About Me
From Art Pepper's memoir, "Straight Life":I remember one time when I was playing at the Blackhawk in San Francisco. I forget the date, but Sonny Stitt... came in and wanted to jam with me. We both play alto, which is... it really makes it a contest. But Sonny is one of those guys, that's the thing with him. It's a communion. It'a a battle. It's an ego trip. It's a testing ground. And that's the beautiful part of it. It's like two guys that play great pool wanting to play pool together or two great football teams or two maginificent basketball teams, and just the joy of playing with someone great...I said "what do you want to play?" Sonny says "Let's play 'Cherokee.'" That's a song jazz musicians used to play. The bridge, which is the middle part, has all kinds of chord changes in it. It's very difficult. If some kid came around, and he wanted to play, you'd say "Let's play 'Cherokee'" and you'd count it off real fast. I said "Well, beat it off." He went "one-two, one-two;" he was flying. We played the head, the melody and then he took the first solo. He played, I don't know, about forty choruses. He played for an hour maybe, did everything that could be done on a saxophone, everything you could play, as much as Charlie Parker could've played if he'd been there. Then he stopped. And he looked at me. Gave me one of those looks, "All right, suckah, your turn." And it's my job, it's my gig.I was strung out. I was hooked. I was drunk. I was having a hassle with my wife, Diane, who'd threatened to kill herself in our hotel room next door. I had marks on my arm. I thought there were narcs in the club, and I all of a sudden realized that it was me. He'd done all those things and now I had to put up or shut up or get off or forget it or quit or kill myself or do something.I forgot everything, and everything came out. I played way over my head. I played completely different than he did. I searched and found my own way, and what I said reached the people. I played myself, and I knew I was right, and the people loved it, and they felt it. I blew and blew and when I finally finished I was shaking all over; my heart was pounding; I was soaked in sweat, and the people were screaming, the people were clapping... and I looked at Sonny, but I just kind of nodded, and he went "All right. And that was it. That's what it's all about
