The Berkeley Item - #87

"In Session," the ALBERT KING/STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN album released by Stax last summer, was a double winner at the W.C. Handy Blues Awards in Memphis (5/25), being named Best Blues Album and Best Contemporary Blues Album. http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/king7501.html

The annual awards are presented by the Blues Foundation; RUFUS THOMAS and TRACY NELSON were the hosts for this year's ceremony. http://www.handyawards.com/2000
http://www.fantasyjazz.com/catalog/thomas_ru_cat.html

Just out on Galaxy: “Renascence," a previously unreleased September 1975 live session by ART PEPPER, recorded at the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society in Half Moon Bay, CA with a Bay Area rhythm section (ED KELLY, piano; KENNY JENKINS, bass; BRAD BILHORN, drums).

The Half Moon Bay gig came a mere month after the saxophonist had recorded “Living Legend" for Contemporary [now available as OJC-408], his first album as a leader since 1960. “It looks to me like life begins at 50," Art said at the time, “and I never thought that I'd live to see 50, let alone start a new life at this age...."

Further evidence of Pepper's personal and professional renaissance of the period may be heard in two Fantasy boxed sets: “The Complete Galaxy Recordings" (16 discs, released in 1989) and “The Complete Village Vanguard Sessions" (9 discs, 1995). http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/pepperbox1016+.html
http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/pepperbox4417.html

A 5-CD box of Art Pepper's 1979-1982 recordings for the Japanese Atlas label--in the company of LEE KONITZ, SONNY STITT, JACK SHELDON, LOU LEVY, CARL BURNETT, and others--is planned for year-end release on Galaxy.

Five new Limited Edition OJCs have just been released--
http://www.fantasyjazz.com/html/ojc1928.html

“JUANITA HALL Sings the Blues" (1958, with Coleman Hawkins, Claude Hopkins, Doc Cheatham); CHARLIE CHRISTIAN/DIZZY GILLESPIE “After Hours" (1941 sessions from Minton's and Monroe's, with Thelonious Monk, Don Byas, Hot Lips Page); AL HAIG Trio and Sextets, featuring Stan Getz and Wardell Gray (1949 and 1954); and two volumes of “THE BIRDLANDERS" (1954, with Milt Jackson, J.J. Johnson, Oscar Pettiford, Gene Ramey, and Max Roach, among many others).