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Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. 8​—​Live at the Winery

by Art Pepper

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Caravan 10:54
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Ophelia 08:28
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REVIEW BY C MICHAEL BAILEY, ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Laurie Pepper, widow of alto saxophonist Art Pepper, has been shepherding the artist's discography since the turn of the millenia. Unreleased Art Vol. VIII: Live At The Winery, September 6, 1976 reveals there may be no end in sight for unreleased material from this important jazz musician. Ms. Pepper has done a couple of things different this time. One, she is releasing a performance by Pepper early in his comeback, after the release of Living Legend (Contemporary, 1975), Pepper's first recording since 1960's Intensity (Contemporary) and before his triumphant appearance at New York City's Village Vanguard, documented on The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions (Contemporary, 1977). (Note: Pepper is captured on a handful of live recordings during those 15 years, but these were largely bootlegs that made their way to vinyl and then CD.)

Second, she releases a performance where Pepper plays with "alternate" sidemen, artists not associated with Pepper at the height of his comeback (like pianists George Cables and Milcho Leviev, bassists Tony Dumas and Bob Magnusson and drummers Billy Higgins and Carl Burnette). The music recorded here is somewhat of a "missing link" and is, indeed, revelatory, almost in the biblical sense. Pepper had been working as an accountant in the bakery of a fellow Synanon veteran when he emerged to play "casuals" (weddings and Bar Mitzvahs) and, eventually to begin recording again.

Fifteen years is a long time between records. It may be the myopic view of the past considering recordings like Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section (Contemporary, 1957) and Art Pepper + Eleven: The Modern Jazz Classics (Contemporary, 1959). These were game-changing recordings made under the most challenging circumstances.

There is nothing Romantic about chemical dependency or its consequences. It does not enhance creativity; it exists as an impediment to all that could be. Nor should one believe the artist is not changed by the experience: not Charlie Parker, not Frank Morgan, not Art Pepper. The Art Pepper here in the Bicentennial is dramatically different from that of these previous recordings. His tone is harsher and more dry and he still shows the remnants of John Coltrane, who captured his imagination in the 1960s. But, Pepper in the mid-1970s was no developing artist unfinished; he was fully realized and in nuclear transition. He is the musical sum of all he has done and all he has seen.

In 1979, Art and Laurie Pepper published perhaps the finest jazz biography written, Straight Life: the Story of Art Pepper (Da Capo Press). It provides a roadmap and discography where Pepper's work can be conveniently identified and considered in context. According to Pepper's discography at Jazzdisco.org, the altoist's appearance at the Paul Masson Winery, September 6, 1976 took place between his recording as a sideman on Art Farmer: On The Road (Contemporary, 1976) and Pepper's own follow-up to Living Legand, The Trip (Contemporary, 1976). Pepper was getting serious traction just ahead of his first tour of Japan early in 1977. He had been teaching jazz clinics and playing casuals, getting ready for the rest of his productive but too-short life.

Live At The Winery, September 6, 1976 is made up of six songs inner-dispersed with Pepper's grateful and sincere stage banter. The disc opens with possibly Pepper's most passionate reading of the Juan Tizol classic "Caravan." Written for the Duke Ellington orchestra, "Caravan" was composed with a Middle Eastern flavor in mind, but in the hands of Pepper and local pianist Smith Dobson, it is a samba bullet shot from a Latin jazz gun. Pepper gives a long introduction before steering into the familiar theme, fighting a guerrilla war for the next ten minutes of exhilarating performance.

Pepper follows with an angular original composition, "Ophelia" from Living Legend, that would show up many more times in his live performances. A ballad master, Pepper presents "Here's That Rainy Day" also from Living Legend and earlier, displaying the complete command of the form that would reach its pinnacle on Winter Moon (Galaxy, 1980). The band follows with "What Laurie Likes," a blues-funk piece suggesting Pepper's future masterpiece "Red Car" from his next studio recording.

