Art Pepper - Winter Moon (1981 Japanese Galaxy Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: VG+
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: VG+

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Art Pepper - Winter Moon | Vinyl LP - 1981 Japanese Galaxy (VIJ-6361, Victor Musical Industries)

Bill Holman had written the arrangements for Art Pepper + Eleven in 1959. Twenty-one years later, Pepper called him again. Holman arranged and conducted four of the seven tracks (including "Our Song" and the Hoagy Carmichael title track), while Jimmy Bond arranged and conducted the other three. The string section (nine violins and three cellos under concertmaster Nate Rubin) sits behind the quintet rather than on top of it, and the balance between Pepper's alto and the ensemble is kept open enough that his tone never has to compete with the orchestration. "Our Song" opens the album with a Pepper original that builds slowly, the strings entering after the melody has been stated by the quintet, and Pepper's solo across Holman's arrangement is among the most emotionally direct playing on any of his late recordings. "Here's That Rainy Day" gets a spare, unhurried reading. "That's Love," another Pepper original, stays close to a ballad tempo without softening. "Winter Moon" sets Carmichael's melody against the strings at their most prominent. Stanley Cowell's piano throughout is restrained, never more than a few notes at a time, and Howard Roberts's guitar adds a warmth to the rhythm section that Cecil McBee's bass and Carl Burnett's drums complement without crowding.

Side B opens with "When The Sun Comes Out" (Arlen/Koehler, the same songwriting team behind "Ill Wind" on Soulville) before "Blues In The Night" gives Pepper his only clarinet feature on the album, nearly seven minutes of Arlen/Mercer's standard played with a thinner, more reedy tone than his alto. "The Prisoner," a love theme from the film The Eyes of Laura Mars, closes the album. The strings disappear and Pepper plays with the quintet alone, ending the session with the kind of long, stretching solo that characterised his late work.

This is the 1981 Japanese pressing on Galaxy VIJ-6361, manufactured by Victor Musical Industries.