Art Pepper-Notes from a Jazz Survivor (1982)

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General		Extras
Category	Documentary	Main Menu Audio Discography
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	46:37
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Don McGlynn
Studio Distributor	Winter Moon Prods. Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Art Pepper Laurie Pepper
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Art Pepper

    I have recently selected three jazz DVD's for review, of which this is the third. The first was The Gadd Gang - Live on Digital Video, followed by Kenny Drew - Live Brewhouse Jazz, both of which I enjoyed. This is a quite different DVD to those in that it is a documentary film about the life of Jazz great, Art Pepper, made just before his death in 1982, rather than a live performance. It does include some excepts from a live performance at Pasquale's, a club in Malibu, California but the focus is on the man himself, his music, life and loves.

    Art Pepper is an alto saxophone player of great emotional intensity who combined two different styles of jazz, the cool style and the bebop style. He had a long recording career and a long battle with heroin & alcohol and spent significant amounts of his life in prison, especially during the 1960s. This documentary is a warts and all look at his life, featuring extended and brutally frank interviews with Art himself and his then wife, Laurie. They discuss his drug addiction, alcohol problems, his feelings about music and his ability to express his emotions through it, his childhood, crime and his prison terms, his previous wives, his difficult relationship with his daughter, his health issues, physical appearance changes, love and their relationship. It is very personal and honest and gives a great insight into the mind of a jazz musician.

    Also included are some songs from a live performance with his band of talented musicians who have recording careers in their own right, Milcho Levlev - Piano, Bob Magnusson - Double Bass & Carl Burnett - Drums. The songs are unfortunately interrupted by voiceovers or interview snippets which, although interesting, do disrupt the music. Unfortunately, the camera work during the live performance leaves something to be desired as it is quite dark and quite often too close to the performers. Other songs are included as background music during the film. The three live songs included are:

1. Red Car - An Art Pepper composition from his album, The Trip (1976).
2. Patricia - A song he wrote for his estranged daughter which appeared on his album, Early Art in 1956 and was re-recorded in 1978 for Art Pepper Today.
3. Miss Who? - Another Art Pepper composition which plays during the closing credits. Appeared on his 1978 album, Art Pepper Today.

    This is a fascinating documentary on the difficult life of a jazz great which is open, honest and very personal. Recommended for Jazz fans despite its short running time.

Video

    The video quality is acceptable considering the age and low-budget nature of the material.

    The feature is presented in a 1.29:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is most likely the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite soft throughout, not unexpected for a low-budget film from the early 1980s. There was some grain throughout. The video has been transferred at a high bit rate. Shadow detail was poor, especially during the live performance.

    The colour was dull and included some chroma noise. The blacks tended toward dark blue.

    There were quite a few film artefacts, consisting of flecks, specks and marks. Some were fairly large. There were also some tape tracking issues such as at 16:02 & 45:40.

    There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fair but has some problems.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

    The dialogue was mostly clearly understandable, although a little muffled here and there.

    The music comes across reasonably well, however it was a little muffled during the live sections. Also, during the final credits the live song included some distortion and dropouts.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer are not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The menu included a still photograph, music and the ability to select scenes.

Discography

    A text based selective discography of recommended albums by Art Pepper. 2 pages.

Propaganda

    One page picture of four other Jazz titles available from Umbrella.

    This disc is available in Region 1 in exactly the same format except for PAL/NTSC differences.

    The video quality is acceptable.

    The audio quality is decent but not without issues.

    The disc has only text based extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall