Art Pepper Presents "West Coast Sessions!" Volume 5: Jack Sheldon

Chronique

The general prescription for the six dates Art Pepper recorded for Atlas Recordings between 1979 and 1980 reads like they would be a snooze. Japan's Atlas commissioned Pepper to play with six different "leaders" for the purpose of re-creating the sounds and vibes of vintage West Coast jazz. (As a headliner, Pepper was under exclusive contract to Galaxy.) Strictly speaking, Atlas got what they wanted, but these are hardly nostalgic sets. The fifth volume in the Art Pepper Presents West Coast Sessions series, presented by Laurie Pepper and Omnivore Records, is loose and magical. It pairs Pepper and his own road group (pianist Milcho Leviev, bassist Tony Dumas, and drummer Carl Burnett) with trumpeter and vocalist Jack Sheldon -- the session "leader." Sheldon was one of Pepper's oldest friends.
Three tunes on this session were first recorded by the pair for 1956's The Return of Art Pepper for Aladdin: "Angel Wings," "Minority," and "Broadway." They are all delights. For starters, they reveal the growth, complexity, and invention in Pepper's melodic, multivalently structured improvising style. Sheldon provides a perfect ballast, particularly on "Angel Wings," which swings like mad; its modernism is provocative in such a familiar tune. Pepper loved ballads; no record of his would be complete without them, though like the premise of the record, appearances can be deceiving. Leviev's gossamer intro to "Softly as in a Morning Sunrise" becomes a midtempo exercise in swing via Pepper's labyrinthine solo that flirts with the outside just enough, before being wound toward post-bop by Sheldon's break. The exceptional reading of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To" is introduced by the trumpeter, stating its melody firmly through a mute so Pepper can pick up its tenets to build a narrative, bluesy solo with Burnett's sweet cymbal work whispering along the edges. The finest moments here are reserved for the spontaneously created "Jack's Blues," with its two-horn head, fat and funky comping by Leviev, and groove-drenched rhythm section. Pepper's knotty solo is answered by Sheldon's bluer-than-blue bebop extrapolation.
"Historia de un Amor" is a Latin ballad that weds bolero to ranchera, but in Pepper and Sheldon's hands, its instrumental version is a searingly tender, haunted love story. Dumas' woody bass tone offers an anchor for Pepper's heartbreaking solo, which, only underscored by occasional honks and squeals, digs into the tune's lyric heart and exposes the humanity within it. There is another version included as one of four bonus alternate takes to close the set. Unlike everything else here, its source is one of Laurie's reference cassettes, and features Sheldon's singing (he was a pro and it shows in spades) with Pepper and band setting it up -- initially -- as more traditional in feel. Sheldon's vocal walks the line between Jack Teagarden's sweet, grainy baritone and Antonio Aguilar's dramatic, romantic phrasing. Both versions are unique compared to everything else here, and make this a necessary purchase for Pepper fans.

© Thom Jurek /TiVo