Inadequacies, imagined or illusory, are the enemy of any artist. Fixate on what’s missing or perceived as faulty and one runs the real risk of relinquishing access to the beauty that’s manifest in unalloyed expression. Art Pepper masked his struggles with self-doubt in bouts of temerity and masochism. He was forever measuring himself against the false yardstick of his peers, particularly those who took a dim view of the numerous examples of self-sabotage that checkered his career. Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings makes for a convenient and compelling case study in that conflicted side of Pepper’s psyche while simultaneously delivering over six hours of the altoist in almost uniformly prime form.

In early 1977, Pepper connected with major label producer John Snyder and found both fan and advocate ready to organize a tour on his behalf. Subsequent plans for an extended recording contract on Snyder’s fledgling Artists House venture faltered, but the altoist still honored a promise to his friend with the bicoastal studio sessions that fill the five discs on the set. The rhythm sections assembled to accompany him were quite different and directly illustrative of the sway Pepper’s demons could have on his outlook, if not output. His widow Laurie, who had a direct hand in this set and the music’s most immediate previous release as a 2016 download, admits her bias while detailing the perceptual discord with a sense of humor and candor. 

Constituting the New York City contingent for the project, pianist Hank Jones, bassist Ron Carter, and drummer Al Foster were the definition of a blue-chip bop-versed band. Pepper held them all in initial high esteem but intuited an absence of reciprocity. Cue the coping mechanism of machismo and the misguided compulsion to prove himself every bit their equal while attempting to keep umbrage in check. Fortunately, the one-sided war of wills isn’t all that evident in the music outside of some general stiffness and occasional rote work from Carter, particularly on his feature with the leader, “Duo Blues”, where he does relatively little to embellish musically on its generic title. Pepper is largely loquacious and inventive, and on one piece, the original ballad “Diane”, dedicated to his star-crossed second wife, qualifies as a minor masterpiece.

The West Coast team of pianist George Cables, bassist Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins mans the bulk of the set’s music and is a better natural fit with Pepper. Cables had a simpatico synergy with his employer that allowed for an at times uncanny alignment of improvisation. The mutual admiration also extended into the numerous instances where Pepper pulls the stops through unaccompanied preludes and codas to a handful of tunes. The fluttering, keening alto introduction to the mothballed sax standard “Body and Soul” is a gorgeous distillation of his ability to breathe fresh air into even the most familiar material. Comfort and camaraderie also allowed for the presence of his clarinet, a reed he puts through the paces sans Cables support on Charlie Parker’s porous obstacle course, “Anthropology.”

Well over half of the material eventually gained circulation on the mammoth Complete Galaxy Recordings set released in 1994. That exhaustively illuminating box has been out-of-print for years though and a new 2019 mastering gives the music greater clarity and heft. Add to that facsimile cardboard sleeves approximating original cover design ideas and the (aforementioned) informative annotations by the erstwhile Mrs. Pepper and the package comes off as a fitting tribute to this worthy tributary of the altoist’s extensive late-career output. 

Derek Taylor