Art Pepper The Way It Was! on 180g 33RPM LP from Mobile Fidelity: Strictly Limited to 2,000 Numbered Copies and Out of Print   

Sometimes, odd circumstances get in the way of great records and make the final product that much more rewarding. Art Pepper’s …The Way It Was! is an example of such an album. Released in 1972 by the legendary Contemporary Records label, the set is actually a compilation of phenomenal tracks recorded by the saxophone giant at four separate dates and with four different ensembles from 1956-1960. The material sat in the can for more than a decade until Pepper, particularly influenced by what he heard on the four unissued takes from a November 1956 session with tenor saxophonist Warne Marsh, decided to release it at a time when modal jazz dominated the landscape.
 
Pepper’s instincts proved correct. Everything here is stellar. It’s unthinkable that this music almost never saw the light of day. Despite pulling from various sessions, …The Way It Was! maintains continuity and showcases all of Pepper’s myriad musical dimensions. In conversation with Marsh—who, incredibly, recorded only one other time with his alto sax peer—Pepper makes improvised solos sound like planned compositions. 

Such is the natural ease, delightful flow, and seamless chemistry that define performances like as the summery “All the Things You Are,” Dixieland-flavored “I Can’t Believe That You’re In Love With Me,” and jam-spawned version of Lester Young’s “Tickle Toe.” The non-Marsh cuts are equally strong, with “The Man I Love” and “The Way You Look Tonight” featuring two Miles Davis rhythm sections, respectively. Bassist Paul Chambers plays with both; Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb take turns behind the drums.

Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g LP brings the all-star affair to another level. MoFi went to great lengths to preserve these historic sessions. After auditioning the master tapes, the engineers discovered that the commercial CD version had artificial echo added and that the bass was summed. (Having the bass summed is common practice for LP cutting when the bass is recorded to one side; summing the bass moves the lower frequencies closer to the middle of the soundstage and therefore allows the cutter head to inscribe the lacquer more effectively.) Of course, there was no need for the bass to be summed in MoFi’s version. And since the original tapes had no artificial echo, MoFi engineers saw no reason to manipulate the master tapes in this way.

In fact, the tapes sounded so good that no equalization was done in the transfer process. The Tim de Paravicini modified Studer A-80 was plugged in directly to the Meitner A/D converters with nothing in the signal path, just a straight wire. As always special attention was made to calibration and getting the azimuth spot on. The results are stunning, what can be easily heard now is the natural tone of the room, improved detail, better soundstage and depth of field, and the most natural instrument tonality. Now, for the first time, listeners can hear the unaltered versions of these classic Art Pepper sessions.