Art Pepper spent much of his life in search of the love and admiration that eluded him in childhood. Throughout his career, he carried around the trauma inflicted on him by his parents. For Pepper, he entered the world in 1925 as a mistake, and his very presence quickly intruded on his mother’s alcohol-fueled good times. She had tried repeatedly to miscarry, and her serial attempts to terminate the pregnancy left Pepper with rickets and jaundice at birth.
Doctors didn’t expect him to live during his first two years. Once his health improved, his mother’s love came only when she was drunk, presumably out of guilt. As for his father, he was a violent man who, like his wife, lacked parental warmth. As Pepper said in his 1979 memoir, Straight Life, co-authored by Laurie Pepper, his third wife, no one wanted him.
By 1980, Pepper was 55 and in poor health as his body deteriorated from a lifetime of abuse. There was an inoperable ventral hernia, which forced him to wear a corset when he played; arthritis that was stiffening his hands; and teeth that needed serious work. Through it all, Laurie had kept the tour business running, despite the miseries of the road, which included multiple flight changes, unhealthy meals and candy bars and cocaine use.
In the spring of 1980, Laurie managed to lock in a two-week run starting June 16 at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in London. Except for the time Pepper spent in Paris and London while in the Army, between 1944 and 1946, the booking would be Pepper’s first European tour.
While the Peppers were in London, a promoter working for Norway’s Kongsberg Jazz Festival called with hopes of booking the Art Pepper Quartet on Sunday, June 29. While Sunday was a day off for Pepper, the concert didn’t seem possible at first. Pepper’s Saturday night set at Ronnie Scott’s wouldn’t end until the early hours of Sunday morning.
So they’d have to leave early the next the morning to make the 1,000-mile flight to Oslo and then drive the hour west to Kongsberg. Laurie accepted the booking anyway, and Pepper performed at 1:30 p.m. to close the Norwegian festival. The seating capacity at the Kongsberg Cinema was about 600 and was sold out.
The above paragraphs are from my liner notes for Art Pepper - An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental). The quartet includes Art Pepper (as), Milcho Leviev (p), Tony Dumas (b) and Carl Burnett (d).
The tracks:
- Y.I. Blues (aka Untitled)
- The Trip
- Make a List, Make a Wish
- Patricia
- Caravan
- Blues for Blanche
- Straight Life
As Laurie Pepper noted during our insightful interview for my notes:
"At the festival, he was not drinking. He was cold sober. So, there may be an edge to that music just from being sober. In other words, maybe it wasn't as passionate or as far out, but at the same time, maybe it was more thoughtful and intense in that way."
JazzWax tracks: You'll find Art Pepper - An Afternoon in Norway: The Kongsberg Concert (Elemental) on vinyl CD here.
JazzWax clips: Here's one of Pepper's most powerful renditions of his ballad Patricia...
And here's Straight Life...
