Unreleased Art Pepper 7

Unreleased Art Pepper 7
- Shrink-wrapped
From the Album Notes: Memory is enhanced by trauma. My memory of my years with Art is sharp, because my life with him was dramatically eventful, full of emergencies and magnificent and/or hideous surprises. But I remember almost nothing of this November 1980 tour which came at the end of our busiest year of touring and recording. Fortunately, I shot about two hundred photographs on this trip thru the islands of Japan, and as I examine them for clues to what transpired, one thing leaps out at me from the snaps I took of Art: He s smiling. Often grinning ear-to-ear. It s inescapable. Art Pepper is happy. This odd mood of contentment on Art s part is intriguing enough to demand an explanation, and sleuthing through old calendars, letters, and contracts I find not one but several. THE TOUR: less of a battle, more of a dance We have to start with what came right before. 1. An invigorating dose of recognition: Our book, Straight Life was published and we d toured the US promoting it and talking our fool heads off on TV and on the radio while lapping up the praise for which we both had giant appetites. 2. The realization of a lifelong dream: Art had just made, in September, Winter Moon, his beautiful blues and ballad album with strings and it was perfect. 3. And then we have the band we brought along. I should say we have the great George Cables. Art had been touring with the aggravating, astounding, inspiring, stormy, ingenious, profoundly gifted and occasionally woefully obnoxious Milcho Leviev. I m not dissing Milcho here. Milcho himself will cop to all of it. And Milcho gave as many thrills as headaches to Art and to the competitive live music they made together which reached heights sometimes of spectacularness not touched anywhere else with anyone else. But George brought his gentle, beautiful, brilliant, empathic self to the game, making it less of a battle, more of a dance. What you see then, in Art s smiles, is his gratitude for and appreciation of that understanding. What you hear in his playing is the swinging sweetness at the heart of that collaboration. When I interviewed Art back in the 1970s for Straight Life, he had a good bit to say about how the character of a musician affects the music he or she makes (no, Art didn t say she. I m saying it). He emphasized the importance of being courteous and compassionate (words he used a lot). He talked about how you have to be a real person, an honest person, a caring person... and have the capacity to love and to play with love. Louis Armstrong said you can only play what you are. Mannerly, empathic and loving, George Cables s character shines through every note he plays. I never heard George talk bad about anyone ever, and I spent months on the road with him him in sometimes trying situations. When Art named him Mr. Beautiful during the 1977 Village Vanguard Vanguard sessions, he didn t mean just his music, though that dazzled him. He meant everything. The Rest of the Band: A mixed blessing and a holy man. ...[ to be continued in the album notes.]
Country USA
Brand Cd Baby
Manufacturer CD Baby
Binding Audio CD
ReleaseDate 2012-09-07
UnitCount 1
UPCs 885767141414
EANs 0885767141414

Country	USA
Brand	Cd Baby
Manufacturer	CD Baby
Binding	Audio CD
ReleaseDate	2012-09-07
UnitCount	1
UPCs	885767141414
EANs	0885767141414

Unreleased Art Pepper 7

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