So in Love
Recordings like this take audiophile quality and make it both affordable and transparent. Art Pepper, more creatively prolific in his late years than at almost any other time in his troubled life, cuts as sharply as a scythe when he's taking on an edge on this 1979 set. He appears in two different quartet formations, the first with pianistHank Jones, bassistRon Carter, and versatile drummer Al Foster, and the second with pianistGeorge Cablesand the rhythmic duoOrnette Colemanused so effectively, bassistCharlie Hadenand drummer Billy Higgins. The Jones-Carter-Foster lineup moves more measuredly than the Cables-Haden-Higgins one. Chalk it up to Coleman's speedy "harmolodic" compressions, but Haden and Higgins dance all over the melodies, pressing Pepper to spray alto lines in multiple directions almost at once. "Diane" is lovingly taken, with Pepper finding in Jones a great, romantic colleague. And if you find yourself curious about Pepper, try reading his tell-all autobiography,Straight Life, jazz's greatest confessional.--Andrew Bartlett