An Encylopedia of Articulation

[6441]

I happened upon this by accident, while looking at a post entitled "Jazz isn't dead". It looked like a regular song, and when it started I thought, "Damn, this guy can play!". Then I noticed it was very long and a closer look revealed it was a "mix tape" with the list of recordings. The first one was this, "The Summer Knows", which I did not recognize in the intro. There are many great alto players, but I'd never muych listened to Art Pepper for reasons that don't matter to anyone else. However, hearing his intro in this song blew me away because it's very, very rich in various articulations, so much so that I listened to the intro as loop for an hour or so during my morning stroll.
If you wanted to notate this, you'd have to go to an extensive extra annotation to render the variety of attacks. Even if you "count" the different volumes of different notes, there are way more than three "soft, medium, loud". Sensitve, bluesy and moving, but also educational.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geaUeW7cZTw

 

[7201]

I've been an admirer of Pepper for some years, but like you, completely unaware that he could play with the sort of sensitivity on show here. I knew he used a good variety of articulation, as do all my favourite players, but his note choices and delivery here are so far away from what most of us consider Pepper to be - a Be-bopper.

Thanks for sharing one of the best things I've heard in a while.

 

[Clivey]

What's very sad is that He is not a household name .
Not sure about back in the day.
Thank heavens for YouTube.

 

[6441]

He is not a household name .

Pepper is a household word! But the reason he isn't talked about is probably the same reason I haven't listened much. First, I think he played a lot of originals or a certain type and, while I'm sure there are jewels among them,

Art Pepper was a rapidly rising star from the late 1940s on. The trouble was, that little thing called Heroin which spelled the downfall of many a musician in the Jazz world. Joining what is probably best described as That Overflowing Subculture, Pepper ran afoul of the law on numerous occasions and spent three stretches in Prison; two of them at San Quentin. The result was a career that went in fits and starts and was trapped in a perpetual series of comebacks.

Here is Art Pepper live in Paris in 1981, with Milcho Leviev - Piano Bob Magnusson - Bass Carl Burnett - Drums.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-kq6jsvAhY


I think the others like Cannon stayed clean and more in view.

 

[Clivey]

It always alarms me that all my favorite players, the guys that can really move me, pretty well all took smack.

 

[6441]

It always alarms me that all my favorite players, the guys that can really move me, pretty well all took smack.

Maybe you should try it?
Most everyone I knew in the 1970's was using.

 

[Clivey]

Maybe you should try it?
Most everyone I knew in the 1970's was using.

Tee hee. You need to see the length of my pharmacy script.
But . I have participated in threads that have been shut on forums for discussing whether or not drugs can improve playing on so many different levels ie just increased synapse for starters. Pro video gamers and cheats try to employ them to give them the edge.
It's an adult forum and We should be able to discuss these things .
I would never advocate the taking of anything but many legends took uppers and then downers .
Most pro and touring guys at the least may smoke weed or booze a little.
It's part of the scene My band once got paid for doing an outside festival in drugs and cash. And when we toured with tennents got a case of beer every gig as a rider.

 

[6441]

Of course I wasn't seriously advocating, but it is a fact of life. I believe there's far less use of the hard substances today, other than the prescription drug abuse that is rampant. (And all this is OT, of course, but coming from one of the reasons Mr. Pepper isn't as well known as Cannonball or Desmond.)
Art Pepper was a revelation to me yesterday, coming from this random playlist. I'm studying it carefully and I've already begun a composition inspired by that intro.

 

[guidocreo]

He often seems to play a tenor, maybe that's also why I love him

View: https://youtu.be/o7SU4e4Sl1Q



Ciao

 

[6441]

He often seems to play a tenor

He is all the way down to Bb on this, great sound, it's something I aim for.

 

[Ivan]

Maybe you should try it?
Most everyone I knew in the 1970's was using.

How many of them have got into their 70's?

 

[6441]

How many of them have got into their 70's?

At least one!