Straight Life: The Story Of Art Pepper

Art Pepper (1925-1982) was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist. He was born in Gardena, California, and raised in nearby San Pedro. He began playing the clarinet at age 9 and by 15 was performing in Lee Young's band at the Club Alabam, the home of jazz in pre-war Los Angeles. He began his career in the 1940s, playing with Benny Carter and Stan Kenton. Some of his most famous albums are Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Art Pepper + Eleven (Modern Jazz Classics), Gettin' Together and Smack Up. In 1952 he placed second only to Charlie Parker in the Down Beat jazz poll.

Straight Life demonstrates again and again that Pepper had the ear and memory and interpretative lyricism of a first-rate novelist . . . He did five years in San Quentin and his descriptions of life there are relentless and brilliant . . . He had no illusions nor did he have any remorse or self-pity . . . He was an eloquent and gifted man