Variant chronology
1957 - US Intro ILP-606 original mono, brown label, Los Angeles address, period US stock
1976 - Japan Intro ILP-606 reissue, mono
1979 - Japan Intro K23P-6711 'Jazztime Now!!' series reissue, mono
1989 - Japan Toshiba-EMI ILP 606 'Blue Note LP Last Reissue - 20' series, facsimile label with Capitol-license rim text <- this copy
The Album
Modern Art captures the Art Pepper Quartet at a pivotal early moment in the alto saxophonist's rise on the West Coast scene, recorded across two Los Angeles sessions - December 28, 1956 at Radio Recorders and January 14, 1957 at Master Recorders. The program balances four Pepper originals against four standards: the blues frames 'Blues In' and 'Blues Out' plus 'Cool Bunny' and 'Dianne's Dilemma,' alongside Rodgers and Hart's 'Bewitched,' 'When You're Smiling,' 'Stompin' at the Savoy,' and Cole Porter's 'What Is This Thing Called Love.' Don Clark's original liner notes made the era's pitch plainly, billing Pepper as playing the most modern jazz on the scene and drawing comparisons to Desmond, Konitz, and Shank. Pepper stands as one of the defining alto voices of 1950s West Coast jazz - lyrical, vibrato-rich, rhythmically supple, a cooler counterweight to the East Coast hard-bop mainstream - even as addiction and incarceration repeatedly interrupted his career in the decades that followed. Cut just before his celebrated 1957 Contemporary date Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, the album documents his own working-quartet concept in full flower: relaxed, unhurried interplay rather than uptempo display. Its compact, front-to-back coherence has kept it a touchstone of the intimate small-group side of the cool school and an enduring entry in Pepper's catalog.
The Label
This copy carries a facsimile of the original 1957 Intro design - brown/tan label, white print, 'LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA' banner under the logo, 'LONG PLAYING'/'MICROGROOVE' arcs - but the rim text reads 'MADE BY TOSHIBA-EMI LTD. IN JAPAN UNDER LICENSE FROM CAPITOL RECORDS INC.', a line no period pressing could carry, and the typeset 'MONO ILP 606 (ILP 606-A/B)' block is anachronistic. Intro was the Mesner brothers' short-lived Aladdin Records subsidiary (5352 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles), revived in 1957 for only a handful of LPs - two Lester Young reissues and two new jazz dates, Modern Art among them - before the Aladdin catalog passed through Imperial, Liberty and Transamerica/United Artists into Capitol/EMI ownership. That chain of title is exactly what authorized Toshiba-EMI to reproduce the vintage Intro artwork under Capitol license in its late-1980s Japanese revival program for the Aladdin/Intro/Transition-family catalogs. The design placement therefore proves this is a licensed 1989 Japanese reissue (Blue Note LP Last Reissue - 20 series, November 8, 1989), sitting well below the scarce 1957 US original in the pressing hierarchy.
Fidelity
Japanese mono cut of the original December 1956/January 1957 Los Angeles masters, with '1S' mother/stamper notation typical of Toshiba-EMI's late-1980s licensed reissue runs rather than a dedicated audiophile remaster; the lacquer source is not documented as fresh-from-original-tape and should be assumed a generation removed. Toshiba-EMI pressings of this era are physically quiet and well-pressed, but collector commentary on this Japanese lineage is mixed on EQ: the top end is clean and clear while the midrange and especially the bass can sound thin - a frequently criticized trait of 1980s Japanese jazz reissues. No Music Matters, Analogue Productions, Classic Records, or Tone Poet edition of this Intro title exists, so the fidelity hierarchy is simple: the true 1957 US Intro mono original sits on top, and this Toshiba-EMI cut is a clean, listenable but tonally leaner budget alternative well below it.
