January 16 - Art Pepper

Art Pepper confounds. He blazed with talent. He was profoundly flawed. His life was a tragedy. His music is a triumph.

Born in 1925, Pepper was a California boy who discovered music early. By his teens, he was gigging in local groups and scored early fame as a member of Stan Kenton's band. Before he was out of his teen years, he was enslaved to his demons - booze, pills and heroin. Pepper fought addiction for the rest of his life and it would be tempting to say that the drugs won in the end. But they didn't.

Pepper's life divides into three periods - the fifties, when his abundant talent brought him national renown in a series of recordings that showed him to be not just an acolyte of Charlie Parker. He had speed, yes, but also tremendous passion and energy in his playing.

Through the 50's, Pepper was in and out of jail, repeatedly busted for heroin possession. His most famous recording session of this era came about almost in spite of itself: in 1957, Pepper was spending most of his time high, but his wife and Contemporary Records' Les Koenig wanted him to record with "the" rhythm section - Miles' rhythm section, to be accurate: Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on Bass and Phill Joe Jones on drums. To quote Wikipedia:

"According to legend, the album was recorded under enormous pressure: Pepper first learnt of it on the morning of the recording session, had never met the other musicians (though he admired them all), hadn't played for two weeks (according to the liner notes) or six months (according to Pepper's autobiography Straight Life), was playing on an instrument in a bad state of repair, and was suffering from a drug problem. (This story is clearly unreliable: the discography in Straight Life reveals, for instance, that he had recorded many sessions in the previous weeks, including one just five days before.) Whatever the truth of the recording's circumstances, it is considered a milestone in Pepper's career, and launched a series of albums for Les Koenig's Contemporary label which remain the cornerstone of Pepper's recorded work."



On this week's show, from this album, I'm featuring Pepper's tune, "Straight Life" a very fast, challenging chart that became his signature tune, as well as two cuts from a 1956 album called "The Return of Art Pepper" - the return in question being his return to LA after another jail stretch. We'll hear Charlie Parker's lyrical "Yardbird Suite" and another romp, "Pepper Steak", the latter showcasing Pepper's huge talent for simultaneous improvisation with other musicians - in this case, trumpeter Jack Sheldon.



All three songs are available from iTunes in a special iMix I've set up. One click and you can buy all three tracks.

The second phase of Pepper's life was a long stretch in San Quentin where his playing career essentialy ceased. By the late '60's, he was clean, and joined the Synanon community - called a cult by some - whose methods, to say the least, were controversial. But, in 1975, he returned to playing with an album called "Living Legend". From then to 1982, Pepper played constantly until his health failed. His playing in this phase of his career was still passionate, but the songs were more extended and searching, clearly showing the influence of Coltrane's music on Pepper.

This barely scratches the surface; Pepper's autiobiography, "Straight Life" is essential reading - not just the story of an amazing and tragic life, but a searing biography, one of the best I've read. It's 20 years since I first encountered it - and it's a book that stays with you.

Next time on JAZZ.FM: the music of Gary Burton and Chick Corea. Tuesday, Februay 13 between 9 and 10 AM (EST) on Ralph Benmergui's morning show. Listen in!

(Remember, if you have iTunes on your computer, click here to listen to JAZZ.FM91's live webcast.)

January 2 - Duke Ellington Small Groups

The great cellist Pablo Casals played some Bach every day. It was essential to him as a musician. I take the same view of Duke Ellington. If you love jazz, you need to listen to Ellington regularly. Daily? What's not to like?

Fortunately, you'd have to listen for a lot of days to hear everything that America's greatest composer created. From the days of the Cotton Club through the height of the Swing Era to the end of his life, he was ceaselessly creative and inventive. This week, I took a look at some of the "small group" recordings by Duke Ellington and members of his orchestra in 1936 and '37.

Commercial considerations may have driven the making of these recordings, but such was the mastery of Duke and his men that these relaxed, informal sessions yielded swing with polish, joy and an irresistibly propulsive beat. Music to pat your foot to, as Count Basie said.



Three of these sides are rarely heard - "Jazz A La Carte", "Frolic Sam" and "Sugar Hill Shim-Sham". They feature, respectively, clarinetist Barney Bigard and trumpeters Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart. Wrapping up the set was the first recording of the Ellington standard "Caravan" in an arrangement that will surprise you if you only know the Ellington orchestra's more elaborate take on this well-loved song.



The recordings come from a 1991 Sony Legacy release, The Duke's Men: Ellington Small Groups, Volume 1. This 2-CD set, with 45 tracks from 1934 to 1938, is now out of print, and hard to find, except perhaps as a used item. A second 2-CD set, with a like number of tracks from '38 and '39, appears to have met the same fate.

