Art peppers biography pictures

Art Pepper, born Arthur Edward Pepper, Jr., was an American alto saxophonist and clarinetist.

Straight Life would seem to be an ironic title, no doubt deliberately so, for the memoir of Art Pepper.

For though he lived to see himself regarded as one of the great alto sax players in the world--a unique voice in the post-Charlie Parker era--Pepper lived most of his life as it began, in turmoil and trouble. That he lived to his mid-50s is little short of miraculous, given his self- destructive behavior, as chronicled in the book that was produced in collaboration with his third wife, Laurie, about three years before his death.

Essentially the unwanted child of a rebellious, high-living mother and a traveling seaman father, Pepper found himself being raised by a well-meaning but cold grandmother.

Musical talent emanated from his mother's Italian family and nine-year-old Art persuaded his father to buy him a musical instrument and provide a teacher, Leroy P