Best all time

This is one of the best saxophone quartet albums of all time, period. If you like bebop then get this now. Recorded with Miles Davis' rhythm section this is a legendary recording where as the story goes a strung out Art Pepper got his act together, stumbled to the studio and took flight. True or not, this is worth a download without a second thought.

some of the best Art Pepper recorded

Art Pepper seems to have had issues during studio sessions. I heard him a few times live and have friends that heard him dozens of times and the consensus is that most of his studio material is dry compared to his live performances. He often seemed 'cautious' or inhibited when the tape is rolling. Well not here. this session was fantastic. The rhythm section is THE rhythm section and they are smokin'. I love Art Pepper but of all the albums of his in my possession this is the one that gets the listening time

By the time of this, Art Pepper’s tenth recording as a leader, he was making his individual voice on the alto saxophone leave the cozy confines of his heroes Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz. Joining the Miles Davis rhythm section of pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones made the transformation all that more illuminating. It’s a classic east meets west, cool plus hot but never lukewarm combination that provides many bright moments for the quartet during this exceptional date from that great year in music, 1957. A bit of a flip, loosened but precise interpretation of the melody on “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To” gets the ball rolling, followed by a “Bags Groove” parallel with “Red Pepper Blues,” and a delicate, atypical treatment of “Imagination.” A compositional collaboration of Pepper and Chambers on the quick “Waltz Me Blues” and hard-edged, running-as-fast-as-he-can take of “Straight Life” really sets the gears whirring. Philly Joe Jones is a great bop drummer, no doubt, one of the all-time greats with Kenny Clarke and Max Roach. His crisp Latin-to-swing pace for “Tin Tin Deo” deserves notice, masterful in its creation and seamlessness. Pepper makes a typical “Star Eyes” brighter, and he goes into a lower octave tone, more like a tenor, for “Birks Works” and the bonus track “The Man I Love.” It’s clear he has heard his share of Stan Getz in this era. Though Art Pepper played with many a potent trio, this one inspires him to the maximum, and certainly makes for one of his most substantive recordings after his initial incarcerations, and before his second major slip into the deep abyss of drug addiction. – Michael G. Nastos