Art Pepper in Synanon, playing for Kiyoshi Koyama
by Art Pepper
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In 1971, Art Pepper, who'd been an addict for most of his life, had hit bottom at age 46. He'd been hospitalized with a ruptured spleen, he had cirrhosis, and he'd moved into Synanon, a residential drug treatment program having had nowhere else to go. A fan, Mr. Kiyoshi Koyama, contacted the owner of Contemporary Records, Lester Koenig, owner of Art's former label, and arranged to visit Art in Synanon. At the time Koyama was a jazz writer and, possibly even back then, the editor of the prestigious, gorgeous, slick, fat Japanese jazz magazine. Swing Journal. This is a recording of that visit. On the tape, Koyama asks Art to play for him—because he probably won't ever get to hear him in Japan. Art says, "Unless I go to Japan..." That didn't look likely, at the time. Art took Koyama down to his "practice room," the subbasement of the Synanon Club (Now the Casa Del Mar hotel). Art played a borrowed tenor sax (as in my photo, as he did, almost every day down there.)
In 1977 at the beginning of his last comeback, Art traveled to Japan. And he returned every year thereafter with his bands to perform for his fans. there, until his death in 1982. During that time he met with Mr. Koyama many times, and he wrote a truly terrific tune and named it "Mambo Koyama." And then Mr. Koyama said that when he was a kid, he was nuts about Mambo, so "Mambo" had been his nickname!
Art's picture was on the cover of Swing Journal many times. When the magazine ended, Mr. Koyama became a celebrated record producer. HEAR MAMBO KOYAMA, recorded in Nice ten years later, in 1981. artpepper.bandcamp.com/track/mambo-koyama-81
In 1977 at the beginning of his last comeback, Art traveled to Japan. And he returned every year thereafter with his bands to perform for his fans. there, until his death in 1982. During that time he met with Mr. Koyama many times, and he wrote a truly terrific tune and named it "Mambo Koyama." And then Mr. Koyama said that when he was a kid, he was nuts about Mambo, so "Mambo" had been his nickname!
Art's picture was on the cover of Swing Journal many times. When the magazine ended, Mr. Koyama became a celebrated record producer. HEAR MAMBO KOYAMA, recorded in Nice ten years later, in 1981. artpepper.bandcamp.com/track/mambo-koyama-81
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released July 12, 2021
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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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Dec 2023 -
Feb 2022 -
Oct 2023 -
Jan 2021
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