Art Pepper - Complete Artists House Sessions

[king ubu]

already downloading, myself

Artists House Sessions: COMPLETE
by Art Pepper

1. Straight No Chaser (Alt.) 05:56
2. Straight, No Chaser 06:20
3. Yesterdays** 08:11
4. A Night in Tunisia 09:45
5. A Night in Tunisia (Alt. A)** 09:46
6. DIANE (FREE) 12:15
7. My Friend John 09:40
8. Duo Blues: Art Pepper, Ron Carter 07:54
9. Blues for Blanche (Alt. A) 07:27
10. Landscape** 09:24
11. Stardust 10:29
12. Donna Lee 05:56
13. Donna Lee (Alt.)** 06:10
14. Blues for Blanche (Alt. B)** 08:14
15. Blues for Blanche 06:45
16. So in Love 11:33
17. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) 05:42
18. Body and Soul (Solo) 04:37
19. You Go to My Head Tk 1 (Solo) 06:02
20. Tin Tin Deo* 11:05
21. Stardust (Alt.)* 08:42
22. Anthropology (clari, bass, drums) 06:36
23. In a Mellotone* (clari, bass, drums) 08:36
24. Desafinado 08:03
25. My Friend John (Alt. A)* 07:47
26. My Friend John (Alt. B)** 07:22
27. You Go to My Head (Solo)** 04:22
28. Art's Sweet Blues (Solo Clari)** 03:56
29. Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?) (Solo Clari.)** 03:10
30. Johnny's Blues (Solo)** 05:16
31. But Beautiful (Solo)** 03:25
32. But Beautiful TK2 (Solo)** 03:53

These are the Artists House Sessions, recorded in 1979 by John Snyder for his label. in New York with Hank Jones, Ron Carter, Al Foster (Tracks 1 through 8); And in Los Angeles with George Cables, Charlie Haden, Billy Higgins (tracks 9 through 26). There are five solo tracks, recorded in New York, and never released anywhere, ever.

Most of these tracks were eventually released by Fantasy/Galaxy Records on the Art Pepper Complete Galaxy Box. Which is no longer available. Many have been released on top quality vinyl by Acoustic Sounds. But some tracks have only been released in Japan (titles with one *) And some have never been released before. (titles with two **)

And DON'T FAIL TO DOWNLOAD THE GREAT BIG GORGEOUS LINER NOTE WITH PHOTOS.

released May 4, 2016

https://blueplatespecials.bandcamp.com/album/artists-house-sessions-complete

[king ubu]

m'kay, seems just the solo tracks at the end are not in the Galaxy box ... a bit confusing then, and the asterisks kinda obfuscating.

[mjzee]

Laurie's doing a commendable job curating and releasing Art's work.  Wish other deceased musicians had someone doing similar.  Ubu, thanks for letting us know about this new release.

[danasgoodstuff]

If I didn't already have the Galaxy box I'd be interested...

[Gheorghe]

Must be good. I like most of Art Pepper´s later work, must admit I listen much more to his late 70´s  early 80´s stuff, like Chet Baker, I listen much more to his later work. And really fast company, I love rhythm sections like this.

And yeah, there could be more of that kind from other deceased musicians, more late Elvin Jones, Dexter, Mingus. Later versions of those bands were underrecorded, or they were overproduced with adding a lot of "guests", or you can´t find whole concerts (in this case, the "widow´s taste" is a great exception with double CDs from a lot of great nights)

[David Ayers]

Interesting points there...

[Eric]

7 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

Must be good. I like most of Art Pepper´s later work, must admit I listen much more to his late 70´s  early 80´s stuff, like Chet Baker, I listen much more to his later work. And really fast company, I love rhythm sections like this.

Yeah, although I first discovered Pepper through his 50s Contemporary material, it is his 70s/80s stuff that I really spend time with.  There is a certain rawness to it, an urgency. 

[HutchFan]

8 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

I like most of Art Pepper´s later work, must admit I listen much more to his late 70´s  early 80´s stuff, like Chet Baker, I listen much more to his later work. And really fast company, I love rhythm sections like this.

 

1 hour ago, Eric said:

Yeah, although I first discovered Pepper through his 50s Contemporary material, it is his 70s/80s stuff that I really spend time with.  There is a certain rawness to it, an urgency. 

I agree with both of you.  I MUCH prefer Pepper's music from the latter part of his career.

