Book description
Art Pepper (1925-1982) was called the greatest alto saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. But his autobiography, Straight Life , is much more than a jazz book,it is one of the most explosive, yet one of the most lyrical, of all autobiographies. This edition is updated with an extensive afterword…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
2 authors picked Straight Life as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
If you trained to be a jazz musician as I once did, or if you love jazz, you’ll be fascinated by this story (both autobiography and oral history from those who knew Pepper).
It includes also journalistic and critical literary assessments of his music and life that Art and Laurie Pepper include, but mostly, I was fascinated by Art’s own testimony of the struggles of a musician in the 1950s and ‘60s.
By the 70s, Pepper was trying to go straight, off drugs, and his long struggle with that issue is documented by him, his wife, and his colleagues and…
From Robert's list on The best biographies or autobiographies about creative individuals in the arts.
An artist—a wonderful horn player—speaks his candid, clear-eyed, eloquent account of his life: self-destructive, immensely creative.
If the horn is broken, if the player is just out of prison, if he’s drug-riddled... all that might be bad for himself or others, but he improvises with his back to the wall, to get out of it. And in speech as in music, a great improviser.
From Robert's list on The best books that were composed by ear.
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