Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/12/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Of the Photographers books the one that interests me most is the recent Claxton book with his Jazz shots.....but at $200....forget about it... Regarding biographies....A sad and ironic event in my life... Art Pepper always amazed me with his playing. I read and was moved by his autobiography "Straight Life" where he addressed his drug addiction. The night came when he was playing in San Jose, Ca. at a place called Garden City. Small club...small room attached to a card club. My date and I found seats at a table right in front of the bandstand. Art was on fire that night...probably the greatest Jazz performance I ever attended and I have heard just about every legend over the past 40 years. After the set he came down and sat with my date and I... "You play don't you?" He asked... "Well...yeh" "Trumpet?" "Yeh!" (I was surprised) "Didn't we do a gig in Chicago, um...early mid 50's?" (I'm from Chicago) "No..don't think so" (I was in my single digit years through most the 50's) "Were we in the Joint together?" "Nope" The drinks started coming...all on the house...Art being Art and my date being a close friend of the club's owner. While we were drinking and talking I suddenly remembered his biography and battles with substance abuse. I too had had my battles with alcohol...having just "gone out" after a year and a half sober...(I now have 22 years continuous sobriety) ... A few months later he was dead of a stroke (6/82) I got sober in 3/83. His wife Laurie added a chapter to Straight Life after his passing...."He never got completely clean and sober"