Pepper closes with his be bop-infused "Straight Life" and "Saratoga Blues" demonstrating that he is a master of that idiom also. "Caravan" is a revelation on this recording as is "Make a List (Make a Wish)" from Art Pepper: Unreleased Art, Vol. III; The Croydon Concert, May 14, 1981 (Widow's Taste, 2008). Pepper was capable of reinvention, evolution and perfection in his quest to become the greatest alto saxophonist. Mission accomplished.


REVIEW BY THOMAS CUNIFFE, JAZZ HISTORY ONLINE: Thank you. It’s really a pleasure. It gets better each day. With those words, Art Pepper made his first announcements to the audience at the Paul Masson Winery on September 6, 1976. In the four years since his release from the drug-rehabilitation program Synanon, Pepper had slowly resumed his playing career. He was reluctant to take up his alto again, afraid of the demons that music awoke in him. But with the acquisition of new horns, a renewed relationship with Lester Koenig of Contemporary Records, and increasing performing and recording opportunities, Pepper started to play again, with his sound carrying greater intensity than before. Of course, Pepper’s greatest motivator was his wife, Laurie. In addition to the daily support she gave Art, she helped him write his harrowing autobiography, “Straight Life” and in the years since his death, she has kept his music alive with a series of previously unreleased recordings on her own Widow’s Taste label. “Live at the Winery” is the eighth volume in her “Unreleased Art” series and it is the earliest example of Pepper’s mid-70s comeback issued in the series to date.
The recording, captured in excellent fidelity through the soundboard, features Pepper in top form, along with a pick-up group of musicians from San Francisco. As was typical of the period, the musicians had played commercial music as well as jazz, and they unleash an enormous amount of energy into the small-group setting. The opening version of “Caravan” burns from the first downbeat with Pepper seemingly intent on exorcising his demons once and for all, pianist Smith Dobson offering hyper-energetic comping and a note-gobbling solo, bassist Jim Nichols asserting his presence with bold lines and strong support, and drummer Brad Bilhorn maintaining an active commentary with splashing cymbals and busy snare hits. In her liner notes, Laurie calls the next tune “Ophelia” the beginning of my commitment to Art’s music. It’s not hard to hear why: Pepper’s solo reveals a wide range of styles, all masterly incorporated into his own unique solo voice. Here, the categories all break down, and Pepper stands as a brilliant improviser with uncommon presence and urgency (and this, despite his own hesitancies about playing again). The brilliant version of “Here’s That Rainy Day” which follows displays the close empathy of Pepper and Dobson. The pianist wisely refrains from competing with the saxophonist as Pepper winds out a emotionally overwhelming solo, full of tortured phrases and played with an acidic tone. When his own solo comes around, Dobson offers a contrasting episode which still clutches the heartstrings, but without the intensity of Pepper’s statement. Pepper recognizes Dobson’s fine contribution in a touching statement after the piece ends.
The funky rhythms of the next selection, “What Laurie Likes”, are probably the most evocative of the era, but in the context of the recording, the piece seems to be a natural addition to the group’s repertoire. Besides, Pepper’s strident tone is quite appropriate in this style, and he seems quite comfortable improvising in this setting. Unfortunately, there were a few listeners who complained about the style of this piece, and Pepper stopped playing it soon after this recording. In retrospect, he should have paid more attention to his muse instead of the critics. It’s too bad that Laurie Pepper has to defend a song that was written for and dedicated to her. For the official closing number of the set, Pepper shows that he still had the chops to play bebop with a breakneck version of “Straight Life”. His solo has all the ferocity of Charlie Parker, but he adds to the intensity by inserting relatively long notes amidst the sixteenth-note runs. The rhythm section bubbles like an erupting volcano, and Pepper engages Bilhorn in a remarkable set of exchanges. As an encore, the quartet plays a slow blues, but while the tempo is relaxed, the intensity of Pepper’s horn and the interaction of the rhythm section keeps the momentum going.
A few months later, Pepper recorded in Half Moon Bay with this same group. An album’s worth of material was issued on the Japanese label Trio label and on Danish Storyville (one track also appeared in an earlier volume of the Widow’s Taste series). To today’s ears, the Dobson-Nichols-Bilhorn rhythm section might seem rather overbearing, but they may have been just the group to give Pepper the additional push he needed to create. In the remaining six years of his life, Pepper created an extraordinary body of work, most often in the company of pianist Milcho Leviev, bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett. Dobson continued to work regularly in the Bay Area until his premature death in a car accident in 2001. Bilhorn and Nichols both played and recorded in California until 1993 and 2007 respectively, but little biographical information on either is available on the web. Unlike these men, whose names are presently fading into obscurity, Art Pepper is still an important influence on jazz saxophonists. Thanks to the work of Laurie Pepper, we can experience the searing power of Art’s horn even through the prism of nearly 40 years. Let’s hope she continues to find and issue many more unreleased concert recordings.



