ART PEPPER: Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. 1 (Vol 1 is a 2 CD set)

Art Pepper

Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. 1 (Vol 1 is a 2 CD set)

© 2006 Arthur Pepper Music Corporation (634479307157)

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Spectacularly emotional, soulful, tender, and swinging. Legendary Alto Saxophonist Art Pepper's concert in Abashiri Japan in bright snowy November, 1981 with George Cables, David Williams, Carl Burnett. Many never before released tracks.

notes

(Also check out Volume 2 "The Last Concert."

Art Pepper, legendary alto sax player, is known as one of the greatest jazz artists of his generation. But he always soared far beyond the dated categories of swing and be-bop in his lyricism, technical brilliance, soulfulness, and solid, down-home raunchy sweetness.

VOLUME 1 is a TWO DISC SET, a complete concert performed in Abashiri, in Northern Japan, in the snowy winter of 1981 for an audience who showered Art and the guys with uncommon enthusiasm and wild love. They responded with a performance that seems to levitate with energy. You get to be there and hear Art declare this performance of "Body and Soul" "One of the nicest things I've played in my life." Mastered by Wayne Peet, the quality is excellent. (Included: an eight page booklet with reminiscences and photos by Laurie) (moi).

Nobody has it. It's an instant collectors' item.

This album is the first of a series of mostly unreleased material which will include performances recorded live and in-studio throughout his career. Some "unreleased" tracks have been illegally exchanged (I mean they have been traded or, sold by people who haven't given me, Laurie, Art Pepper's widow and intended beneficiary, a taste: The taste that Art supposed I'd be entitled to.) Thus, the title of the series, "Widow's Taste."

What I'm doing here, is:
1. I'm introducing truly unreleased and unheard Art to people who want to hear it.
2. I'm introducing Art to people who thought they knew what jazz was (incomprehensible bebop), so they can correct that awful impression and fill their lives with soulful beauty.
3. I'm introducing Art to people who thought they knew what jazz was (Kenny G) and didn't like it. If you like Kenny G, just go away. There's nothing for you here.

reviews

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  • What A Discovery
    author: Peter Brookes

    Only came across this contact by chance following a recent Art Pepper tribute programme on BBC 4 which in itself was quite a suprise. Fantastic high octane Art with to my mind his best pianist George Cables. Can't wait for the issue of the British concert which should compare with the great man's long deleted ' Blues For The Fisherman ' LP recorded at Ronnie's.

  • Excellent, live Pepper!
    author: JW

    What a great disc! Though this is mastered from cassette tape, it is done well and tape hiss is minimal. A great CD to relax and unwind to. Like others, I specifically like the moments between cuts where Art speaks. Thank you to Laurie Pepper for making this available to true fans. A+ must buy!

  • Highest Art
    author: Gerhard Forstinger

    The ultimate version of Body and Soul! Hawkins would sing to it with wet eyes! Please, Laurie, give us more!!!

  • Fantastic stuff for Pepper fans, loaded with intensity & skill
    author: Steve Komp

    I was completely carried away by this album. I think this final take on Besame Mucho is worth the price of admission alone, and is one of my all-time favorites. Altho not news to true Art Pepper fans, George Cables shows he is the perfect pianist for Art; they are so beautifully sympatico. The rest of the group cannot be faulted either. This has to be one of the most together performances anywhere, anytime. Wonderful!

  • Outstanding!
    author: TE

    Outstanding! Looking forward to Volume 3!

  • Glorious music courtesy of his widow
    author: Jim Butler

    This album is both glorious music and historically imporant. Thanks go to Laurie Pepper and CDBaby for making it available.

  • Wild About Art
    author: David

    By a quirk of fate I still don't understand, I got Laurie's mailing about the existence of a trove of unreleased Art. This concert had such a great lineup/playlist I immediately ordered it and have been thrilled by it ever since. For being produced without the backing of a major label it is beautifully packaged and the sound quality is AMAZING! I've always loved the alchemy of Art's style -- laid-back West Coast fused with the tortured urgency of Yardbird -- and this set delivers on all counts. What's so remarkable after all these years is the fact that Art continued to play with undiminished invention and fire right up until the day he died. (Not to mention he also wrote one of the most searing and brutally honest autobiographies I've ever read.) I look forward to future releases (especially ones from the Contemporary vaults!) Thanks for making these recordings available to a worldwide audience.

  • So Fine
    author: John Murdoch

    Very smooth and fresh. Thanks!

  • Art transcends Sentimentality
    author: Nine

    I lost a love. I wanted to hate him. I had ordered the CDs a set for me, for him, and a friend. I planned not to share them with the lost love. I listened to them all day after they arrived while I morned my love. I realized that there was no room for sentimentality -- that I had to share this music with anyone I loved -- like you share air in a room. NO matter what happens when you leave the room, at least you have Art's breaths.

