Looking for some Art Pepper recommendations

Pick up the Hollywood All - Star Sessions. This is late Pepper. Excellent.

Art of the Ballad

"One September Afternoon" & "The New York Album"

Many good choices. I second Winter Moon. If you haven't read his biography, "Straight Life", you really should.

Memory is hazy but there is great Pepper on a Pacific Jazz record with Hoagy Carmichael.

Smack Up, Intensity, Winter Moon...

so funny- as I am reading this post, my Art Pepper disc cover just happened to be on top of the pile! 'Art Pepper Meets The Rythym Section'

Thank You Gentlemen. I looked through several web sites before posting, but your help has been spot on to what I'm looking for. I really appreciate the help.

All excellent suggestions. I also like some of the "live" in Tokyo CDs.

I'm a bit partial to the one called"Early Art".It's a Blue Note "twofer style" re-ish I acquired in the mid 70s.It is Quintet/Sextet style from sessions in 1956 From Intro,Jazz West and the Score labels.Heavily under the Yardbird influence (always a good thing) he swings and gets all over the horn with a light touch."Mambo De La Pinta","What Is This Thing Called Love" and homage to The Man himself "Yardbird Suite".Thanks for the reminder I gotta go listen to that now.

The amazing thing about Art is that he didn't make any bad records. It's safe to buy almost anything he recorded. I have at least 30 and am hard pressed to name a favorite.

First,that is a one of a kind,magical session where all the elements in play came together.Musical,emotional and some kind of nether world of quality high fidelity.Thanks to the wonderful chemistry of Contemporary Records.I would look further into the Contemporary sessions by Art."smack up" "intensity" "plus eleven" and the magical collaboration with Warne Marsh "the way it was" which fills out that unissued session with previously unissued works from the other Contemporary sessions.These all have superb playing and sonics. Although Mr. Peppers' approach to the different sessions vary, the passion,swing and hunger he played with is there.

All the Contemporary albums are benchmarks for engineering. Artistically, "Modern Jazz Classics" (also known as "Art Pepper + 11") is an acknowledged classic. A sleeper in his catalog is "Winter Moon", the rare jazz plus strings album that works. Although the recording is nothing special, Pepper's playing achieves an emotional depth rare even for him.

Art Pepper + Eleven, great sound, especially on the 2 disc 45RPM version, great arrangements by Marty Paich.