Art Power

a very young Art

The power was out for a few hours this evening, making it difficult to read a friend's novel (liking it so far jp!)

I was informed that the power was back on by who else? Art Pepper playing I Can't Believe You're In Love With Me.

Pepper Pepper Pepper Pepper Pepper.

Have I become monotonous, my friends? Would you be pleased to know that I also listened to The Feelies today as I did dishes?

It's just that Art is so good and you'd know it if you gave him a chance. Some of you know it, right?

Art Dream

Last night I dreamt of Art Pepper. Due to Tylenol 3 I have been feeling pretty spun even during waking hours so no surprise that I should be having some wild dreams.

Unfortunately, upon waking the dream was immediately forgotten.

All I can recall is that it was later period Art. He was older; looking like Harlan Ellison, not like his younger days when he looked like Robert Wagner.

Did he tell me something about Shorty Rogers being a snitch?

Did we talk about San Quentin?

Did we talk about music?

Art! I don't remember the dream!

I will need to take Tylenol 3's again tonight. I will be waiting okay?

Shorty Snitched Art?

If you've been following this blog lately, you'll know that I have been on a real Art Pepper kick and have been listening to him nonstop. I have also mentioned that Art had an unfortunate relationship with heroin and spent much of the '60s locked up because of it.

Early today I read something shocking.

Art's widow accused his best friend, trumpeter Shorty Rogers, of turning stool pigeon and it was because of him that Art ended up in getting busted and sent to San Quentin.  She made the claim in the liner notes to the latest in series of unreleased recordings (that I will write about soon).

Do you think it's true?

As you can see in the photo to the left, he does have an awful goatee which looks quite villainous.  I mean, I like Shorty's music (he is one of the princes of west coast jazz for good reason, but he's no Art Pepper...) but would Laurie Pepper make an accusation like this after all this time if there wasn't some validity to it?

I've said it several times, my friends, but the more I learn about Art the more I think that there is a great movie waiting to be made about him.

I'm concerned an Art Pepper biopic would be painful to watch for us hard-core Art fans as they would surely destroy the great story by making it a romance with Brad Pitt and the starlet of the moment, but the soundtrack would be fantastic!

Albums That All Humans Should Own #5

When John Coltrane left Atlantic Records in 1961 to join upstart Impulse! it marked a major shift in the jazz community. How big was it? His signing helped the label exist at all and was certainly their biggest star.  A four CD box set commemorating the label’s best was recently released and it is aptly named 'The House That Trane Built'. There is no small number of jazz afficiandos who cherish those orange-spined albums. Perhaps they are the only jazz label whose album art rivals Blue Note...

Some of my favourite Coltrane albums were from this period (who doesn't adore 'A Love Supreme'?) and his quartet pushed the boundaries of jazz, creating what some haters referred to as anti-jazz.

In 1963 Impulse! went to the band and said they would like them to record an album with a vocalist and the band could pick whoever they wanted.

Johnny Hartman was their immediate and unanimous choice.

And what a choice!

He is my favourite jazz vocalist (I’ll take him over Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire and Louis Armstrong .... well, okay, this is starting to seem like a difficult decision to have to make. Let’s just say that he is my favourite but there are others who are very very close to him in my heart) and how often have I listened to his gorgeous baritone and wished I could sing like that...

Before I continue, my friends, I will end your suspense and announce:

John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman' (1963) is my fifth pick of essential albums that all humans should own. 

Hartman put out two of his own Impulse! albums and I could easily have named them here.  'The Voice That Is!' not only shows the label’s love for exclamation points, but is a collection of some of the finest vocals ever recorded. How many times has my wife sung Joey,Joey, Joey to our babies during feedings? Listening to her struggle to hit those lush low notes is fabulous. The song’s lyrics is a great American short story.

But I didn’t pick that album (though you should go buy it too) since the addition of John Coltrane’s stellar band makes it that much more worthy of all human ownership.

I wonder if Coltrane's band sounds so good since they found it refreshing to play some gentle music after their time in the avant-garde...

It is impossible to pick a stand-out track since the album is a little gem.  I say little as this is the only negative I can think of: it is only 31 mins long. Still, 31 minutes of perfection is still worth possessing in this turbulent age, don’t you think?

I will stop here. I am listening to They Say It’s Wonderful (listen here) at this moment as I type in this coffee shop and ahh.... Coltrane’s solo just began. Perfection.

J.J.'s Big Score

Yesterday's post about Oliver Nelson has me thinking about other jazz greats who got work scoring for film and TV. The list is a long one. 
Just to name a few off the of of my head: Miles Davis Ascenseur pour l'Échafaud, Gerry Mulligan The Subterraneans, and then there's Quincy Jones (did you know that he began life as a jazz trumpeter?) who scored numerous films. 
Oliver Nelson scoring the cheesefest that was The Six Million Dollar Man got me thinking about J.J. Johnson.


