Comments on: Art Pepper | 10 Great Albums From the Alto Saxophone Legend

By: Wayne

Wayne — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 23:45:39 +0000

I first heard Art Pepper watching the Amazon tv episode series, “Bosch”. Very impressed and will add to my music collection. And even better, hdtracks.com has a large selection of his albums. Now I need to figure out which releases to start with.

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Mon, 25 Dec 2023 11:59:20 +0000

In reply to John Ellis.

Hi John – sorry for the confusion; it’s actually meant to read like that: “a Rhythm Changes” refers to any tune which is based on the chords of I Got rhythm, of which Smack Up is one. There are lots of these, called contrafacts, but it’s probably more musician-speak to describe it like that!

By: John Ellis

John Ellis — Sun, 24 Dec 2023 09:40:21 +0000

“The title of this 1960 album comes from the opening track, a Rhythm Changes by Harold Land.” I can’t make head or tail of this sentence, which I guess got mangled, as a fan of both Pepper and Land, I’m intrigued.

I agree with Glenn about ‘Today’, I think it might be Art’s best album and definitely deserves a place in this list. ‘The Trip’ is another classic from the second half of the 70s, Art’s freer style of playing after his return produced some great recordings.

A little left-field, but Art’s given star billing on Hersh Hamel’s Songbook, an album of classic 70s funk, where he’s given acres of space to improvise some scorching solos, resulting in a hugely enjoyable jazz/funk hybrid.

By: Matt Fripp

Matt Fripp — Sun, 23 Jul 2023 17:07:04 +0000

In reply to Glenn Henrich. Thanks for sharing Glenn!

By: Glenn Henrich

Glenn Henrich — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 10:04:56 +0000

“Art Pepper Today”, was formative for me. He was plying most of these tunes when I met him in Australia in 1980 or 81. I learned two of his originals from it: Miss Who. With a romping two feel in the head from Roy Haines, and Mambo Koyama, a great Latin number!