• 2-CD SET

• ALL TRACKS PREVIOUSLY UNISSUED

• INCLUDES 32-PAGE BOOKLET

Laurie Pepper founded Widow’s Taste Records in 2006 to “introduce truly unreleased and unheard Art to people who love him as well as to people who didn’t yet know him, so they can fill their lives with soulful beauty.” Since then, the label has been releasing prime Pepper recordings on an annual basis. Widow’s Taste’s latest offering, Unreleased Art Pepper Vol. VII, is a two-CD set recorded in November 1980 in Osaka, Japan. The Osaka session is a happy one, swinging and melodic. It reunites Art with pianist George Cables, and “Art’s mood was sunny throughout this trip,” recalls Laurie, “because he loved being on the road with George and loved working with him every night.”

Other reasons for Art’s cheer (he mentions them onstage): The acclaim accorded his just-published book Straight Life, co-authored with Laurie, and the satisfaction he felt after completing his ballad album with strings, Winter Moon (Galaxy). Art’s inspired live performance of Winter Moon at this Osaka concert is, as far as Laurie knows, the only one extant and one good reason for releasing this material.

PERSONNEL:

• Art Pepper - alto sax, clarinet
• George Cables - piano
• Tony Dumas - bass
• Carl Burnett - drums

Sankei Hall, Osaka, Japan, November 18, 1980

TRACKS:

• CD ONE:
• 01. Landscape
• 02. Talk, band intro
• 03. Ophelia
• 04. Cherokee
• 05. Talk, about Cherokee
• 06. (Somewhere) Over the Rainbow
• 07. Talk, presenting George Cables
• 08. Quiet Fire (piano solo)
• 09. Talk, introducing Straight Life
• 10. Straight Life

• CD TWO:
• 01. Y.I. Blues
• 02. Talk, about Y.I. Blues
• 03. Avalon
• 04. Talk, about Avalon
• 05. Make A List
• 06. Talk, about Make A List
• 07. Winter Moon
• 08. Talk, about Winter Moon