Jazz
Recorded live at the Village Vanguard, New York, New York from July 28-30, 1977
Art Pepper (alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet); George Cables (piano); George Mraz (bass); Elvin Jones (drums)
"You have come to see history made,"Art Pepper informs the audience as this session begins. The promise came from his artist's heart, and he kept it. In July of 1977 at the Village Vanguard, with a dream band (George Cables, George Mraz, and Elvin Jones), Art gave us these three nights of pivotal, swinging, disturbing, absolutely beautiful jazz. He was 51 years old. He was at the outset of his last and best comeback, and this was an emotionally loaded debut for him--as a bandleader in the Big Apple and as a leader of a live recording date. Four very successful albums were the result.
Now, in this box (which includes 24 previously unreleased tracks), we have the whole thing for the first time, intact in every way, chronological and unedited. Art's onstage talk and Laurie Pepper's written reminiscence put his remarkable performance in context and the listener in the picture--as dramatic a picture as any in Art's eventful life.
Producer: Lester Koenig. Compilation producer: Ed Michel. Includes liner notes by Laurie Pepper. Digitally remastered by Phil De Lancie (1995, Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, California) |