Straight Life - Art Pepper [124]
We set up a time, and I went out there. He lived on Ventura Court. It's an alley. One little street north of Ventura Boulevard at Whitsett. It was three doors up, small living room, one bedroom, shower. It was right behind a bar that's now called the Queen's Arms. The first time I went out there I couldn't find Ventura Court to save my life. I drove around for half an hour. You know, Whitsett goes right up the hill, so I drove up the hill because I was still on this trip about the maid and the big house. It had to be in the hills. I finally stopped and called and it turned out I was right across the street. When I got there it was kind of a surprise.
I guess he had me play. I don't remember how we got started, but I do remember he writes out all his lessons. They're beautiful. He'd write out an exercise and a duet and a jazz etude, and for my assignment I had to write an exercise and a duet. It wasn't just playing. We played through some stuff, and he had me do some sight-reading to see how I did. He hated the mouthpiece I had. He was always handing me his. I had a metal mouthpiece, and his was rubber. I hated the way I sounded on his mouthpiece. Little did I know. When you switch from metal to rubber you get a darker sound at first, and that's what I was hearing. He didn't push it though. The lessons were around an hour and a half. I pulled out my wallet to pay him at the end of the first lesson and realized I'd left all my money at home. I almost went through the floor. He got really nervous. He was still playing at the Lighthouse, so I said, "I'll bring it out there tonight." He said, "I've really got to have the money." I was so embarrassed I could have crawled under anything. I went that night with a friend of mine to the Lighthouse, and I remember when I walked in Art waved to me, which was a big thrill. I just handed him the bread, right there in front of ... I was so excited. I had no idea what was going on. To me he was just Art Pepper, my idol. I had no idea what was going on at all.
Diane was always there at the lessons, and she was always nice. And they had a little, white poodle, nice and friendly. I went there once for a lesson and Art picked up his clarinet because he didn't have his tenor. He said it had gotten stolen, and I felt real bad. Now I realize he'd probably hocked it. He picked up the clarinet and he played this incredible, beautiful bebop lick, and I, oh, wow! So many people love Art's clarinet sound. They hate everybody else, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Jimmy Giuffre, Buddy DeFranco, and they love Art Pepper on clarinet. He played this lick that really knocked me out. I think this was the second lesson.
I had been told to write an exercise out. He'd said, "It's an exercise so make it difficult, something that will make you work." I wrote this incredible, unmusical, impossible exercise. You know, leaps from the top of the horn to the bottom, silly rhythms. I'd done a little writing in high school and I really went out of my way. He tried it and he couldn't play it. Nobody could have played it. And he said, "Well, you'll never have to play anything this hard." He wrote out some more etudes and another duet, and we worked them out.
One time he came to my house. for a lesson because I lived near his father and he was going to be out that way. And that was really a trip. Art Pepper's comin' over! I'd been working on a little blues tune and I wasn't sure about some of the notation, so he wrote it out, helped me with that, and put a title on it, something to do with me, and that made it really exciting. Then we had some coffee, standing outside and talking, and I remember