Description

Art Pepper was described as the greatest alto-saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. Straight Life, originally narrated on tape to his wife Laurie, is an explosive work chronicling his work amidst a life dealing with alcoholism, heroin addiction, armed robberies and imprisonment.

The result is an autobiography like no other, a masterpiece of the spoken word, shaped into a genuine work of literature.

Publisher Review

Straight Life demonstrates again and again that Pepper had the ear and memory and interpretative lyricism of a first-rate novelist . . . He did five years in San Quentin and his descriptions of life there are relentless and brilliant . . . He had no illusions nor did he have any remorse or self-pity . . . He was an eloquent and gifted man * * New Yorker * * One of the most memorable jazz memoirs * * Times * * A tough, dizzying, hard and honest book that will haunt anybody who opens it * * Down Beat * * The most powerful, mind-riveting, brutally honest document I've ever read by an artist * * Boston Ledger * * A shattering portrait of genius confronted with human weakness . . . possibly the best memoir ever written by a jazz musician. A story that ranks with The Autobiography of Malcolm X in its direct honesty and power * * Kansas City Star * *