Marty Paich, Guest Artist: Art Pepper

Like Wow! Jazz 1960

1960 · Interlude Records MO-514 · Mono · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Interlude Records
Catalogue number	MO-514
Year	1960
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - West Coast/Cool Jazz
Producer	Robert Scherman (credited 'Directed by'; no producer credit as such)
Musicians	Marty Paich (piano), Art Pepper (alto sax, guest - on Art's Opus, All The Things You Are, Pitfall, Marty's Blues, What's Right For You), Larry Bunker (vibraphone, drums), Joe Mondragon (bass); documented but uncredited on the jacket: Howard Roberts (guitar) and Frank Capp (drums) on the ex-'Hot Piano' tracks, Buddy Clark (bass) and Frank Capp (drums) on the Pepper quartet tracks

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  134-A
B-21749
Side B:  133-B
B-21750

Condition

Cover: VG+
Vinyl: EX DEEP GROOVE/EX DEEP GROOVE

Variant chronology

1960 - US Interlude MO-514 mono, gray deep-groove label, Hollywood rim text  <- this copy
1960 - Interlude 'Dynamic Depth' stereo edition (advertised in back-cover boilerplate; no confirmed copies documented) - n/a

This Pressing

Original and only US pressing (mono, 1960) - Interlude MO-514 gray deep-groove Hollywood label; a recompilation of 1956 Tampa masters.

The Album

Despite the 'Jazz 1960' banner, every note here was recorded in Hollywood in 1956, at Radio Recorders, during one of the most poignant windows in Art Pepper's life: he had just been released from his first prison term in July 1956 and cut these sides with Marty Paich only weeks later, mere months before his career-defining 'Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section' (January 1957). Five tracks feature Pepper's alto in a quartet with Paich - material first issued on the rare Tampa LP 'Marty Paich Quartet Featuring Art Pepper' (TP-28), including Pepper's own 'Art's Opus' - while the other five are Paich-led sides with Larry Bunker's vibes and Howard Roberts' guitar drawn from the Tampa 10-inch 'Hot Piano.' By the time Interlude dressed the masters up with a bachelor-pad 'girly cover' and a 1960 release date, Pepper was behind bars again (1960-64), making the album a bittersweet placeholder for an absent star. Paich, meanwhile, was among the most important arrangers on the West Coast, the man behind the charts for 'Art Pepper + Eleven: Modern Jazz Classics' and key Mel Torme sessions. Pepper's playing here is light, buoyant and irresistibly melodic - a free man breezing through standards - and the set is prized as an essential early document of the defining alto voice of West Coast jazz.

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Art's Opus
2. I'll Remember April
3. Lullaby Of The Leaves
4. Jump For Me
5. All The Things You Are

Side 2

1. Marty's Blues
2. Pitfall
3. Dool's Blues
4. Theme From Lighthouse
5. What's Right For You

The Label

This copy carries the gray-silver deep-groove label with the large white lowercase 'i' Interlude logo and 'INTERLUDE RECORDS INC - HOLLYWOOD' rim text, catalog MO-514 with 'int 134-A/B' printed matrix numbers - the original and only documented US pressing configuration. Interlude Records Inc. was a short-lived Hollywood independent (c. 1959-62) directed by Robert Scherman, and its catalog drew heavily on the earlier Tampa Records masters (TP series, 1956-57), which Scherman also controlled; MO-514 is a recompilation of Tampa material rather than a new recording. The deep groove and single mono MO-500 series number place this firmly in the label's original 1960 issue window. No second pressing or label-design change is documented for this title, so all genuine copies share this configuration; the material (not this LP) later resurfaced on Charlie Parker Records (PLP), Archives of Jazz, and V.S.O.P. reissues.

Fidelity

The source tapes were engineered at Radio Recorders in 1956 by Val Valentin - later Verve's legendary house engineer - which explains the unusually sweet, present mono sound. LondonJazzCollector calls this Interlude pressing 'a sonic joy' and 'musicians in the room,' judging it superior to the reportedly dodgier-sounding Tampa originals (TP-23/TP-28). In the fidelity hierarchy it effectively sits at or near the top for this material: the Tampa originals are rarer but not better-sounding, the later Charlie Parker PLP ('Chile Pepper') and V.S.O.P. reissues are serviceable but a generation removed, and no modern audiophile LP reissue of this album exists.

Notes

1960 Interlude MO-514 mono - original US pressing, the only variant documented for this title. Gray deep-groove labels with 'INTERLUDE RECORDS INC - HOLLYWOOD' rim text and printed 'int 134-A/B' match the original-issue configuration; typed runouts (134-A/B-21749 and 133-B/B-21750) are consistent, though note the Side 2 transcription reads 133-B where the printed label reads int 134-B - a dead-wax photo would settle whether that is a transcription slip. Original 'Monaural Dimensional Realism' corporate inner sleeve survives, supporting period provenance. Released 1960; all recordings are actually August 1956 Tampa sessions from Radio Recorders.