"Art Pepper & Warne Marsh,"
Vol. 9 of the Critically Acclaimed
"Unreleased Art" Series,
To Be Released by Laurie Pepper's
Widow's Taste Label
November 11
Marking the 10th Anniversary of the Label
3-Disc Set Features Art Pepper & Warne Marsh
Live at Donte's in North Hollywood, CA,
April 26, 1974
With Mark Levine, John Heard, Lew Malin
October 7, 2016
On April 26, 1974, two wildly gifted and very different artists, Art Pepper and Warne Marsh, met again, for the first time in 17 years,
by accident, on the stage at Donte's in North Hollywood, because Jack
Sheldon had to cancel. It must have made for an unforgettable night for
those who found themselves sitting in the legendary club and listening
to two cult heroes, two profoundly great musicians, playing for
the audience and each other -- out of the lives they'd lived at the
same time, in the same places, but personally and stylistically so far
apart.
Now we can join that audience. The music was recorded. And it will be released as a 3-CD set on November 11, just in time for the anniversary of Widow's Taste, the label Laurie Pepper started ten years ago to bring her collection of Art Pepper's unheard live performances to his fans.
In 1974, Art was at the very outset of what would be his last
great comeback. He'd quit his job managing a bakery and was making a
living playing bar mitzvahs and weddings. He had just started playing in
Jack Sheldon's band, once a month, at Donte's.
Unlike Art's, Warne's career had been relentless and ongoing.
He'd been touring with his own bands for years, and in 1974, he was
traveling the world with Supersax, with whom he'd won a Grammy.
Though Warne forbade recording at his gigs, this gig was
recorded. On reel-to-reel, quarter- inch, quarter-track tape. The
original tapes were quite good; the audio was probably picked up from
the sound board. And the tapes were sent to Laurie Pepper
by persons never known or now forgotten. She rediscovered them while
cleaning out a closet. As she tells us in her liner note: "Sometimes,
the way things and people come to me for Art's sake is -- I want to use
the word -- miraculous." A good word for this night and those tapes.
Laurie gave them to the incomparable Wayne Peet of
Newzone Studio, who, "knows how jazz, how Art should sound." He balanced
and enriched the onstage sound, killed excessive noise, and dealt
delicately with inevitable glitches that occur in live recording.
Laurie, a non-musician, goes on to talk about the Pepper/Warne
distinctions in the language of a dedicated fan:
"Art lives down in
the grime of earth. You can find him on the L.A. Freeway. You can get
into your car, roll up the windows, put on any of Art's blues or ballads
and delve into your pain and scream aloud to it.
"Warne seeks sublimity,
improvising music that's transcendent, that makes mere passions puny. He
can take you to a level where shit doesn't matter.
"Warne offers to distract us. He
offers art, the endlessness and possibilities of art, the infinite
inventiveness and charm. Something in me, if I'll listen, hears his
rhythmic and harmonic revelations and responds with pleasure,
satisfaction, even laughter, as to a mystic's holy trickery.
"Art discovers, witnesses, makes
us confront, the disasters and the raptures swimming through our own,
shared, volatile blood, beyond the reach of language. He knows our
grief, our joy, our rage, and turns them into something timeless. His
music seems to talk about real, actual life, the one that's nasty,
sweet, and short. And he convinces us, repeatedly, that, just as-is,
it's sacred."
This latest album joins the catalog of previous albums from the Unreleased Art Pepper series. All have gotten rave reviews from well-known critics. They are:
Volume I, Abashiri (2-CD set)
Volume II, Last Concert: Kennedy Center
Volume III, Croydon (2-CD set)
Volume IV, The Art History Project (3-CD set)
Volume V, Stuttgart (2-CD set)
Volume VI, Blues for the Fisherman: Live at Ronnie Scott's (4-CD set)
Volume VII, Sankei Hall, Osaka (2-CD set)
Volume VIII, Live at the Winery
And all (except Volume IV, which is available for download only) are available at both Amazon (http://bit.ly/buyArtPepper) and CD Baby (http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/
U.S. Music Reviewers: To order a copy of Unreleased Art, vol. 9,
please send a check in the amount of $25 (includes shipping) payable to
Laurie Pepper, and send to Laurie at 2606 Rokeby Street, Los Angeles,
CA 90039; OR pay by PayPal.
Reviewers outside the U.S.: Contact Laurie (mslaurie.pepper@gmail.com) for details on shipping costs.
Media Contact:
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510-234-8781
