1977 to build a marketplace for his future recordings. The tour started in Toronto, followed by a week in July at New York's Village Vanguard. Snyder asked Contemporary's Lester Koenig if he could record Pepper at the club. According to Laurie, Koenig liked the idea but decided to record Pepper himself. Naturally, Snyder was disappointed. Nevertheless, the results were albums for Contemporary documenting Pepper's spectacular gigs on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at the club.
In November 1977, Koenig died suddenly, and Pepper soon decided to sign with Fantasy. Laurie notes that she and Pepper felt badly and insisted that Pepper's Fantasy contract include a clause allowing him to record an album for Snyder's Artists House. Pepper would record more than a single LP for the label. [Photo above of Lester Koenig by (c) Ray Avery/CTSImages.com]
His complete output for Snyder now appears on a five-disc box released yesterday—Art Pepper: Promise Kept, The Complete Artists House Recordings (Omnivore). The four albums Pepper recorded for the label are here along with alternate takes and a fifth disc with unissued takes. Laurie Pepper wrote the box's liner notes.
Since the albums were recorded in New York and Los Angeles in 1979, Pepper used two different rhythm sections. In New York, he was joined by pianist Hank Jones, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster. In L.A., the section was pianist George Cables, bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins. [Photo above, from left, Billy Higgins, Charlie Haden, Art Pepper and George Cables]
As evidenced by the music on the box, Pepper's anxiety in 1979 was reflected in his frantic attack on uptempo songs. Many of them, such as Straight No Chaser, Blues for Blanche and So in Love are a bit scattershot and fractured, an edgy overreach yearning to experiment or show his stuff. Fortunately, these make up a fraction of the box's material. [Photo above of Laurie and Art Pepper, courtesy of Laurie Pepper]
Where Pepper excels is on the ballads, which make up a bulk of the set. These include Body and Soul, Desafinado, You Go to My Head, Lover Man, Duo Blues, Stardust, Yesterdays and perhaps Pepper's most important original ballad, Diane. I'd include Anthropology, In a Mellow Tone and Lover Man in this grouping, since we get to hear Pepper on a thoughtful, gentle clarinet. We also have multiple takes of a marvelous uptempo but laid back Pepper original, My Friend John. [Photo above of Laurie and Art Pepper, courtesy of Laurie Pepper]
On these patient songs, Pepper's personality and poetry emerge. Seemingly free from proving something, Pepper metaphorically puts his legs up, cups his hands behind his head and takes a deep breath. Through the therapeutic act of playing a ballad, Pepper's metabolism settled down and he was able to artfully put the curves back in his improvisation. The results are absolutely beautiful. [Photo above of Laurie Pepper, courtesy of Laurie Pepper]
Art Pepper died in 1982.
Laurie Pepper can be found here.
John Snyder can be found at Loyola University in New Orleans here.
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Art Pepper: Promise Kept, The Complete Artists House Recordings (Omnivore) here.
JazzWax clips: You can hear the box's tracks at YouTube here.
Here's an alternate take of My Friend John...
Here's take 2 of Desafinado...
And here's Diane...
