Art Pepper: Gettin' Together

Roughly about a year before Art Pepper was sentenced to 3 to 20 years in San Quentin State Prison on heroin charges, he made this recording. Miles Davis' rhythm section was briefly available in Los Angeles. So Pepper had a chance to reprise his wonderful performance in Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (Original Jazz Classics, 1957), albeit with different personnel and with the addition of Conte Candoli on trumpet. The recording was a kind of coda to the first part of his career. Pepper was about 32 years old. Coming out of Benny Carter and Johnny Hodges, he would never sound quite the same again. There was even a touch of Ornette Coleman here, maybe in Pepper's phrasing and ideas.

Getting Together has never enjoyed the same reputation as some of Pepper's preceding recordings. Nor does it merit similar esteem. While the project gets off to a strong start on Side 1 with "Whims of Chambers" and "Softly, As In a Morning Sunrise," Side 2 is much less successful. No one other than Paul Chambers really sounds very comfortable on "Rhythm-A-Ning," where Pepper's solo has no discernible structure and sounds a lot like a collection of leftover licks. According to Martin Williams' liner notes, " 'Getting Together' [was] made because Art wanted to record a blues on tenor... ad lib while the tape was rolling." That is a reasonable description of the twelve-bar blues here, aimless, and not at all what one would expect from Pepper and the other musicians. Wynton Kelly's technique throughout is uncertain, and even Conte Candoli, who seems to be channeling Harry "Sweets" Edison in places, really just seems to play a lot of notes whenever he gets the chance to blow. Only Chambers really comes off well, although his arco playing will make no one who has spent much time around a classical bassist impressed. That may be heresy, but judge for yourself.

Pepper was a complicated guy, even for a white musician with a serious drug problem. The latter half of his career was not just a comeback, but a transformation, with a legacy of great recordings. Cut Pepper some slack on this one, which is part of the Craft Recordings audiophile Acoustic Sounds Series. San Quentin, where he was sent by a vengeful judge, was a nasty place to start all over again. And yet, he did.