JazzTimes – October 2019

44 JAZZTIMES SEPTEMBER 2019

It would be too easy to say that the

insecurity and self-loathing stirred up

within Pepper during moments like

this made him a junkie, but it sure

didn’t help. Dope and alcohol became

Pepper’s coping mechanism, and it

nearly destroyed him, until he wound

up at Synanon, a controversial rehab

facility in Santa Monica, where he met

Laurie, his future wife and co-memoir-

ist, and began to get some perspective

on his life.

In the end, Pepper cites as his great

gift not the fact that he was one of the

best alto saxophone players who ever

lived; he cites his ability to endure all

that he did, which ultimately made

it possible to access his humanity

through his art.

At the end of Straight Life, the author

describes a moment of virtuosity on the

bandstand so transcendent that it de-

serves to be preserved here in all its glory:

We played the head, the melody, and

then [Sonny Stitt] took the first solo.

He played, I don’t know, about forty

choruses, he played for an hour maybe,

did everything that could be done on a

saxophone, everything you could play ...

Then he stopped. And he looked at me.

Gave me one of those looks, “All right,

suckah, your turn.” And it’s my job; it’s

my gig. I was strung out. I was hooked.

I was drunk. I was having a hassle with

my wife, Diane, who threatened to kill

herself in our hotel room next door. I

had marks on my arm. I thought there

were narcs in the club, and all of a sud-

den I realized that it was me. He’ d done

all those things, and now I had to put up

or shut up or get off or forget it or quit or

kill myself or do something.

I forgot everything, and everything

came out. I played way over my head. I

played completely different than he did.

I searched and found my own way, and

what I said reached the people. I played

myself, and I knew I was right, and the

people loved it, and they felt it. I blew and

I blew, and when I finally finished I was

shaking all over; my heart was pounding;

I was soaked in sweat, and the people

were screaming; the people were clapping,

and I looked at Sonny, but I just kind of

nodded, and he went, “All right.” And

that was it. That’s what it’s all about.

Art Pepper was a great musician

who paid a heavy price for his art.

With Straight Life, he achieved some-

thing few musicians can claim: literary

immortality. JT

CO

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TES

Y^ O

F^ LA

URI

E^ P

EPP

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Pepper with his wife

Laurie at Donte’s,

Los Angeles, 1980