Art Pepper + Eleven



1. Move 
2. Groovin' High 
3. Opus de Funk 
4. 'Round Midnight 
5. Four Brothers 
6. Shaw 'Nuff 
7. Bernie's Tune 
8. Walkin' Shoes 
9. Anthropology 
10. Airegin 
11. Donna Lee



Personnel: Art Pepper (alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet); Marty Paich (arranger, conductor); Herb Geller, Bud Shank, Charlie Kennedy (alto saxophone); Bob Enevoldsen (tenor saxophone, valve trombone); Bill Perkins, Richie Kamuca (tenor saxophone); Med Flory (baritone saxophone); Pete Candoli, Jack Sheldon, Al Porcino (trumpet); Vince De Rosa (French horn); Dick Nash (trombone); Russ Freeman (piano); Joe Mondragon (bass); Mel Lewis (drums). 



Recorded at Contemporary's Studio, Los Angeles, California on March 14 & 28 & May 12, 1959.



The ubiquitous Bud Shank played on many of Marty Paich's sessions, including this West Coast answer to BIRTH OF THE COOL, Actually that isn't strictly true. The whole West Coast scene starting with the Mulligan-Baker Quartet was perhaps an answer to Miles Davis's 1949 sessions. But ART PEPPER + ELEVEN is more accurately described as a brilliantly executed *homage* to bebop itself--to pure jazz composition with fresh treatments of "Anthropology," "Round Midnight," and Denzil Best's "Move," which opens BOTC as well. 



Of course, it's most of all a showcase for Art Pepper, the greatest mainstream alto player since Charlie Parker. The arrangements themselves are brisk, energetic, and thoroughly in the tradition. Whatever else he was, Art Pepper was no romantic lyricist so there are no dreamy settings here, the kind Gil Evans might write, or any other experimental voicings, the kind Stan Kenton loved. Marty Paich was a different type of modernist.