Art Pepper – Meets the Rhythm Section (180g LP)

Label: Original Jazz Classics AOJC 338
he Absolute Sound Super Disc List 2016 TAS Harry Pearson Super LP List

Album notes don’t always tell the whole story. Contemporary president Les Koenig, who rightly felt that Art had yet to record with musicians who were his equal, wanted to take advantage of Miles Davis’ quintet being in L.A. But Pepper hadn’t been playing for several months, and his horn was in a state of disrepair. To minimize anxiety, the session was kept secret from Art until the last minute. But Pepper always rose to a challenge: he taped to his dried-out cork, arrived for the date, and proceeded to record an album widely considered the most important of his career. This is an all tube recording from the mircophones to the tape machine.

Mastered by Doug Sax.
“Blazing 1958 session with the West Coast alto saxophonist Art Pepper, at the height of his fluency, joining up with Miles Davis’ rhythm section of the day (Red Garland, Paul Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones). The band rips through the sheets in a way we don’t hear on the pressure-cooking Miles sessions. Roy DuNann’s minimalist miking yields an eerily realistic sound. The sounds burst out of your speakers, yet lay back when they’re supposed to, too.” – Fred Kaplan, The Absolute Sound, December 2005 (included in Kaplan’s “Best-Sounding Jazz LPs”)

Recorded January 19, 1957 at Contemporary’s studio in Los Angeles.