[paul secor]

We've been through this before here, but I'll just say that I much prefer Mr. Pepper's early work and find it difficult to listen to the later recordings.

[mjzee]

I find the later work consistently satisfying.

[medjuck]

I was listening to this at the gym this morning.  So far good stuff.

[l p]

at least 24 people have read her book 'Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman' (2014).

http://www.amazon.com/ART-Why-Stuck-Junkie-Jazzman/product-reviews/1494297574/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_two?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=two_star&showViewpoints=0

 

 

[Eric]

7 hours ago, l p said:

at least 24 people have read her book 'Why I Stuck with a Junkie Jazzman' (2014).

http://www.amazon.com/ART-Why-Stuck-Junkie-Jazzman/product-reviews/1494297574/ref=cm_cr_dp_qt_hist_two?ie=UTF8&filterByStar=two_star&showViewpoints=0

 

 

I read a bunch of the reviews - a number of them well thought-out, particularly by amazon standards.  Makes me want to read it.

[l p]

11 hours ago, Eric said:

I read a bunch of the reviews - a number of them well thought-out, particularly by amazon standards.  Makes me want to read it.

to me, they look planted by the author and the author's friends.

[Peter Friedman]

I generally prefer Art Pepper's earlier and mid period playing. Some of his later things I do very much like,but others don't appeal. The influence of Coltrane spoiled some of Pepper's later recording for me.

I have the same concern about the later playing of Harold Land and Bill Perkins. Though with Perkins it is not simply Coltrane's influence, but rather the influence of a combination of a number of Hard Bop tenor men.

[fasstrack]

3 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

I generally prefer Art Pepper's earlier and mid period playing. Some of his later things I do very much like,but others don't appeal. The influence of Coltrane spoiled some of Pepper's later recording for me.

 

I agree. I didn't see the point of his 'expressionism'.He seems to have misread Coltrane. But back in the day, boy...

[king ubu]

#29 of the FLAC version is totally corrupt. Just spent two hours trying and then forcing down my computer. Sucks. Big time. Will drop a note to Laurie ... possibly that it might play (it did open in WinAmp, but when I tried to fast forward, I had the next breakdown - same when I tried to copy the file, rename the file, decompress it in Trader's Little Helper etc.)

Guess that's another reason why I hate wasting money on downloads ... you never have any guarantee those on the other end know what they're doing or how to do it properly or that they bother to really check everything before spreading things.

[JSngry]

On Tuesday, May 17, 2016 at 0:11 PM, mjzee said:

I find the later work consistently satisfying.

I vary on the satisfsction per se, but I do find It consistently compelling. Not always the case, for me, with the earlier stuff. 

[Gheorghe]

14 hours ago, Peter Friedman said:

I generally prefer Art Pepper's earlier and mid period playing. Some of his later things I do very much like,but others don't appeal. The influence of Coltrane spoiled some of Pepper's later recording for me.

I have the same concern about the later playing of Harold Land and Bill Perkins. Though with Perkins it is not simply Coltrane's influence, but rather the influence of a combination of a number of Hard Bop tenor men.

I´m aware of that opinion...... many listeners hear influences of Trane in Pepper´s later work, but I would like to add something:

Only the fact that Pepper´s sound and approach became more "aggresive" and there´s a bit more modal thing in his tunes doesn´t lead necessarly to the conclusion that he´s under the influence of  Coltrane. It´s just how it went on. Pepper had been hurt so much, or better said he had hurt himself so much, so gone was the more mellow side of his playing, but his ballads like "Winter Moon" have a special, very moving quality. Sure he liked Trane, he stated he liked Freddie Hubbard very much too, but he didn´t mention too many other players.

And it was the rhythm sections that pushed him in certain directions. If you play with George Cables, Billy Higgins, Al Foster, guys like that you can´t go on with the more mellow early 50´s west coast sound, you´d be lost. You better get into another direction and I think Mr. Art Pepper did it in a very individual manner. His tone on latterday performances  is sharp, but not in the way Jackie McLean would do it, it´s something else. I like it.

 

[paul secor]

I wouldn't lay the changes in his playing on rhythm sections. Art Pepper recorded with Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe; and with Wynton Kelly, Chambers, and Jimmy Cobb. Also with Carl Perkins, Hampton Hawes, and Frank Butler in his earlier years. I wouldn't categorize any of these people as musicians with a "more mellow west coast sound".

