Art Pepper's "Last Concert" CD to be released in May

Art Pepper's "The Last Concert,"
Recorded at Kennedy Center,
To Be Released May 30
On 25th Anniversary of Art's Final Performance

New CD is 2nd Release from Widow's Taste Records
in a Series of "Unreleased Art"

Art Pepper's stunning last concert -- of his last tour -- took place on May 30, 1982 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, as part of the Kool Jazz Festival. Ten days later, back home in Los Angeles, Pepper was hospitalized for what turned out to be a cerebral hemorrhage. He died on June 15 at the age of 56.

The Kennedy Center performance will be released later this month, on the 25th anniversary of the concert, by Laurie Pepper and her Widow's Taste label. The Last Concert is the second in a series of "Unreleased Art" projects documenting the late alto saxophonist's prodigious output.

With Pepper at Kennedy Center was a slightly modified version of his working quartet of the time: David Williams, bass; Carl Burnett, drums; and on piano, Roger Kellaway. Pepper's longtime regular pianist, George Cables, had recently taken a more lucrative job, as Sarah Vaughan's music director. To replace him, Laurie had chosen Kellaway, whom she describes in her notes as "an extraordinary technician and performer in the fiery, ornamental mold of [former Pepper pianist] Milcho Leviev."

The show was taped for broadcast by Voice of America. Laurie Pepper writes that Benny Goodman, one of the evening's attractions, reportedly refused to have his set recorded because he believed that "VOA was staffed by Nazi war criminals." But Laurie recalled hearing Leviev describe how, growing up in Bulgaria, he had treasured VOA's clandestine broadcasts. After being assured by the VOA representative that Goodman's accusation was ungrounded, she consented to the taping.

Pepper was prepared to play a 70-minute set that evening, but due to a misunderstanding or miscommunication, he was forced to curtail his performance after not quite one hour. His set consisted of three originals -- "Landscape," "Ophelia" (a "feeble attempt" to convey "a little of my feelings about women"), "Mambo Koyama" -- and the standards "Over the Rainbow," a favorite ballad, and "When You're Smiling," a clarinet feature dedicated to Zoot Sims, who was on the bill at the Kennedy Center that night and had visited Art in the green room.

Widow's Taste: Music and Film

Laurie Pepper founded the Widow's Taste label in 2006. Its name refers to both senses of "taste"; its mission is to highlight her musical choices from her extensive archives ("Art was recorded everywhere he went," she notes) and to counteract the financial ramifications of piracy and neglected contracts.

The debut Widow's Taste release, in December 2006, was a 2-CD set entitled The Complete Abashiri Concert, recorded in Abashiri, Japan on November 22, 1981 with the George Cables/David Williams/Carl Burnett quartet.

Two other projects are currently in the works. A 3-CD package called The Art History Project will document very early Art (with Shorty Rogers and others), middle Art (unreleased Contemporary Records material), and final Art (studio and live performances of his last years). "I want to show Art's development as an artist," Laurie explains. "There's always the lyricism, and there's the soulfulness he never was without -- the solid funky bottom to his sound that he always had, from his Central Avenue upbringing. And then, during the '60s, he went into a very outside sound like Coltrane. But later it all came together for him: you can hear that happen in The Trip and the Village Vanguard recordings."

Laurie also has tapes of 1979 performances of Art at Ronnie Scott's. An album's worth of material from the gig was previously released as The Milcho Leviev Quartet (Art was under contract to Galaxy at the time) and "was a huge success in the U.K.," she says. "The sound quality was perfect." She plans to feature the Ronnie Scott's recordings in a fall 2007 or spring 2008 release.

An ongoing related project is Straight Life, the film-in-progress based on the like-titled Pepper autobiography (written by Art and Laurie). The movie combines live action and documentary with fanciful animated footage to illustrate Art's stories -- told in his own compelling voice retrieved from taped, archival Straight Life interviews. Additional "narration" is supplied by Art's musical voice: his performances of his original autobiographical compositions. Clips are posted on YouTube as well as on the movie web site. Part 1 of this film is planned for video release in late 2008.

Unreleased Art, vol. 2: The Last Concert
Available on CD Baby