Track Listing

1. Our Song
2. Here's That Rainy Day
3. That's Love
4. Winter Moon
5. When the Sun Comes Out
6. Blues in the Night
7. Prisoner (Love Theme from the Eyes of Laura Mars)
8. Our Song [Alternate Take][*]
9. Prisoner (Love Theme from the Eyes of Laura Mars) [Alternate Take][*]
10. Ol' Man River [*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19324 in Music
• Brand: Pepper
• Released on: 1991-07-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.com
Alto saxophonist Art Pepper, a link from Los Angeles' burgeoning Central Avenue jazz scene in the '40s to the post-bop ferment of the '60s, was a survivor of his own hell-bent instincts and the general chaos of the jazz milieu when he enjoyed a heartening comeback in the late '70s. Like Charlie Parker, in whose shadow he had often labored, Pepper was a brilliant, often furious improvisor with a sentimental streak expressed in his fragile, moving ballads. This autumnal album fulfilled a desire shared with Bird--to set the smoky, elegiac timbre of Pepper's most carefully shaped lines against the clean foil of strings. 1980's Winter Moon establishes and sustains a middle-of-the- night atmosphere by hewing strictly to moody ballads, and giving Pepper a spare but plush backdrop of strings that allow him and a smartly chosen small group to shine on a mix of originals and covers culminating in his reading of the Hoagy Carmichael title song. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

The finest jazz album with strings
The juxtaposition of Art Pepper's searing but beautifully melodic saxophone(s) with strings only happened near the end of Pepper's career (and life), but seems perfect and inevitable. Pepper was probably in better health for this record than any other since the late 50s, and this enables him to produce wonderful, complete improvised lines. The first track, "Our Song," is worth the price by itself.

Extremely Sublime!
This is a classic album..one of the most moving, penetrating and down right mellow projects of Pepper's career. He was always talented, but this CD will put you in such a mellow, laidback mode, you'll wonder why you left it out of your collection all these years! I challenge anyone not to be moved and stirred by the tune "prisoner (Theme from the Eyes of Laura Mars)." It is so rich in texture and sound, it feels like the Earth is standing still and you're rotating around it...and "Winter Moon" just lifts you up and swaddles you in soft, melodic bliss! Plus, he gives you other chilled songs that will stir the sentimental dust lying dormant in your soul! Another favorite of mine "Our Song", it is so divine, I put it on repeat, always! Can't hear it just once!

I listen to this CD during long drives to no where in the Spring, lounging on the patio in the Summer, relaxing by the fireplace in the Winter or writing prose on a Sunday morning in the Fall! Since it is musical poetry, it always inspires me for it is indeed music for all seasons.

WINTER MOON
THIS COLLECTION SHOWCASES THE FINE SIDEMEN AND STRINGS WITH ART PEPPER. ART'S FINE SAX WORK,ALSO CLARINET.