More Art Pepper at The Lighthouse Cafe

Art Pepper

Complete Straight Ahead Sessions

By the spring of 1953, the Lighthouse Cafe had already become one of the central laboratories of the emerging West Coast sound. Week after week, musicians, arrangers, and restless young soloists gathered there for the long Sunday sessions that blurred the line between the atmosphere of an informal jam session and genuine artistic experimentation. Somewhere among the crowded tables, cigarette smoke, and constant movement of the club, Bob Andrews once again set up his portable Pentron tape recorder, unknowingly capturing one of the very few documented encounters between Art Pepper and Sonny Clark.

Although later associated with different musical worlds, Pepper and Clark met here at a fascinating transitional moment in their careers. Pepper, already one of the most distinctive voices to emerge from the California scene, was still refining the lyrical and emotionally direct style that would later define his mature work. Clark, several years away from his celebrated Blue Note recordings, had not yet fully entered the New York hard-bop circuit that would make him one of the essential pianists of his generation. These performances capture both musicians before mythology had fully formed around them. The original 10-inch "Straight Ahead" releases preserve Pepper at a particularly luminous moment in his early development, shortly before the legal and personal difficulties of the mid-1950s temporarily removed him from the center of the jazz scene.

The historical importance of these tapes lies not only in their rarity — live open-reel recordings of this kind were still highly unusual in 1953 — but also in the spontaneous atmosphere they retain. Far removed from the controlled environment of the recording studio, the music reflects the genuine sound of the Lighthouse scene itself: relaxed, exploratory, and deeply rooted in the weekly musical life of Hermosa Beach.

By this time, Bob Andrews had already become a familiar presence within the Southern California jazz scene, moving quietly from club to club with his tape recorder and single microphone. What had begun simply as a personal fascination with the music would eventually evolve into one of the most valuable private archives of early West Coast jazz, later issued through Andrews' own Vantage label and subsequent reissues.

The repertoire heard throughout these sessions moves comfortably between standards and originals, but the true fascination of the material lies in the musical dialogue itself. Pepper's luminous alto sound contrasts naturally with Clark's darker, more rhythmically grounded approach, producing a musical tension that gives the performances much of their character. Heard today, these recordings function not merely as collector's items, but as rare surviving fragments from a period when the language of modern jazz on the West Coast was still being shaped night after night inside clubs like the Lighthouse.

As with many surviving documents from this period, the technical limitations of the original tapes remain secondary to the remarkable historical testimony they provide.

Admittedly, this Jazz Factory double disc leaves something to be desired in the sound reproduction and mastering departments. But it is of little consequence when one considers the historical value of the performances here that showcase Art Pepper early in his solo career, with Sonny Clark on piano. The sound quality — which isn't terrible by a long shot and is not noisy, just less than sparkling — becomes no deterrent at all when one hears the illustrious communication between Pepper and Clark — making Clark seem like the bandleader, incidentally.

The rhythm section of drummer Bobby White, and bassist and cellist Harry Babasin are not terribly remarkable, except that they swing very hard on the blues. But Pepper, who defers to Clark in many places, is at his lyrical best as a soloist here, and Clark's gorgeous and funky chordal structures provide him with a lush and street-savvy base from which to fly into the his hardest-sounding blues and bop runs from the early days. This may be for Pepper and Clark collectors only, but it should appeal to anyone interested in the only true joining of hard bop and West Coast traditions.

*Thom Jurek*

CD 1

1 - Brown Gold

(Art Pepper)

2 - These Foolish Things

(Jack Strachey, Eric Maschwitz)

3 - Tickle Toe

(Lester Young)

4 - Tenderly

(Jack Lawrence, Walter Gross)

5 - Strike Up the Band

(George and Ira Gershwin)

6 - Night And Day

(Cole Porter)

7 - Deep Purple

(Peter DeRose, Mitchell Parish) 

CD 2

1 - Bluebird

(Charlie Parker)

2 - Pennies From Heaven

(Johnny Burke, Arthur Johnston)

3 - 'S Wonderful

(George and Ira Gershwin)

4 - Holiday Flight

(Art Pepper)

Art Pepper (alto sax), Sonny Clark (piano),

Harry Babasin (bass, cello), Bobby White (drums).

Recorded live at The Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, California, 

March 30 (#7 [CD1], #1, #4 [CD2]), April 1 (#2, #3 [CD2]) and May 31 (#1 to #6 [CD1]), 1953