Art Pepper – ‘Geneva 1980’

1980 was a comparatively quiet year for Art Pepper: his health was poor, he toured Europe. He recorded three records – Winter Moon and One September Afternoon, and Mistral with Freddie Hubbard, and also the records released as the Milcho Leviev Quartet’s Blues for the Fisherman, recorded at Ronnie Scott’s on 27 and 28 June 1980, a week before this album, and with the same personnel.

1979 had seen the publication of his eye-opening and now increasingly controversial unfiltered biography Straight Life – including stories of drugs, prison, race, and committing rape, and by the summer of 1982 he was dead.

Geneva 1980, a live recording from July 5 at New Morning jazz club, shows Pepper was a force to be reckoned with. This pair of 5-track discs is a demonstration of his under-appreciated competence as a composer, and an atmospheric, energetic and vibrant reminder of his agility and ingenuity as an improviser as he plays compositions from 1975-1980.

Mambo Koyama bounces along with range-stretching rapid-fire solos from Pepper, while Patricia is velvety soft and delicately phrased, swapping low languid structures with accelerated  higher registers that take a more combative turn. Valse Triste seems Pepper take a more melancholy turn and give space for a stonking powerful piano solo from Milcho Leviev solo. Leviev and Carl Burnett together reach frenetic heights at the climax of an epic version of Make A List, while Pepper closes with a sharply punctuated and sassy Blues for Les.

Michael Graves (the audio engineer, not the late post-modern architect) has done a laudable job remastering the tapes that Peppers’ wife Laurie recorded at New Morning over four decades ago, even if Gene de Paul’s I’ll Remember April is abruptly cut short due to a lack of tape.

Pepper’s alto is clear and rich, and when he is playing it is easy to be lost in the moment.Carl Burnett’s drums are present and ring nicely, if a little compressed. Leviev’s piano sings out only when Pepper takes a rest and Leviev is at the firm end of his playing action; Tony Dumas’ bass effectively brings to mind straining in a noisy club to make out a poorly miked bass, unless on Blues For Blanche, where the rest of the quartet politely step out of the way.

What Geneva 1980 lacks in fidelity it makes up for in its success in capturing the exhilarating spirit of an ailing maestro on tour, feeding and growing off the palpable appreciation of an unexpected and enthusiastic packed house.

Laurie Pepper’s liner notes don’t make easy reading for those in love with Geneva, and the description of the unashamed isolationism of the travelling American quartet – hiding out in their hotel away from its sanitary streets and slick style – gives the impression of an unsympathetic jobbing group. Yet from this there is musical redemption and resolution – Geneva 1980 is a valuable new contribution to Art Pepper’s already bulging catalogue of works.

Release date 14 March 2025

from https://ukjazznews.com