by Becky Byrkit
Packing a dried-out cork taped to his sax with a Band-Aid, Art Pepper appeared at L.A.'s Contemporary Studios to jam with guys he idolized, had never met, and had no idea he'd meet until that morning in January of 1957. No one had discussed which songs to play, but as soon as Pepper arrived (late), Philly Joe Jones of the Miles Davis rhythm section suggested Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To." No one objected, and after a single rehearsal, the historic collaboration was in full swing. Widely accepted as a singular landmark in a career built of singular landmarks, Pepper said he felt as though this recording convinced him that emotion was the paramount impulse of jazz performance. Working "fresh" with Jones, Paul Chambers, and Red Garland, Pepper forgave his own occasional "squawking," saying that in the studio he "...finally realized that in playing I've got to play exactly as I feel it," adding, "I want the emotion to come out rather than try to make everything perfect." The unpredictably stunning "Imagination" and Pepper's signature "Straight Life" are testament to such commitments to impulse, and the stark dynamics of the battery of percussion in congress with his saxophone are breathtaking. The knowledge that they play all the songs for the first and only time together, in the order you hear them on the record, suggests a kind of jazz narrative genius on behalf of the man behind the plan, Contemporary president Les Koenig. A diamond of recorded jazz history.