Art Pepper - Living Legend - Limited Edition 180 Gram LP

LIMITED EDITION 180 GRAM LP

Art Pepper: "Since this is my first album in fifteen years, I was very nervous when I went to the date. Fortunately, I had people behind me who enabled me to just relax and blow, and I had a number of originals I wanted to record. "Ophelia" was written in 1963 in San Quentin, and it’s about women. It’s supposed to be pretty like a woman, really sad like women make you at times, and unpredictable and changeable. I got out of San Quentin not long after I wrote "Ophelia", but it was only a few months before I went back again. And that’s when I wrote "Lost Life". I called it that because I’d spent over ten years in prison and felt like I was never going to get out for any length of time. I figured I’d blow any chance I might have had to make anything of my life. When I wrote it, I never dreamed I’d ever record "Lost Life," or anything else for that matter. When I got out of San Quentin for the last time at the end of ’66, it was hard to get any kind of jazz gig. I’d go out with my tenor to rock clubs and sit in with the bands. The only professional job I had was at Shelly’s Manne-Hole. At that time I was playing very outside, and when I started blowing at Shelly’s, I could feel the mixed reaction of the audience."

Tracklist:

Side 1

1. OPHELIA
2. HERE’S THAT RAINY DAY
3. WHAT LAURIE LIKES

Side 2

1. MR. YOHE
2. LOST LIFE
3. SAMBA MOM-MOM

Personnel:

Art Pepper, alto sax Hampton Hawes, piano Charlie Haden, bass Shelly Manne, drums.

Credits:

Recorded August 9, 1975 at Contemporary’s studio in Los Angeles.

Sound by Roy DuNann.

Produced by Lester Koenig. ©1976 by Contemporary Records, Inc.