Straight Life - Art Pepper [214]
I had first met Greg in the federal joint. When I saw him again, later, he said that if I ever got really hung up I could give him a call and go to Synanon. I told Christine, "I don't want to go there. People think that everybody that's there is a rat." She said, "Fuck what people think. You know what you are. I can't leave you like this. I'm going to call Synanon or I'm going to call the police." I said, "Alright, call Greg and see what he has to say, but I'm not promising anything." She called him, and she was crying over the phone. Greg asked to talk to me. He said, "Art, what's wrong?" I told him I was just ruined physically: "All I want to do is get loaded and die, but I don't have the nerve to kill myself." He said, "Ohhhh, man. Get down here! Come down and we'll take care of you! Please, man It's your only salvation. I really love you, man. I want to save you. Please come down." I said okay and I hung up. I looked at Christine and said, "Oh God, man, it's the end of my life."
(Don Menza) The Buddy Rich band of 1968 was a magnificent band, probably as good as any band I ever played on, including the '61 Maynard band. It was dynamite, I thought. Buddy had a lot of fresh writers, and there suddenly became an awareness on his part where it wasn't all, well, I shouldn't say that. I was gonna say it had all been show-and he can put on a hell of a show-but he can also play.
We were out on a short tour, we got back to L.A., and an alto player decided he was going to leave, so we started talking about who was going to replace him. I was sorta the straw boss on the band, and Art didn't even enter my mind. I didn't really know him, and he had been off the scene for a while. Jim Trimble called me and said, "What would you think about Art Pepper coming on the band?" I said, "Great! I didn't even know he was, like, here. Where is he?" Art called me, and he didn't have an alto, and he was, like, panicked because he didn't have any bread. I told him, "Look, I have an alto." I was really excited because I remembered seeing him in the Stan Kenton days and buying his records. For me, it was really a thrill to know he was coming on the band.
I've listened to a lot of players. I can see their origins. I can see where they come from. I can hear the Bird in Art, I can hear the Prez in Art, and in the sound I can hear two or three different people, but out of that comes Art Pepper. And when you hear him play, you know it's Art Pepper. Whether he's playing alto or tenor, I can hear a certain thing that still has the Art Pepper stamp on it.
When Art came on the band, he didn't look well. Frankly, I was shocked. I watched him desperately trying to hang on, trying to get better. We had already recorded the Mercy,. Mercy album in United Studios down here, and I remember talking to Buddy and saying, "Hey, man, the band is so hot now. What are you doing? You should record the band live now. You should do the album over again. What you're doing now puts the album away." And sure enough, two days later he comes to me and says, "Tell the cats we're gonna record the whole album over again, live at Caesar's Palace." I'm just glad I didn't have to foot the bill, even if it was my idea, but that was a hot band. Between Al Porcino and Art Pepper ... Art sounded beautiful on the band. He just roared right through it. Then we went up to San Francisco, and I could see very plainly that Art was really hurting. Really hurting. And his spleen ruptured. That's what happened, and he almost died. -- - - -- - - - - - - - - -
Christine, she always talked about helping, but I don't think she did. I tried not to get too close to her. I could see trouble there. I remember her stealing horns on him; all of a sudden he'd be without a horn. I remember coming to town one time and he was all blurry eyed, didn't know where to turn. She had taken his mouthpiece. She had a tenor of his that he