  • Another recording to add to his legend-the bargain of 2007!!!
    author: Jeffrey Tedford

    The legend of Art Pepper keeps growing. This set can be a good starting place for a new collector of jazz in general or Art Pepper in particular. IMO it ranks with his best-right next to Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section, Art Pepper PLus 11 and the Village Vanguard Sessions. The sound is acceptable and overall Unreleased Art, Volume 1 is the bargain of the year. Don't let the opportunity to own it pass you by.

  • Art Lives Thru Laurie's Efforts & Love
    author: Mickey

    The Music on this CD is absolutely awesome. As with other Art recordings it is tender and intense at the same time. I don't know of any artist that could have both qualities at the same time in the abundance that Art does here. Just ABSOLUTELY beautiful. I can't imagine any jazz fan not falling in love with this CD unless they are of the Kenny G fan variety. Laurie......THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU........GOD BLESS YOU. There is a special place for you in jazz for all you have done.

  • Essential
    author: Bill Bolloten

    Nothing much to add to previous reviewers other than to say that this is a great recording and a complete must.I was only halfway through 'Goodbye' when I came back here to order the Unreleased Art Vol 2.

  • the best of Art
    author: Jim Burpee

    Having read the other reviews, there is nothing I could say that could come close to the praise for the combination of intelligence and soulfulness that this cd manifests. I have seen Art three times, twice in SF, and once in Minneapolis (where he autographed his autobiography: "be cool and enjoy, life is ending....Art Pepper). This recording proves his own assessment of himself: he was the greatest alto saxophonist of his time. Laurie: please give us/me more. I am sorry for your loss, and happy for our gain in having this must have legacy. Peace and soul to you. Dig it!

  • Magnificent.
    author: Jake Moyer

    This CD has to be part the collection of any jazz buff who professes any love for the music at all. It's got everything Art Pepper has been building toward for his entire career. I can't wait to hear more of the unissued material.

  • Genius Level In The Moment Creations
    author: Chris Sweet

    How I've been a Jazz fan for ten years and never focused on Art before is beyond me. In past few months I've turned into an Art Pepper nut. After consuming the book and DVD I've set about methodically buying all the AP I can get my hands on. Especially the late period stuff. This performance has that mercurial quality that first drew me to Art. The ability to play with this much abandon is simply breathtaking. From the grooving thrill ride of Red Car to the emotional depths of Body and Soul (I think I may even prefer this version to Hawk's famous rendition) and Goodbye it's just one thing after another. It's amazing how different Art was only 4 years after the Village Vanguard sets. A level of certainty had appeared in the center of the storm. Not calm, but sure, focused, just right. In this quality I can draw a comparison only to the late Bill Evans. His final VV set, made shortly before his death, exhibits this same end of life explosion in creativity. Body failing, mind soaring. I bought two copies so I could give one to a friend of mine who is a trumpet player. He wrote me as soon as he heard it: "That CD is off the hook for intensity and energy. Nothing else comes to mind that I've EVER heard with that amount of over the top risk taking in the moment devil may care .... and then nailing it". BUY THIS CD PS- To Laurie: Great idea to get more of Art's music out into the public. More would be welcome. Any chance of Blues For The Fisherman coming back into print?

  • More Art Pepper pleeeeease!
    author: Andy Green

    Great tracks, especially Besame Mucho and Straight Life. Ranks close to the track My Laurie from the No Limit album which is one of my many favourite tracks. Could someone please release Final Art on cd?

  • BEYOND OF TIME , ART IS HERE !!!
    author: Gilles Coquempot ( PARIS , FRANCE )

    I just received this wonderful 2Cd's.I hope that the second volume will be quickly on sale. In the name of all fans of Art, many thanks to you Laurie for this magnificent gift. Great gig !!!

  • Intense Power
    author: Tim Beason

    This is live jazz at its very best. Art is playing at the top of his game and his band is right behind him. He plays ballads such that you can feel the pain and he plays up tempo swing numbers (Like Red Car) where you can feel the thrill of an adrenelin rush. Highly recommended.

