Listening to these three songs culled from 1981 concerts in Japan lead by Art Pepper and his team of George Cables/p, David Williams/b and Carl Burnett/dr, a question kept popping into my head: “Why doesn’t anyone play like this anymore?”
“Make A List (Make A Wish)” lasts for over 24 minutes, and your attention never drifts. The rhythm team lays down an incessantly bluesy groove that no one wants to get out of. During it Pepper slithers, slides, pops, creaks and snaps his alto, using space and time like he invented it. He seems to lay his heart out on his sleeve, hemorrhaging while he spills his blood on stage. No rote phrases, scales or chord sequences, just a bebopper telling a story that takes you on a journey. Cables goes modal forhis spotlight and then Williams and Burnett lay down the law to close the tune.
On the ballad “Everything Happens to Me,” Pepper is as fluffy as cotton candy, while Burnett is more felt than heard and Cables glows like a morning sun, just in time for a catchy “Arthur’s Blues” which has Williams getting funky with the backbeat, Cables is coy, and Pepper sounds like he’s sitting in with Louis Jordan. Pepper played like he meant it. Anyone doing that these days?
Omnivore Records