From Laurie: This album was mastered By Wayne Peet, Newzone Music

Live at the Winery, the eighth consecutive release in a series of critically acclaimed, previously unheard Art Pepper recordings on the Widow’s Taste label, will be released on November 5. Laurie Pepper began her company in 2006 in order, she said, to unearth previously unreleased Art and share it with his loyal and very grateful fans.

This 1976 concert dates from the exhilarating early days of Art’s last comeback. “I thought it was time to focus on the music Art made with some of his alternate sidemen,” says Laurie. “I also chose it because I listened to the first track, ‘Caravan,’ and it knocked me out. I knew it had to be heard.”

Recorded (anonymously) from the soundboard during a Labor Day jazz festival at the Paul Masson Winery, in Saratoga, California, this set features Art’s Northern California band. He’d first encountered them in 1974 at Pete Douglas’s Beach House—aka Bach Dancing and Dynamite—up in Half Moon Bay. He fell in love at once with pianist Smith Dobson, a jazz educator and local performer who had worked with almost every jazz star who came through The Reunion in San Francisco and other Northern California venues. Art worked with him quite a few times and talked about taking him on the road. (Listen to Art’s heartfelt little speech right after they play “Rainy Day.”) The other band members were regulars Smith worked with: Jim Nichols on bass and young Brad Bilhorn on drums.

This recording was made on the last day of a three-day gig, so the band was tight and relaxed. Art began the set with the aforementioned “Caravan,” which seems, despite its quaintly Oriental or Saharan references, absolutely hurtling through a Latin landscape. That’s followed by one of Art’s most beautiful and idiosyncratic originals, “Ophelia.” Written for Art’s drug-addicted second wife, it’s a tune that is, by turns, tender, swinging, wildly raging, and finally as fresh and pretty as the morning after a storm. The third tune, “Here’s That Rainy Day,” is a classic ballad Art played frequently in those days—during which he was still earning part of his living working “casuals,” Bar Mitzvahs, and weddings. It was a regularly included standard at those functions, and Art loved to play it. Ballads were his forte, after all, and this time it moves him more than usual. You can hear his voice break as he singles out Smith Dobson’s solo.

If “Rainy Day” is heavenly, the next track is earthy. At casuals Art played “Ode to Billie Joe” and “Watermelon Man” for dancing and enjoyed that tremendously. “What Laurie Likes,” his own original, reflects the joy he got from playing funk. But as his jazz comeback accelerated, he succumbed to his public’s perception of “jazz rock” as too simple and passé and dropped that kind of thing from his repertoire, so we only get to hear this funky stuff in concerts like this one, from the ’70s.

Art usually ended his sets with “Straight Life,” his original, which had become his signature. This one is as breakneck and exciting as can be. And then, as an encore, we get another Pepper signature, a slow, sweet blues (“Saratoga Blues”).

credits

released November 4, 2013

Art Pepper, Smith Dobson, Jim Nichols, Brad Bilhorn: Mastering from audio cassette by Wayne Peet, Newzone Music.

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Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

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Art Pepper Los Angeles, California

Born in 1925 in Gardena, CA, and raised in San Pedro, CA. Incredible life can't be summarized here! Read all about it in STRAIGHT LIFE at Amazon. Read what it was like being married to him in ART: Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman. Amazon ditto.

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