Art Pepper Widow Taste

For a few years, I got to travel with these bands—they included me—a dream come true. I’ve tried to take you on a trip with me and Art and the bands while reliving all of it a little—in writing it, in pictures I took, scenes and conversations I recall. And in the music Art asked me to record. About which I feel absolutely safe in saying it: That’s it. That’s jazz.

For many jazz fans, the high point of Art Pepper’s late-’70s comeback was a fournight stand at New York’s Village Vanguard that was recorded for Contemporary Records and released, at first, as four albums, and later as a nine-CD set. These rangy, sometimes raucous performances with pianist George Cables, bassist George Mraz and drummer Elvin Jones, captured the questing, Coltrane-inflected sound of his later years, while still reflecting the lyric, bop schooled virtuosity of his early work.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol. 4 - The Art History Project (2009) {3CD Set, Widow's Taste ‎APM09001 rec 1951-1982}
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© 1951-82, 2009 Widow's Taste | APM09001
Jazz / Bebop / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Jazz Blues / Saxophone

There are several Art Pepper boxed sets on the market but none that tried to cover the entire sweep of his checkered career until this one, the fourth in his widow Laurie Pepper's series of Unreleased Art projects for her own label. The three-CD set is thoughtfully divided by disc into three periods – early Pepper from the cool 1950s, his lost years in the '60s when he spent most of the decade in jail on dope charges, and the final comeback from the mid-'70s until his death in 1982.

Art Pepper - Blues For The Fisherman (1980) {4CD Set, Widow's Taste APM11001 rel 2011}
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© 1980, 2011 Widow's Taste | APM 11001 | Unreleased Art Series
Jazz / Post Bop / Bebop / West Coast Jazz / Alto Saxophone

This is the official Widow's Taste release by the Widow herself, Laurie Pepper, in Los Angeles and remastered by Wayne Peet AND including a 22 page booklet filled with info, gossip, and photos. ALL of two nights live at Ronnie Scott's in London, 198, transferred from original analogue tapes professionally recorded by Mole Jazz. THE TWELVE BARS OF THE DECADE; Blues for the Fisherman was hailed by one jazz journalist as just that when four of these tracks were released in the U.K. in 1980 by Mole Jazz. That LP remained at the top of the British jazz charts for well over a year, so Mole eventually released a second album from the same session.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol. 1- The Complete Abashiri Concert (1981) {2CD Set, Widow's Taste APMC06001 rel 2006}
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© 1981, 2006 Widow's Taste | APMC 06001
Jazz / Bebop / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Jazz Blues / Saxophone

Despite his precarious health, wrecked by decades of doping, Art Pepper was performing and recording at a furious pace during his last seven years, trying to make up for lost time. There is a tremendous amount of material already issued from those years – and since this initial release from Laurie Pepper's label Widow's Taste is designated Vol. 1, there must be much more on the shelf. Hopefully the rest of the booty is as good as this one, a souvenir of Pepper's last tour of Japan, where he had become the country's number one jazz alto sax star even before he returned to performing.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol. 3 - The Croydon Concert May 14, 1981 (2008) {2CD Set, Widow's Taste ‎APM08001}
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© 1981, 2008 Widow's Taste | APM08001
Jazz / Bebop / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Jazz Blues / Saxophone

In Unreleased Art, Vol. 3 of the Unreleased Art series, Laurie Pepper unearths yet another unreleased tape of a late-period Art Pepper performance – this time courtesy of an obsessive fan who had access to prime-sounding material. This double-CD set takes in a full concert from Pepper's working band of 1981, caught while on an exhausting tour of Europe and the U.K. – 18 dates in 21 days. By this time, after two years on the road, the team of Pepper, pianist Milcho Leviev – who from the testimony of Laurie Pepper's notes evidently had a tempestuous working relationship with the alto saxophonist – bassist Bob Magnusson and drummer Carl Burnett had the mutual ESP going good and hard.

Art Pepper - Unreleased Art, Vol. 2 - The Last Concert May 30, 1982 (2007) {Widow's Taste APMC07001}
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© 1982, 2007 Widow's Taste | APMC 07001
Jazz / Bebop / Cool / West Coast Jazz / Jazz Blues / Saxophone

This previously unreleased music is subtitled "The Last Concert." Ben Webster, Clifford Brown and Rosemary Clooney are among those who have also had their final performance released on record. In Pepper's case, the great altoist's health had been a bit shaky but he sounds remarkably strong and passionate throughout this concert. Laurie Pepper's superb liner notes give listeners the very human story behind this gig which features the altoist with the virtuoso pianist Roger Kellaway (who had been enlisted for the tour after George Cables had departed to join Sarah Vaughan), bassist David Williams and drummer Carl Burnett during an hour-long performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.