Music CD - Art Pepper: The Hollywood All-Star Sessions

These five extraordinary CD's capture the altoist in peak form in five different contexts, each swinging from start to finish and each featuring non-stop light and heat from one of jazz' most creative overachievers. During the middle of "Wee," taken at a torrid tempo on Disc 3, Pepper does something unexpected: he reverts to the conventional, proving he had chops sufficient to outpace the very best Bird disciple of them all. Sonny Stitt is his sparring mate. Pepper has just finished one of his jagged, angular solos, emitting brief bursts of brilliance, taking stabs at the overtone series, leaving shards of crystalized emotions in his choppy wake. Expressive and communicative, but certainly no proof of his command of either the horn or the complex syntax of bebop. Then Stitt follows with smooth, logical and assured Bird-like lines, spitting them out with consummate albeit formulaic ease. Apparently that was enough for Pepper, who takes after Stitt, exhibiting the killer instinct of a competitor who's about to humiliate the rival on the latter's own turf. Pepper's note choices, velocity, articulations, energy, and even fluency are sufficient not only to smoke Sonny but to expose his own former elliptical approach to improvisation as the "ruse" of a creator who under most circumstances will go the extra mile to avoid anything resembling a cliche, a familiar lick, a glib formula.

The man was not only the most moving alto saxophonist of them all but indeed may very well have been the best.

The Atlas intention was to recapture the flavor of West Coast jazz of the '50s, and the label matched Peeper with associates and material that would suggest the earlier era. Nominal leaders of the Hollywood All-Stars included West Coast veterans such as trumpeter Jack Sheldon, drummer Shelly Manne, and pianist Pete Jolly, as well as the younger trombonist Bill Watrous, with Pepper himself as the only constant. The material emphasizes standards and jazz tunes from the earlier era, and the group style is suavely relaxed, often with touches of counterpoint. If Pepper's intensity had always marked him as something of an outsider in the cool school, it was also an inspiration: this is small-group modern jazz that's often as lively as it is polished, with Pepper prodding Sheldon, Watrous, and tenor saxophonist Bob Cooper to outdo themselves.

Pepper's ballad playing had a uniquely visceral quality and it often stands out here, especially in a quartet session under pianist Pete Jolly's name, with Pepper unfettered by other horns. There are also meetings with two other giants of modern jazz alto, Sonny Stitt and Lee Konitz. The sessions with Stitt produced two LPs, with the focus strongly on blues and bop. It's spirited music, with Stitt's Parker-like lines contrasting with Pepper's alternately jagged and convoluted phrasing. If Stitt challenged Pepper's competitiveness, then Konitz ignited his imagination. Recorded just five months before Pepper's death, it's an encounter between two of the genuine improvisers, each shaping music anew with every gesture, phrase, and inflection, whether the material at hand is as novel as Konitz's "A Minor Blues in F" or as hackneyed as "Anniversary Song." --Stuart Broomer