[JSngry]

But Elvin. Because Elvin

[Peter Friedman]

Though I read the book long long ago, my recollection is that Pepper himself, in his book,  had a bit of an inferiority complex about his playing in comparison with the currently more hip East Coast hard bop players. He wanted to be more "up to date" by playing in the style of the most highly regarded players. That struck me as a large influence in changing his style to reflect the more "with it" type of playing at that time.

Yes Elvin must have been an influence on his later Vanguard sessions, though strictly at the personal level, it was not an influence I found beneficial.

Though clearly YMMD.

 

[JSngry]

Some people are naturally curious. For whatever reason. They start feeling restless, get around change, they go check it out and get into it, just to wsee what it's all about. That's how just how they do. And if they get something out of it, that only encourages them to keep it.

Some people are happy just the way they are. Things fit, why change?

I appreciate the basic notion of hard-wired concepts of comfort built into both personalities.

There are two Pepper things I have heard that to me are just godawful examples of his desire to change gone horribly wrong. One is that TV clip from 66(?) where he sounds like he's trying to destroy all thoughts of his old style by having Opposite Day on his instrument. The other one is a private recording of Pepper sitting in with Warne @ Dante's ca. 1977. There. I think it's just ego. This about the time when people were finally starting to get hip to Warne, so Pepper must have felt the need to come in and be THE Mister Hip, In both cases, just horrible, godawful horrible, playing by Pepper, Random devices played with overt aggression, not passion, but aggression, like using a weapon. So there was that, sure there was. Stepping on your dick in public is one thing, that's the cost of improvising, sometimes you reach and OOOOOPS, SORRY....but that's not the same as whipping it out for everybody to see and then putting it in everybody's faces while you run around the room. That's what the bad things are like, actually offensive, sociopathic, even, perhaps.

But truthfully, I don't know that there was that much of it overall. The guy was too astute a musician to not understand the music of what he was working with as well as the superficial "modernity", and he was too true an artist to not be able to use it constructively, to want to use it constructively. And there's a lot of good to great music made as a result.

Now, having said all that, I think I finally "got" Art Pepper maybe ten years ago, haven't heard anything to change my feelings, just more things to confirm them. So I really don't need to get any more Art Pepper any time soon, except maybe on an occasional whim. My main takeaway about all of it is that if you're going to upset your own applecart, whether it's courageous or stupid depends on what kind of a cart (and what kind of apples) you end up with as a result. Seemed to me that Pepper's applecart and apples could be any given thing on any given day, but on a lot of days, it was pretty a damn hip cart, and that the apples in it were crisp as they could be, crisp, tart, and sweet, tasty apples aplenty to be eaten right there on the spot, get 'em while you can because they might be gone by tomorrow. And then some days it was like, damn dude, get these nastyass apples outta here, I ain't eating that mushy wormy crap.

But the thing is, you wouldn't know for sure until you got there, and there were plenty of times when the shit was right that you would want to keep coming back to see what Mr. Pepper was going to bring today.

OTOH, there's that Golden State Fruit thing, where you get consistently perfect fruit delivered right to your doorstep the same day every month. That's some damn fine fruit too, no reason to not deal with that, that's a good thing too. Their pears in particular are glorious.

Just saying - lots of options in life, and sometimes what I find most interesting is not the options themselves, but watching the people as they make their choices, process perhaps more revealing than outcome, although the outcome is what goes on your resume, and the explanation of processes have to wait for, like, the second or third interview. Assuming you get that far.

[king ubu]

On 18.5.2016 at 8:39 PM, king ubu said:

#29 of the FLAC version is totally corrupt. Just spent two hours trying and then forcing down my computer. Sucks. Big time. Will drop a note to Laurie ... possibly that it might play (it did open in WinAmp, but when I tried to fast forward, I had the next breakdown - same when I tried to copy the file, rename the file, decompress it in Trader's Little Helper etc.)

Guess that's another reason why I hate wasting money on downloads ... you never have any guarantee those on the other end know what they're doing or how to do it properly or that they bother to really check everything before spreading things.

Okay, I got the track again from someone else - no idea what happened, but I downloaded the whole thing as a RAR and then unpacked that RAR to my computer, and that one file turned out corrupt. Don't feel like wasting more time on this now, just wanted to mention it.