Everything Happens To Me: 1959 - Live At The Cellar

The legions of Art Pepper fans across the globe have been very fortunate to have the saxophonists widow maintain his archive and expand it with a curators ear. Since his death in June 1982, she has extracted unreleased live gigs, rehearsals, and unissued studio performances for her Widowspeak label. Her Bandcamp page contains more than 100 releases, audiocasts, and more. Cheryl Pawelskis Omnivore Recordings has been a faithful partner for years. The label released this four-disc box set of 32 unreleased club performances at Vancouver jazz spot The Cellar. Pepper was riding the critical and popular success of his two LPs Modern Art and Surf Ride. Everything Happens to Me 1959 [Live at The Cellar] documents the saxophonists ten-night stand with a Canadian band that included pianist Chris Gage, bassist Tony Clitheroe, and drummer George Ursan. The material includes standards and originals, show tunes and bebop jams. Disc one opens with an incomplete "When Youre Smiling" before the band delivers an excellent, eight-minute reading of Ray Nobles bebop anthem "Cherokee" with killer kit work from Ursan matching Peppers lyric intensity. They slow it down with "Over the Rainbow," a tune he explored until the end of his life. It is filled with optimism across his and Gages solos, while the shorter version on disc three literally emerges from blues. The version of "All the Things You Are," at over nine minutes, tops many in his live catalog as he joins blues, bop, and elegance with the band in lockstep. The long, back-to-back versions of "Lover Man" and "Yardbird Suite" (the latter is repeated once) reveal a musician who already knew what he had to offer. Bassist Clitheroe underscores the bands approach with a warm, woody tone bridging Ursan and Gage as Pepper leans into them in his solo. There are three versions here of "Holiday Flight," from Surf Ride. The first follows an incomplete "Whats New?" with a short alto intro before Clitheroe walks the blues and is answered by Gage and Ursan. Its followed by a killer take of "Stompin at The Savoy" that swings like mad. It opens disc three with a completely different vibrato and with punchier band interaction. Also notable is a long, incomplete "Brown Gold" offered with a tight Latin groove courtesy of Ursan. Other highlights include a lithe, swinging "Tangerine" and a finger-popping bop read of "I Surrender Dear." The final disc offers an 11-plus-minute "Somebody Loves Me," a two-part "There Will Never Be Another You," and the glorious, extended one-two punch of "Allens Alley" and "Walkin," where the band interacts melodically and rhythmically, propelling Pepper to great heights in his solos. The box contains liner notes by jazz critic Kirk Silsbee, who also interviews Laurie and saxophonist Dave Quarin, who managed The Cellar for five years. For Pepper fans, Everything Happens to Me 1959 [Live at The Cellar] is as essential to Peppers early oeuvre as the complete, 41-track Unreleased Art Pepper Vol 6: Blues for the Fisherman set. ~ Thom Jurek