Articles

Daily articles carefully curated by the All About Jazz staff. Read our popular and future articles.

RADIO May 12, 2020

The Second Acts of Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon, & Johnny Griffin (1975 - 1985)

Perfectly timed to reinforce the value of acoustic mainstream jazz and provide an alternative to both fusion and free jazz, Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon and Johnny Griffin reappeared and reestablished themselves as key players at the end of the 1970s. Their excellent late career work paved the way for the resurgence of mainstream bebop and hard bop in the 1980s. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Art Pepper Quartet “Lost Life" from Living Legend (Contemporary) 3:50 Art Pepper Solo “Somewhere ...

EXTENDED ANALYSIS September 23, 2019

Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings

By Peter J. Hoetjes

A Man and His Word Art Pepper's career as an alto saxophonist is often said to exist in two eras, separated by incarceration and marriage, joined together by a penchant for substance abuse. In 1952, Pepper was a young jazzman on the rise in a world where John Coltrane and Miles Davis had yet to become household names. This era, which gained substantial steam with the release of The Art Pepper Quartet (Tampa, 1956), was one where he laid the ...

RADIO June 18, 2019

Stan Kenton and West Coast Jazz (1950 - 1958)

By Russell Perry

In the last hour, we heard evidence of Woody Herman's capacity for talent development in the form of further work by reed players Stan Getz, Serge Chaloff, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims and Jimmy Giuffre. In this hour we turn the spotlight on alumni of the Stan Kenton Orchestra which produced several significant players in the West Coast cool tradition and a number of prominent vocalists. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Stan Kenton & His Orchestra. “Art Pepper" from Stan ...

ALBUM REVIEW November 9, 2018

Art Pepper: Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. 10: Toronto

By C. Michael Bailey

Laurie Pepper, widow of alto saxophonist Art Pepper, achieved a life milestone in her brilliantly liberating sequel to Straight Life--The Story Of Art Pepper By Art And Laurie Pepper (Da Capo Press, 1983), where she rhetorically asked: “If Art hadn't had me there constantly assessing his mood, taking his aesthetic temperature, would he then have had to push his vision by himself? I think somebody else, another friend or lover, might have done it...But what matters here, to ...

ALBUM REVIEW August 8, 2017

Art Pepper: The Return of Art Pepper

By C. Michael Bailey

Alto saxophonist Art Pepper's first incarceration for drugs took place between August 1954 and July 1956, a period conspicuous for Pepper's absence from the recording studio. Pepper's first recording as a leader after his release was, aptly, The Return of Art Pepper. He had been busy as a sideman for trumpeters Shorty Rogers (Big Shorty Express (RCA, 1956)) and Chet Baker (The Route (Pacific Jazz, 1956)) before entering Capitol Studios on August 5, 1956 to record the ten pieces that ...

BAILEY'S BUNDLES August 4, 2017

Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions” Volumes 5 & 6

By C. Michael Bailey

Omnivore Records concludes its remastering and re-release of Art Pepper's Yupiteru (later to become Atlas Records) recordings volumes 5 and 6, featuring, trumpeter Jack Sheldon, and drummer Shelly Manne, respectively. To date, the label has remastered and released four volumes: Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions" Volumes 1: Sonny Stitt (2017); Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions" Volumes 2: Pete Jolly (2017); Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions" Volumes 3: Lee Konitz (2017); and Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions" ...

BAILEY'S BUNDLES June 22, 2017

Art Pepper: Presents “West Coast Sessions” Volumes 3 & 4

By C. Michael Bailey

Today is the day that I finally come clean about Art Pepper and me. In 1984, I was taking a year off between having finished Pharmacy School and beginning a graduate program in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design. During this time, I had my yearly eye appointment with my ophthalmologist, one Dr. A. Henry Thomas, with whom I struck up a conversation regarding jazz. Up to this point, the only jazz recording I owned was...of course...Miles Davis's Kind of Blue ...