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Here's Pepper Adams--the great Baritone Saxophonist playing "Lovers of Their Time." No one's playing like this anymore! RIP, brother. Good playing . . . Marinero
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02-20-2020 11:04 AM
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We could also all use more art in our lives.
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Originally Posted by Marinero
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Love his playing on that live record with Donald Byrd:
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Originally Posted by grahambop
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Loves me some Pepper Adams and Art Pepper!
If ya like bari sax dig my man Serge Chaloff
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Originally Posted by grahambop
If you were a sax player in the 70's, this was soup du jour for all your gigs. Here's the incomparable Eddie Jefferson with his take on this great standard. Anyone know the sax player? Good playing . . . Marinero . . . geez, I get so easily sidetracked!
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Originally Posted by Marinero
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Nice bari work by PA. My son played sax in high school jazz band, and he settled in with tenor, but I tried to get him to play bari, cause they were always in demand. I might have needed a car with a bigger trunk though...
As far as Art Pepper, I always get him confused with Art Farmer. Art P is the guy who played sax and made great records, but was a total PITA in real life, as I recall. Not that that's too unusual for a jazz musician.
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Originally Posted by Doctor Jeff
one of his personal faves-winter moon
cheers
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Originally Posted by neatomic
Haunting strings w spiralling alto.
Howard Roberts gets a few short solos but makes them count.
Now where have I heard that wintermoon before?
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Yes it’s Richie Cole on the Eddie Jefferson track:
Eddie Jefferson: "The Main Man" (Inner City 1033) - Jazz History Online
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02-22-2020, 10:03 AM #13joelf GuestOriginally Posted by wintermoon
I have mixed feelings about Art Pepper's playing and Straight Life. Straight Life is moving, masterful storytelling (Laurie deserves a lot of credit for this), and I've read it over and over. But he's awfully self-aggrandizing and paranoid. Those two qualities (and prison life didn't help) could figure in his self-deluding feeling that he was rejected in the jazz world for being white, and a hate for blacks he developed (he had started out getting along peachy keen as a teen player on Central Avenue).
As to Pepper the player: up and down for me. I love the honesty and rawness of the later stuff, but he seemed to think he was playing like Coltrane. Not to my ears, and a strange goal anyway. A lot of that stuff sounds forced and overblown. I'm not sure I buy it, though I know he was trying to evolve and he had a lot of pent-up rage from the prison experience and the artistic balls and honesty to play the way he felt.
Even in his earlier, swinging playing I always got the feeling that he never finished his ideas. So I enjoyed the swinging, his sound, and originality when so many alto players were shamelessly aping Bird---but something was unsettled somehow.
But, through it all, a truly interesting artist I always got something out of hearing...
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"But he's awfully self-aggrandizing and paranoid. Those two qualities (and prison life didn't help) could figure in his self-deluding feeling that he was rejected in the jazz world for being white, and a hate for blacks he developed (he had started out getting along peachy keen as a teen player on Central Avenue)." joelf
Hi, Joel,
This statement focuses on an age-old controversy in the Art world, namely: do we judge an artist by his work alone or do we factor his life into the total picture? For me, it is the former. Artists are complex people who cannot be judged or defined by the standards we use among the general population. They dance to a different drummer and, yet, there is always the temptation to use our own compass to steer THEIR boat. For me, this cannot be done. We look at artists like Balzac, Van Gogh, Poe, Mozart, Chet Baker, Bird, etc. and find lives in chaos and confusion. However, and despite their lives, they created great Art. So, for me, an Artist's work gives you pleasure, or it doesn't. Simple. His/her life, for me, has no consequence. In re: Art Pepper, I never listened very much to his music since my favorite alto players then and now were/are: Sonny Stitt, Sonny Criss, Bird, and Cannonball. Good playing . . . Marinero P.S. Why is it that we're always talking about dead musicians? Where are the young Jazz flames in the YTK burning the bushes?
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Pepper Adams grabbed my ears almost 30 years ago with his gargantuan tone and nimble phrasing on "Alone Together", the opening cut from "Chet". Today the track blows me away even more. What a magical combination, Chet and Bill Evans playing lines like leaves fluttering down to the ground, and Pepper sounding like a growling boar, but still staying sensitive and restrained as he goes about his business.
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02-22-2020, 03:28 PM #16joelf GuestOriginally Posted by Marinero
I used to read books as a teen, like Jazz Masters of the 40s, etc. I let these silly critical evaluations wash over me and influence my thinking. Took a while to get on track after that. Now I read great artist biogs and especially interviews. I let their words about their art wash over me, and get a lot out of that...
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02-22-2020, 03:33 PM #17joelf Guest
Pepper Adams lived not far from me in Canarsie, Brooklyn. One day I saw him sitting with horn on the L train. A conversation ensued. I found him a sweet and humble man. After a while he asked questions about my life, and what young cats generally do to break into the biz.
A lovely man, aside from the memorable work...
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Originally Posted by joelf
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Here's the physically diminutive Pepper Adams with his monster sound on this wonderful classic. I was fortunate to see him live in Chicago at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase back in the 70's. I brought a hipster friend to see him. Pepper was dressed like a washing machine salesman with slicked back hair and a plastic case with pencils in his shirt pocket. My friend smirked when he saw him until he put the horn to his lips. Pepper smoked the house for three sets. One of a kind! Good playing . . .Marinero
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Here's the physically diminutive Pepper Adams with his monster sound on this wonderful classic. I was fortunate to see him live in Chicago at Joe Segal's Jazz Showcase back in the 70's. I brought a hipster friend to see him. Pepper was dressed like a washing machine salesman with slicked back hair and a plastic case with pencils in his shirt pocket. My friend smirked when he saw him until he put the horn to his lips. Pepper smoked the house for three sets. One of a kind! Good playing . . .Marinero
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art pepper was so enamored of coltrane that he switched from alto to tenor!!!...
lots of interesting players in the chicago scene these days...dave rempis plays some bari
cheers
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02-22-2020, 06:34 PM #22joelf GuestOriginally Posted by Marinero
But I know nothing of Nebraska. Maybe it would have been the same? I'll never know...
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jazzers from nebraska...some goodies
Category:Jazz musicians from Nebraska - Wikipedia
hah
cheers
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02-22-2020, 07:27 PM #24joelf GuestOriginally Posted by neatomic
He used to live upstairs in Sunset Park, Brooklyn from my drummer chum Rudy Petschauer. Told me the groaner joke about 'I Left my Heart in Stan Fran's Disco'---and I've never stopped repeating it, death threats notwithstanding...
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Originally Posted by neatomic
Not to quibble, but Steve Turre was born in Omaha but raised in California. However, Omaha had an interesting melting pot of Italian and Mexican immigrants at the time, hence his parents getting together to make a little Stevie.
Glenn Miller was born in Clarinda, IA—I used to work there once a month and did visit his house, which is open for tours. He lived in Nebraska until he was 11, then moved to Colorado.
There are some pretty good local musicians. One of the ones I know (and took lessons from) is George Walker, who toured with Lou Rawls. He plays solo and small group gigs around town.
Omaha admittedly is not the most happening jazz place right now, though in the post-war years it was a staple of the Midwest circuit. The most famous current Omaha musician is Conor Oberst. His guitar tech and business partner bought a vintage bass from me about 2 years ago.
Sorry to derail the thread...who were we talking about again? Pepper Adams? Lovely, lovely sound and chops. He died way too soon. Thanks for bringing him to our attention.
A duet piece for guitar and cello
Today, 12:52 PM in Composition