Live at Fat Tuesday's
| Live at Fat Tuesday's | ||||
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| Live album by Art Pepper | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
1982 |
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| Label (s) | Elemental Music | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
5 |
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running time |
70:43 |
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| occupation |
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Location (s) |
Fat Tuesday's, New York City |
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Live at Fat Tuesdays is a jazz album by Art Pepper that was recorded on April 15, 1981 and released on Elemental Music in November 2015.
background
Pepper was accompanied by a rhythm section consisting of pianist Milcho Leviev , bassist George Mraz and drummer Al Foster . The live recording in New York City was made a year before Pepper's last recordings in Los Angeles, which were made in May 1982 at the Kool Jazz Festival ( Last Concert 1982 - Final Art , released 2007). The writer Gary Giddins recalled meeting the musician during his engagement at the Fat Tuesday's club in 1981: “His life was almost over and he knew it. The last time I saw him on Fat Tuesday a few months ago, his face was bluish white and his lower legs - he pulled up his pants to demonstrate it - were just as bloated. He told me he couldn't shake my hand because he cut himself that afternoon and didn't feel any pain, he didn't know until he saw the flowing blood. He was obsessed with the wonder that he was still able to walk and breathe: he could hardly bear to be there. "
The edition includes a 40-page booklet with extensive essays by jazz historian and author Brian Priestley (including an interview Priestley conducted with Art Pepper in 1980) and French musicologist and journalist Stéphane Ollivier , as well as an interview with producer Zev Feldman Pepper's widow Laurie Pepper, a personal memory of Art Pepper from jazz producer John Koenig and a report by Fat Tuesday's manager Steve Getz about Pepper's involvement in his club at the time, where these recordings were made and were previously unpublished, as well as photographs by Laurie Pepper.
Track list
- Art Pepper: Live at Fat Tuesday's (Elemental Music - 5990427)
- Rhythm-A-Ning (Monk) 12:58
- What Is This Thing Called Love? ( Cole Porter ) 16:15
- Goodbye ( Gordon Jenkins ) 11:39
- Make a List, Make a Wish (Pepper) 18:21
- Red Car (Pepper) 11:30
reception
C. Michael Bailey wrote in All About Jazz that Art Pepper's last creative period was “his Gotterdämmerung”. “During this time, Pepper was less of an interpreter of the jazz canon and more of his reluctant prophet. Pepper starts his standards well enough (here Thelonious Monks 'Rhythm-a-ning' and long rendition of ' What Is This Thing Called Love ' and 'Goodbye'). But then something happened, like John Coltrane did on his last tour with Miles Davis in 1960. “Pepper deconstructed the material with his rhythm section, according to Bailey; "Goodbye" is inhabited by Peppers "stuttering screams." Pepper also transformed two of his most popular compositions, "Make a List, Make a Wish" and "Red Car".
When first recorded, these pieces demonstrated Pepper's mastery of jazz-led R&B and a healthy sense of humor. “What Mraz is doing here is to let Pepper and Leviev play. You are unbound and play accordingly. This is how far a standard jazz performance can go before it dissolves into the voracious particles of free jazz . Pepper is thrown off balance and plays on the verge of oblivion with Leviev, who supports him. ”“ Red Car ”is carried out in a similar way. The detachment that Pepper achieved is impressive and comparable to the live recordings from the Village Vanguard from 1977. Live at Fat Tuesdays is an important addition to the Pepper discography, the author sums up. "It catches the saxophonist at the very edge of inspiration ... where he belongs."
Steve Greenlee was critical of JazzTimes : “The newly discovered recording of Live at Fat Tuesday's is intoxicating, even if it is incomplete in terms of sound. Nowhere in the 40 pages of Linernotes is the source of the tape listed, but the audio quality suggests that it was a fan recording. Fortunately, someone captured the remarkable performance of the Art Pepper Quartet at this New York jazz club on April 15, 1981, just over a year before his death. The alto saxophonist and his rhythm section [...] swing so hard that the walls must have been trembling. ”Thelonious Monks“ Rhythm-a-Ning ”is going at a frenzied tempo with fat chords, a fast running bass, pounding drums and a winding one Pepper solo played, the energy of which escalated for six full minutes. Foster keeps dropping bombs on his drums, which also runs through “What Is This Thing Called Love?” Until he does nothing else for a few bars. Pepper's wild solo in the Cole Porter classic strays far from the melody, almost into the avant-garde territory. Pepper and his band left a lot of room in their melancholy version of Benny Goodman's signature tune "Goodbye". In a few minutes, Pepper's quiet notes turn into violent croaking, but only for a few bars. Pepper's gospel- tinged “Make a List, Make a Wish” becomes Leviev's show with a few nutty solo sounds that sound like four hands. When it finally ends, Pepper enters with a silky solo. Pepper's gospel-heavy boogie “Red Car” ends the set in a casual way that everyone uses for a solo performance. Greenlee sums up: “This is the acoustic jazz of the 80s. If the audio quality weren't so inferior, Live at Fat Tuesday would be comparable to Pepper's masterpieces from the Village Vanguard ”.
Web links
- Discographic references at Elemental Music
- Listing of the album Live at Fat Tuesday's on Allmusic (English). Retrieved April 28, 2019.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b C. Michael Bailey: Art Pepper: Art Pepper Live at Fat Tuesday's. All About Jazz, November 10, 2015, accessed April 29, 2019 .
- ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
- ^ Art Pepper: Live at Fat Tuesday's. JazzTimes, March 27, 2016, accessed April 28, 2019 .