live at the village vanguard
i had listened many times to art pepper’s beautiful
recording from 1975 before i saw the photo taken
back stage on that thursday night at the village
vanguard;
he seemed to be on drugs and he looked pale and
scary and totally gone
i can’t say i could hear his pain but the next time
i listened to “but beautiful” and “valse triste”
they sounded very different
and even the tempo
had changed
Published in Weeks Like This, 2005