REVIEW ALL ABOUT JAZZ, C MICHAEL BAILEY

Since 2006, alto saxophonist Art Pepper's discography has grown by a CD of previously unreleased or limited released performances per year. This bounty is due to the diligence of Pepper's widow, Laurie, who has been accumulating material from her own and other private collections and releasing them on her Widow's Taste label. This has proven fortunate for Pepper-ophiles and students of post-bebop and hard bop alto. The four releases prior to Unreleased Art, Vol V: Stuttgart May 25, 1981 are comprised of three unreleased concerts and a three- disc retrospective of Pepper's career from his time with the Stan Kenton orchestra through these Vol V sides recorded a year before the saxophonist's death in June 1982.

Unreleased Art, Volume 1: The Complete Abashiri Concert: November 22, 1981 and Unreleased Art, Volume 2: The Last Concert May 30, 1982 Kool Jazz Festival Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. were released in 2006 and 2007 respectively. The very excellent Unreleased Art, Vol. III: The Croydon Concert, May 14, 1981 was released in 2008. The Art History Project: Unreleased Art IV followed in 2009.

Pepper's performance in Stuttgart on May 25, 1981 was part of the European tour that resulted in the The Croydon Concert, which took place the previous week. The Croydon Concert was a superb performance splendidly captured from the soundboard. It occurred in the early part of the tour. The band sounded sharp and rested. Break ahead after two weeks of near-one night stands and Pepper and the band have developed an edge of fatigue that cuts jaggedly through these performances. The band and performances are looser, exhaling after a sprint. The Stuttgart concert was derived from three different sources captured or collected by the same individual who provided The Croydon Concert tapes.

Laurie Pepper admits in the liner notes that this portion of the tour was a lost blur. The pieces are assembled in an approximation of how the show may have gone. At any rate, she suspects that she got the front and back ends right. Pepper typically kicked things off with an up-tempo blues, in this case his angular and thoroughly modern sounding "True Blues," and closed proceedings with a scorched-earth vehicle, this album's "Cherokee" being exactly that. The set overlaps The Croydon Concert only with the selections "Yours Is My Heart Alone," "Patricia," "Make A List (Make A Wish)" and "Cherokee," making the Stuttgart concert an informative, contrasting companion to the earlier recording. Fatigue did not so much make the Stuttgart performances more ragged, for it loosened the band's inhibitions, allowing for great flights of improvisation and, for Pepper, emotional expression.

The Stuttgart concert featured two of Pepper's most sublime ballads, his original "Patricia," written for his daughter, and "Over The Rainbow" from The Wizard of Oz. The second ballad is one of those untouchable songs that nature reserves for only the most emotive players. Pepper performed it throughout his post-1970 life, always with acute release. This band is sharpened by the troubled relationship between Pepper and pianist Milcho Leviev. While the pianist George Cables had a special relationship with Pepper (who called him "Mr. Beautiful"), Leviev, who did not take Pepper as seriously, sparred with the leader in such a way that a tension existed that honed these performances.

While Pepper and Leviev divide the lengthy "Make A List (Make A Wish)" between them, the song really belongs to bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett. Magnusson mixes up the simple harmonic part, never allowing the three-note motif to spoil. Leviev, Magnusson and Burnett turn the piece into a rock masterpiece in the same way pianist Gene Harris did with "Summertime" on bassist Ray Brown's Bam Bam Bam (Concord, 1988). When Pepper enters for his solo turn, he summons a bit of the John Coltrane that possessed him in the early 1970s. Working his way out of that, Pepper proves what a great R&B saxophonist he is, funky and rich, full of that greasy good charm that causes feet to stomp and parishioners to cry, "Amen."

A master of musical drama, Pepper slowly raises the gas on "Make A List (Make A Wish)" from a working simmer to a full boil, squealing and honking his way down the bar. Eddie Harris could only have hoped to be so funky and vital. Pepper's playing is a tidal wave from a detonated atom bomb, relentless in climax. This original was a great vehicle for the saxophonist, perhaps not as technically demanding as "Cherokee," but very entertaining. Extended readings of "Over The Rainbow" and "Cherokee" close the set illustrating Pepper's supreme command of the ballad and up- tempo bop. This is the Gotterdammerung of the jazz life.



