The Art Pepper Quartet

The Art Pepper Quartet

OMNIVORE. CD/DL Jazz alto great could do no wrong in 1956 – in the studio, at least.

Art Pepper had just wrapped up one of several prison terms for drugs when he cut these sessions in late 1956, a particularly productive year for the gifted, if troubled, alto saxophonist. In the company of pianist Russ Freeman, bassist Ben Tucker and drummer Gary Frommer, Pepper knocked off a seventrack album that constituted a cross-section of his strengths, from the prototypically West Coast cool balladry of Diana to a lilting Besame Mucho to the steamy, breakneck Val’s Pal, also represented by three bonus tracks – one a full take, the others partial work-ups. While this quartet recording is far from his most significant or impressive work, even from the prolific 1956-57, Pepper was in such fine form during this respite – he’d be back in the slammer in a few years – that anything he cut around this time is vital to his discography.