Results for "Art Pepper"

Art Pepper

Alto Saxophonist Art Pepper, a native of Gardena California, played in the overtly emotional manner that came to define the West Coast style. His solo approach was always passionate, from early recordings made with Stan Kenton's orchestra during his years with the band (1943 and 1946-52) and in jam sessions on LA’s Central Avenue. Records and club work with Shorty Rogers and his Giants beginning in 1951 provided more room for his solo skills, and by 1952 he began cutting more intimate and open quartet and quintet sessions under his own name. By this time he had already developed a dependence on alcohol, pills, and heroin that led to an erratic lifestyle and (in 1952) the first of several arrests and incarcerations. For the remainder of the decade, Pepper alternated stretches in prison with bursts of recording activity

Peter J. Hoetjes' Best Releases of 2020

By PETER J. HOETJES

It's been an unusual year for the music industry within any genre. The first few months of 2020 were fairly typical, followed by months of uncertainty prompted by fear and misinformation. As the year closes however, jazz musicians are hopefully able to glimpse the sun rising on the distant horizon. If 2019 was a ...

Unreleased Art Pepper Volume Eleven: Atlanta

By ART PEPPER

Label: Widow's Taste
Released: 2020
Track listing: Blues for Blanche; Talk: Intros and about "Blanche"; The Trip; Talk: How come you don't play standards?; Avalon; Talk: Intros & about "Patricia"; Patricia; Talk: Bullet Train; Landscape; Talk: New Book; Straight Life ; Untitled #34; TALK: Intros; Milcho Escapes from Bulgaria; A Song for Richard; Talk: Swing Journal; Mambo Koyama (incomplete); A Taste: Avalon; A Taste: Mambo Koyama; A Taste: Patricia; A Taste: The Trip.

Concert Kenton

By STAN KENTON

Label: Sounds of Yesteryear
Released: 2020
Track listing: Act I, Progressive Jazz—Artistry Jumps; Elegy for Alto; Machito; Theme to the West. Act II, Innovations in Modern Music—Theme; Samana; I’ll Remember April; Gloomy Sunday; How High the Moon; Love for Sale; Gregory Bemko; Salute; Theme. Act III, Mellophoniums—Commencement; Artemis and Apollo; Apercu. Act IV, L.A. Neophonic —Stan speaks about the Neophonic Orchestra. Opus for Tympani (First Movement / Second Movement / Third Movement). Act V, 1971—A Listening; Poinciana.

Stan Kenton and His Orchestra: Concert Kenton

By JACK BOWERS

There's no question that Stan Kenton led one of the more successful and popular orchestras of the storied Big Band Era, winning various yearly polls while drawing large crowds to his jazz concerts and dance performances from coast to coast. But Kenton always wanted something more: to enlighten as well as entertain. Music, he felt, should ...

Susie Meissner: I Wish I Knew

By C. MICHAEL BAILEY

Over the past decade and three previous recordings, Philadelphia-based vocalist Susie Meissner has crafted an intelligently conceived and thoughtfully paced survey of the Great American Songbook. Meissner's considerations of the standard jazz repertoire, in concert with pianist John Shaddy's sturdy arrangements and educated performance manner, have emerged, evolving from chaste and reverent beginnings, into rich and ...

20 Seattle Jazz Musicians You Should Know: Marc Seales

By PAUL RAUCH

The city of Seattle has a jazz history that dates back to the very beginnings of the form. It was home to the first integrated club scene in America on Jackson St in the 1920's and 30's. It saw a young Ray Charles arrive as a teenager to escape the nightmare of Jim Crow in the ...

Jazz & Film: An Alternative Top 20 Soundtrack Albums

By CHRIS MAY

Jazz and the movies have a shared history stretching back almost a hundred years. The relationship came into its own in the US in the mid twentieth century. Elia Kazan's 1950 movie Panic In The Streets is an early example of how film makers used jazz-based soundtracks to enhance drama and atmosphere and create ambiances of ...