Sony's Legacy series was an extraordinary undertaking, and the label deserves the highest marks for the commitment they demonstrated in making thousands of classic tracks available again. But according to recent news reports, SonyBMG has cut back significantly on its continuing commitment to these products. This is a tragedy. SonyBMG, the company resulting from the merger of Sony and BMG, controls an almost unimaginable treasure of jazz recordings. The great program of reissues that Sony and, to a lesser but still important extent, BMG undertook in the past 20 years will be lost if these products go out of print. The long-term decline of CD sales doesn't bode well for the future of these packages. If SonyBMG isn't prepared to manufacture and distribute them, they should at least make them available to online purchasers. Sadly, at least in Canada, ths isn't yet the case - at least, not with respect to the Ellington tracks featured on today's broadcast.

Over on the iTunes Canada store, you can buy 42 of the 43 cuts from Volume 2 here, but you can't buy the whole album. (Note: you must have iTunes installed on your computer in order for this, and other, iTunes links to work.) However, all four of the cuts from today's playlist come from Volume 1, not Volume 2, and SonyBMG hasn't chosen to make it available through iTunes Canada - or any other online service doing business in this country. So, at least for now, if you're shopping in Canada, you can't get these tracks online from the Sony Legacy release.

All is not lost, though. Because the copyright on these recordings has expired, other music companies have been able to clean up and reissue these old tracks, and these companies have made them available at iTunes Canada. I've created an "iMix" - a playlist of today's tracks. Click here and download them for less than four bucks. If you don't have these tracks in your collection, get 'em now, and check out the other wonderful Ellington recordings on iTunes while you're there.

If you have access to the iTunes USA store, the situation is much better: both Volume 1 and Volume 2 are available for $US16.99 each for downloading - that's the equivalent of 4 CD's, nearly 100 tracks, for around $US34. But only if you have access to iTunes USA - and you need a US-registered credit card in order to establish an account there. This leaves virtually all Canadians out of the picture.

It's hard to understand why the both albums are available on the iTunes USA store, but not in Canada. Hopefully Apple and SonyBMG can address this and make both these wonderful albums available to Canadian customers. The fight against piracy only makes sense if legitimate tracks are made available quickly and conveniently. It doesn't help when products are kept off the market for reasons that are difficult to figure out. As CD's of SonyBMG's wonderful Legacy releases gradually disappear from the stores (and as the stores themselves disappear), being able to purchase the music online becomes less of a frill and more of a necessity. Get it together, people!

But is there any hope left for CD buyers who want to enjoy this wonderful music? Yes - thanks to the great folks at Mosaic Records, the world's best reissue label. They've just released Duke Ellington: 1936-40 Small Group Sessions, a 7-CD set that covers all the tracks in both of the SonyBMG sets and a great deal more - a total of 173 tracks!



At $US119 plus shipping, it's not an inexpensive choice, but you can't go wrong with Mosaic. I've purchased more than 75 of their box sets, and they're magnificent, although I wish they were still releasing vinyl. The sound quality is always the best possible, and the large-format (12x12) booklets abound with great black-and-white photography, full documentation of the tracks and the players, and first-rate essays. Mosaic licenses recordings for limited quantities, which means that when they sell out of the 10,000 copies of this set that are being manufactured, there won't be any more. Most of the best Mosaic releases have sold out, and I think this one will, too. If you're interested, get your order in fast!

Feast or famine, then? As long as there's Ellington music to enjoy, you won't starve.

Further Reading: For a brief introduction to Duke's life and work, Wikipedia is a good place to start. Stanley Dance's famous biography, The World of Duke Ellington is great reading. There are websites and books galore. But start by listening to Duke's legacy - regularly.

Next time on JAZZ.FM: Art Pepper

Tuesday, January 16 between 9 and 10 AM (EST) on Ralph's morning show. Listen in!

(Remember, if you have iTunes on your computer, click here to listen to JAZZ.FM91's live webcast.)

Welcome!

I can't remember a time when music wasn't the centre of my life, or a time when jazz wasn't my first love. I listen to all kinds of music, but jazz remains the constant - and I'm sure it always will.

I find the story of jazz and the lives of jazz composers and musicians almost as compelling as the music itself, and I love to share my knowledge of jazz and get others started on the same path.

I'm lucky to live in Toronto, Canada, home to JAZZ.FM91, one of just six real jazz radio stations in North America. Every other Tuesday for the past few months I've had the chance to appear on the air during Ralph Benmurgui's morning show, where I talk about milestone musicians, recordings and events in the history of jazz.



(If you have iTunes on your computer, click here to listen to JAZZ.FM91's live webcast.)

That's the reason why I started this blog - not just to share my enthusiasm for jazz but to share the playlists from my JAZZ.FM appearances. Please enjoy them, and feel free to share your comments with me - and your suggestions for what you'd like to hear me talk about in future appearances! In the past few months, I've profiled Oliver Nelson, Buddy Rich, Dick Hyman, Dave Brubeck and more - just scratching the surface of all the great music and stories that are out there. Share your suggestons with me!