Art Pepper was born in Gardena, California in 1925 and started his musical career playing the clarinet at age 9. However the young lad was extremely unhappy with this instrument and by age 12 and to the benefit of all jazz fans he had moved on to the alto sax! Early idols included Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Muggsy Spanier and he would be influenced by Lester Young, Johnny Hodges and Ben Webster from whom he would discover his love of the great jazz ballad . Known primarily as being from the West Coast Cool School as featured on three of our albums, we are delighted to include the classic ‘Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section’ where Art is joined by three East Coasters, namely Miles Davis’ old rhythm section Red Garland, Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones.