Certainly Jim Pepper has been one
of my feature guys from the earliest days of this blog. When I think of
it, Jim Pepper, Roland Kirk and Booker Ervin were the three saxophone
voices I was obsessed with in the first year of the Crypt. Here is a
re-visitation of a Pepper rarity in a seriously up-graded form with flac's and covers...the whole shebang!
"This trio album was made less than a year before Jim died at age
of 50. The show was recorded at an obviously tiny club in Austria and
has a real intimate feel to it. I've never heard of bassist Wayne
Darling or drummer Bill Elgart
but they are both quite good and fill their roles admirably. Darling in
particular has some great moments, beginning with his sneaky lead into
Greensleeves. The song starts out with what sounds like a bit of tune-up
noodling and Pepper joking with someone in the background
but Darling keeps going until suddenly he is playing the opening bass
line from Coltrane's version on Africa Brass and soon Jim and Elgart
jump into a wonderfully free and open version of the song. This album
grows on me each time I hear it so if you're not thrilled on first
listen, give it a couple more chances. I didn't much like Sonny Rollins'
trio stuff at first either but now I love it and this album is charting
a similar course for me."
Since
I wrote that I've learned to love this album even more as a wonderfully
warm and personal statement from a man near the end of his road. Jim's
giant soul really shines out of this recording. Thank God this gem was
preserved!
R.I.P KingCake who passed away on July 2 from complications from a stroke.
This was one of his earliest posts on the resurrected Crypt. ~ grumpy
