Winter Moon

Alto saxophonist Art Pepper, a link from Los Angeles' burgeoning Central Avenue jazz scene in the '40s to the post-bop ferment of the '60s, was a survivor of his own hell-bent instincts and the general chaos of the jazz milieu when he enjoyed a heartening comeback in the late '70s. Like Charlie Parker, in whose shadow he had often labored, Pepper was a brilliant, often furious improvisor with a sentimental streak expressed in his fragile, moving ballads. This autumnal album fulfilled a desire shared with Bird--to set the smoky, elegiac timbre of Pepper's most carefully shaped lines against the clean foil of strings. 1980's Winter Moon establishes and sustains a middle-of-the- night atmosphere by hewing strictly to moody ballads, and giving Pepper a spare but plush backdrop of strings that allow him and a smartly chosen small group to shine on a mix of originals and covers culminating in his reading of the Hoagy Carmichael title song. --Sam Sutherland