  • Art Pepper's Genius Exemplified
    author: Phillip B. Klingler

    The concert performance documented on Laurie Pepper's superb independent release of Art Pepper "Live At Abashiri" (2CD) is not the last session that Art ever did although it comes about 7 months before his death. So, although these live recordings could be considered "late-period" Art Pepper, there is no sign of diminished ability here. In fact, I think Art was on the precipice of a breakthrough, or at least it sounds like it to my ears. Despite long periods of inactivity(prison, rehab), where Art didn't record any music at all, he must have been constantly conceptualizing and distilling ideas about his music because there really aren't any recordings in his discography that show him creatively working at anything less than top form. Art felt the source of his music running through him, he called it his "genius", and he found a way to access it by moving in the space between intellect and intuition. He would've been well-aware of all the revolutions in jazz music from the 40's onward and what that fountain of creative revolution had achieved... But in Art's mind, where was his place in that scheme of things? He had been taken out of the game so early in his career and for such a long period of time that it was a new world of jazz by the time he re-emerged in 1975. Even if the great recordings he'd made in the 50's assured his legacy, Art was still searching. The music of John Coltrane had inspired him throughout the 60's and he studied his work intensely, even playing tenor sax for a time in pursuit of those studies. As I listen to Art's performance on this album I can hear the history of jazz- from the bebop cutting contests to the abstractions of the free jazz movement. By the time of this concert he had evolved his own playing to achieve the greatest possible emotional impact yet still retaining everything he'd already learned and implemented as an established jazz master. It's amazing to hear Art's inside/outside performance on this album. So self-assured, he seems willing to try anything! He flies so fast through the changes of "Straight Life" that his runs tumble into and over one another. His emotions are rarely held in check, his life is played through his horn and especially on the ballads he isn't afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve... Most of the tracks here come in at over 10 minutes each with plenty of room for each musician to showcase their skills and it would be a shame not to mention the rest of the band: George Cables, the great pianist who had played on so many sessions with Art, had empathic knowledge of Art's music, is on top of his game throughout and especially beautiful on the ballad "Goodbye". David Williams had spent the 70's playing bass behind such avant-garde masters as Ornette Coleman and Archie Shepp. Between Williams and awesome drummer, Carl Burnett, this is a driving-force rhythm section that keeps the swing aspect in full effect, but still allows Art the space to move in any direction he might choose. This recording, a fascinating two hours of improvisation, shows Art exploring every possibility within the harmonic range of the alto sax. Honking at the lower register, squeezing at the highest notes, his solos are brilliant. And they're never just intellectual exercise, he never relies on hooks or cliches in his improvisations, these ever-changing improvisations are profound. Even if Art was taking rather tentative steps towards the more "outside" aspects of his music on, for instance, his 1977 Village Vanguard concert recordings with Elvin Jones, by this time four years later he is totally at ease with the "free" aspects of his playing. The music has become even more moving because of this. Art had it in him to give us a real look into his soul and even as the man was a paradox, so too is his music, since despite having lived a tough life his music never seems angry or resentful, only on some tracks you can feel a real melancholia, but in particular there's always a sense of challenge towards self-revelation, the sign of a true artist. This document provides more proof of Art's genius and shows that he was definitely at a peak here and pushing his music in different ways, never resting, but moving with the spirit of his experience and emotions.

  • A great 2 CD Set
    author: David Baldwin

    This must rate very high in a list of live recordings from Art, hope you put out Vol. 2 soon!

  • Art Lives!
    author: John G in the UK

    Thank you Laurie for making this wonderful 2CD Set available to Art's many fans - and, of course, thank you Art. Volume 2 can't come quick enough.

  • just blew me away
    author: chuck

    this is just an amazing cd,the music and sound just blew me away.i was the first person to order this cd and hope to be first to get vol 2 thank you laurie for keeping art and jazz alive.

  • This is one of the most powerful, emotion-laden live performances I've ever hear
    author: Eddie Becton - All About Jazz-Los Angeles, Producer/Host - KXLU

    Thanks to the Herculean efforts of Pepper’s widow, Laurie Pepper, this two-disc gem is comprised of previously unreleased material from a live Abashiri, Japan performance in 1981, not long before the saxophonist’s death. Arguably, the most beautiful tune on either disc is the standard Body & Soul. Pepper pours his lyrical soul out on this track and reminds listeners why he was often considered one of jazz’s most passionate lyricists. As well, Cables’ solo is absolutely spellbinding and contributes to the tune’s passionate and emotional currents. At the tune’s conclusion, Pepper states, “That was one of the nicest things I think I’ve played in my life… “ Indeed, and the live audience shows its appreciation with a rousing applause that leaves Pepper and crew giddy with ebullient chuckling. Pepper also pays tribute to one of his most favorite composers, pianist Thelonious Monk. Pepper, who long admired Monk masters a version of Rhythm-A-Ning. This spirited piece captures Monk’s mood thanks to yeoman’s work by George Cables on piano and a bombastic performance by Carl Burnett on drums. Another well-done piece is the soothing yet fiery Besame Mucho where the band again demonstrates its penchant for cohesive harmony and perfectly executed lines. Hell, even the volcanic introduction is worth the price of admission. This is not only a “must have” for its historical significance as being previously unreleased. But, even more important, this is a “must have” because it is simply Pepper at his best. Since this two-disc set is comprised of Volume 1 tunes, undoubtedly Pepper fans’ hearts will smile as they salivate at the notion of ensuing volumes.

  • Pepper in Top Form
    author: RicktheCabbie

    From the opening strains of Landscape I knew I was in for something special. All too often the elements that make up a great live performance are hardly in place to record it- the tightness, focus, drive and basic swinging along with all the technical aspects so often out of the artists' control. But Unreleased Art has everything going right and it's a great musical statement and a true labor of love for Art and his music. I have all of his stuff from Galaxy and this sounds much better overall, Art at his best!

  • Beautiful music direct from the heart and soul.
    author: Matt Watson

    Music direct from the heart and soul - the music captured here is just flowing straight out, Art sounds completely at ease and is playing with pure love, complimented by a great band that are right there with him. Not much else to say - a great gig from start to finish from one of music's all time masters.

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