Alto saxophonist Art Pepper witnessed the birth of cool jazz circa 1950 but coupled that influence with a love of bebop. He played it hot—with cool restraint. He was called “mercurial and uncategorizable” before slipping into heroin addiction and prison. 1960 through 1975 were lost years; by the time he recorded the music collected on Promise Kept, he was back in form and waxing prolific.
These mammoth 1979 recording sessions were originally released over several years as a string of four LPs for the indie Artist House label. Pepper had no trouble lining up prestige sidemen for his studio dates, including Hank Jones (piano), Charlie Haden (bass) and Billy Higgins (drums). Pepper could lay back and play it smooth on ballads, such as his own romantic composition “Diane” and the rueful cool of Jerome Kern’s “Yesterdays.” He was also in his element on more propulsive tracks that drew on his bop side, such as his “Landscape” or Thelonious Monk’s “Straight, No Chaser.”
Promise Kept’s five CDs are filed out with numerous alternate takes and tracks originally left unreleased.