REVIEW AUDIOPHILE AUDITION, JEFF KROW
Art Pepper – Unreleased Art, Vol. 5 – Stuttgart May 25, 1981 – Widows Taste APM 10001 – Disc 1: 65:01 – Disc 2: 64:58 ****:
(Art Pepper, alto sax & clarinet; Milcho Leviev, piano; Bob Magnussen, bass; Carl Burnett, drums)
It is a cause for celebration each time Laurie Pepper releases a new volume of previously non-commercially available material largely from the end of Art’s life, when he was in a race to pour out his soul for his fans – largely overseas – knowing that he was ill and did not have unlimited time to express his reinvigorated passionate music. I have had the privilege to hear and review all of the volumes of Unreleased Art. Whereas music pirates are thought of as pariahs feeding off artists with no monetary return, Laurie Pepper has come full circle, knowing that Pepper’s fans were hardcore and most often were recording his live sets for their own use as jazz bootlegs are way down the food chain compared with those of rock boots, which have a much larger fan base, who will pay dearly for jam bands’ live sets.
Art’s fans have had a reciprocal relationship with Pepper’s widow, Laurie, and rather than battling with them legally, they have turned over well recorded live sets to Laurie. These fans have always remained nameless, (we do get a first name and photo of Rocco here) and Laurie’s label, Widow’s Taste, has had the services of Wayne Peet, who remasters, and cleans up the “donated” material. I have found Wayne’s work to be more than respectable – with fine acoustics. However, the primary value is hearing Art with a crack band, going from breakneck blowing to tender gut-wrenching ballads.
On Volume 5, recorded in Stuttgart, Germany, Art is locked in with his touring band of two years, headed by pianist, Milcho Leviev, who could be a willing partner, or a demon baiting Pepper and attempting to hog the limelight. Bassist Magnusson and drummer, Burnett, have no ego problems and provide rock steady accompaniment. After all this is Art’s show, and with his health fading slowly but spirit intact and his music being his lifeline, each volume in this excursion with Art presents treats that keeps fans coming back for more, and kind Laurie is anxious to feed our healthy habits.
Vol. 5 presents no real new compositions, as “Artophiles” have heard these songs before, but it is in the presentation that brings joy to the listener.
Personally, I will never get tired of hearing Art emote on “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” and with most all the tracks being quite extended, we get treats like Magnussen’s brilliant solo on "True Blues," Art’s soaring solo entering all directions on "Yours is My Heart Alone," and the simply sublime, "Patricia," written ever so gently by Art for his daughter – what a lifelong present to treasure.
"Avalon" brings us Art on clarinet, which we hear him play so seldom, that I find myself searching out other Pepper CDs to verify how rare the occurrence is. I find Pepper’s clarinet playing to be comforting, easy on the ear no matter where Art heads. The Stuttgart audience seems to agree. "Make a List (Make a Wish)," at nearly 24 minutes can be jokingly called Art’s jam band excursion – I wonder what today’s new young hipsters would make of Bob Magnussen’s solo, Carl Burnett’s cymbal driven beat, and Milcho’s playful meanderings before taking on the blues – so much fun.
Volume Five is another reason to love Pepper’s legion of now middle-age-plus obsessive Art bootleggers. As long as they are generous with us, and in touch with Laurie, we’re grateful. Give the widow her “taste” as she is doing us a public service in keeping Pepper’s flame hot for as long as the concert tapes keep appearing. They have been a yearly treat for me. May the run continue…!


LINER:
Art never understood why a musician (Miles) would turn his back on the audience that loved him.

When we were finishing the writing of Art's story, Straight Life, I asked him to tell his readers, his audience, what he wanted from the years he had left. He said, "I do still need to be accepted as an artist. But I want to be more than just a "jazz player" playing. I want to make people forget the categories and hear what's really happening. I want to make them feel the joy or sadness. I want to make them open up and listen. That's what I've always wanted. I'll do the best I can." He wanted you to let him in.

I got an email the other day from a fellow in England who was "blown away" by Art's music in his teens. Now about forty, he says, "I am no believer in religion or the mystics but if souls travel through people then Art has taken residence or at least is sitting on the couch in the living room of my mind. He lives with me daily in simple things like the cracking of an egg, the turning of a door handle, and the love I am lucky to share with my family."

Like that email, the recording you now hold in your hand is concrete proof of how important Art's music has been to the people he's reached. It was sent to me by a Belgian fan who has collected the output of his favorite artists (He's responsible for sending me the Croydon material, also). He’s sent me a database of a circulating Pepper collection. It seems Art never performed anywhere during his final comeback (1972-1982) where somebody wasn't, either publicly or surreptitiously, recording him and then sharing the music with other fans. This wasn't done from avarice. Nobody (not even me with my conscientious little company, my photos and my stories) is going to make much money from tapes of jazz music. The gathering and collecting was done out of love. The collectors share Art’s wish to communicate, to keep the music alive.
...

Art toured Europe twice in 1981. First in May. Then in July. Croydon and this concert in Stuttgart were part of the grueling May tour. Alexander Zivkovich, the promoter, has written to tell me that over all these 40 years of promoting European tours for major jazz artists, this Art Pepper tour was the longest he ever booked. Stuttgart’s was the 14th performance over as many nights, and we traveled every day by plane or bus or car. You can hear him tell the audience, here, at the end of the last tune, “We’re really tired.” Art’s health wasn’t great. He died the following year. He gave everything he had every night, exhausting himself, giving and getting energy, completing some perfect circuit with the crowd, amplifying all their shared emotion, dignifying it, displaying it in all its beauty.