Art Pepper Quintet - Smack Up (1961/1984) [DSD128] LP

The title of this recording, Smack Up is ironic and inadvertently truthful. Within a short period, Art Pepper would begin spending many years in jail due to his heroin addiction; this was his next-to-last album from that period. Despite the bleak future, the great altoist (who never seemed to make an uninspired record during his unstable life) is in excellent form in a quintet with trumpeter Jack Sheldon, pianist Pete Jolly, bassist Jimmy Bond, and drummer Frank Butler. Highlights of this fine album include Harold Land's title cut, the five/four blues "Las Cuevas de Mario," and Ornette Coleman's "Tears Inside."


Tracks:

A1 Smack Up 4:14
A2 Las Cuevas De Mario 7:06
A3 A Bit Of Basie 7:23

B1 How Can You Lose 6:52
B2 Maybe Next Year 4:20
B3 Tears Inside 7:42

Personnel:

Art Pepper - alto saxophone
Jack Sheldon - trumpet
Pete Jolly - piano
Jimmy Bond - bass
Frank Butler - drums