THE MANY MOODS OF ART PEPPER

Last night I was sick. Bad congestion, body ache, all that. I slept a good long time and got up this morning still feeling like shit, unsure if I was better or worse. Time to move.

I got and made some coffee and grabbed a book. I'm re-reading the Art Pepper memoir. I learned something. Do not read a book about a junky, particularly the part where he's describing his first fix when you're sick. It made be feel sicker. I shut the book. I gotta say, that dude had a mess of a life for someone with a talent so immense. You'd think more people would know of him just because the juxtaposition is so great. I thought I'd fix that by posting about him. In checking, I saw that I'd posted about him the first time I read the book. So below are the text and links from that (all links are still good.) From 6/9/2021:

I'm halfway through reading Art Pepper's autobiography The Straight Life (co-written with his wife Laurie). If you know anything about Pepper, you know he's a West Coast jazz guy, saxophone. If you know anything else about Pepper you know that he was a junkie, for years. He did time in a number of facilities, the most notorious San Quentin. I'm only halfway through the book (up to the mid-sixties) and I can tell you just from that that he makes Keith Richards look like a dabbler. Nothing is glossed over in the book. Not the crimes he committed, not the extent he went through to get a fix, not the lovers he treated like shit, or the dark thoughts running around in his head. It is heavy.

So I started browsing, A couple links in, I'm already distracted. There's a shitload about Pepper online. These are tonights detours.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
Art Pepper - Caravan mp3 at Rubber City Review
Art Pepper - 'Round Midnight mp3 at Space Age Pop
Art Pepper - Straight Life mp3 at Rubber City Review From Meets the Rhythm Section
Art Pepper - Birks Works mp3 at Rubber City Review Ditto
Art Pepper - More songs and excellent profile at Rubber City Review
Video:
Art Pepper Quartet - Jazz Casual at YouTube Three songs, 29 minutes.1964
Art Pepper - Jazz Survivor at YouTube Documentary, 46 minutes, 1982
Visit:
Their Unique Love Affair at Perfect Sound Forever Profile of Art and Laurie Pepper, 2014
Laurie Pepper, Wife of Late Saxophonist Art Pepper at Fresh Air, PBS Interview podcast, 27 minutes, 2001