His stellar album "J.J. Inc" (1960) is playing right now as the babies struggle to fall asleep for their afternoon nap. It features a young Freddie Hubbard in one of his first sessions and is highly recommended.  


J.J. Johnson's career began back in the 1940s and he recorded some classic albums with a who's-who of the jazz world including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and Stan Getz just to name a few.  He brought the bebop sensibility to the trombone, which is a testament to his skill. Playing a lot of notes in a hurry is not as easy on that horn as it is on a trumpet or sax.  He influenced every trombone player after him and a lot of songwriters too as he wrote a number of jazz standards. 

I thought of his later days which played out in a similar vein as Oliver Nelson...


J.J. Johnson got involved in that fabulous film genre known as Blaxploitation and he scored films including Willie Dynamite and Cleopatra Jones (listen here!).  


Why Shelley Winters never got another Oscar nod for her role as 'Mommy' I'll never know.


If you like, you could look down on J.J. Johnson for working in this genre, but a man needs to make a living, right?


I know what I am talking about.  After all, I worked on many films that weren't a fraction as entertaining as Cleopatra Jones and I cashed my paycheques with a clean conscience. Why should a jazz legend be any different?

Albums That All Humans Should Own #4

My fourth pick is one of the first jazz albums I ever bought.  My cousin Glenn and I used to listen to it driving around town in his old Chevelle.

Not only does it have one of the best album titles of all time (okay, I know the name of the album shouldn't affect the music therein but it does, doesn't it?) but it also features one of the greatest bands ever assembled and it's a shame that this all-star unit never recorded more.

'The Blues and the Abstract Truth' (1961) by Oliver Nelson is my third pick of essential albums that all humans should own.


Check out the names on that album cover.

• Bill Evans - Piano
• Roy Haynes - Drums
• The multi-instrumentalist-who-died-too-young Eric Dolphy
• Oliver Nelson - Alto
• My man Paul Chambers - Bass
• Freddie Hubbard- Trumpet

Few bands have that kind of talent and the music is diverse and has incredible flow. It's a sextet that sounds like an orchestra.  Take a listen to Stolen Moments, one of the all-time great songs in the history of jazz. After that slow build-up, Freddie Hubbard plays some nice trumpet, but then comes one of my favourite moments in all of recorded jazz: Eric Dolphy's flute solo.

It is spectacular stuff.  Spectacular flute solo? Is that what you're thinking? 


Trust me, in the right hands the flute can be great. Admittedly, there are only a few masters of the instrument in jazz other than Eric Dolphy. (Yusef Lateef for one... I'll have to think to find a third. Sonny Red maybe?)


If you were sitting here with me drinking a martini as I am, I could hum it to you as it is a passage I know by heart. The consummate skill with which he plays astounds me even after countless listens.

I ask my wife who is sitting across from me doing some work she brought home from the office -Would you like me to whistle Eric Dolphy's flute solo from Oliver Nelson's masterful Stolen Moments?

-Tempting. Thanks but no.

Trust me friends, even if you don't want to splurge for the entire  disc, download that one track and brace yourself for the magic that comes at the 3 minute mark.  Eric Dolphy is a jazz god.

On a parting note I will mention that Oliver Nelson not only recorded one of the greatest jazz albums of all-time, but in the 70's he got a lot of work scoring for film and TV (which the snooty jazz community poo pooed him for) and some say that this hard work drove him to an early grave. One of the highlights of this second career? Writing the music for that classic series of my childhood, The Six Million Dollar Man.

If you are thinking that I mention that fact just so I had an excuse to post this great photo of the great Lee Majors, you may be right.

I mean, the theme song is written by Oliver Nelson and take a listen. It's not Stolen Moments, but it is pretty cool. 


PS: Okay, I can't resist: you can watch the $6,000,000 man battle Sasquatch here. Dig that Oliver Nelson score! 

Dinner Music

Last night as my wife and I were feeding our babies their dinner, jazz was playing on the Harmon/Karmon.  I had the iPod on random in the jazz genre and who should come on but our old friend Art Pepper.

-I love Art Pepper, I said.

My wife says to the babies -You've got to love Art Pepper if you live in this house.

And how can you not love Art Pepper? One of the premiere alto sax players of all time, he recorded dozens of albums and was a guest on dozens more. Some jazz-o-philes say he never recorded a poor album and I have yet to listen to anything that proves this theory incorrect.

He could play a gorgeous ballad as well as a burning solo. He also had a special touch with songs with a Spanish flavour.  I dare you to listen to Mambo de la Pinta (click on title to listen) without feeling like dancing.

He lived a tough life with frequent stints in jail for drug offenses (heroin was a plague in the jazz world from Charlie Parker on down) but after getting clean in the early-70s, he came back with a vengeance and recorded so much in his final years that Galaxy Records put out a 16 disc set that covered a mere four years (1978-1982) and if you can get your hands on a copy of this marvellous set that runs 18 hours and 37 minutes, I dare you to find a weak track.