Art Pepper in LRB

Fighting my way through the new London Review of Book s (and putting to one side an article on infinity which, though sober and clear-headed, I stared at for hours without making out even its most basic meaning) I came across a fascinating piece by Terry Castle on Art Pepper, the West coast saxophonist. It is I suppose best described by the rather-abused word of a meditation: she discusses the effect of Pepper's words and music on her, particularly over one Christmas in California, the suicide of her brother, her family life. It is not just about Pepper. I have heard a little Pepper over the years, but knew nothing of his life, his petty criminality and drug and drink habits. She quotes from his autobiography, Straight Life, dictated, she says to Laurie, a young "cokehead" and anthropologist. (whose surname is given in the catalogue record as Pepper: did she marry him?) It reminded me of the first jazz autobiography I ever read, Charles Mingus's. Mingus and Pepper seem to have come from very similar milieux. I remember being horrified and impressed when, as a 16 year old English sexually unsophisticted school boy, I read of Mingus's loss of virginity at an age when I was still building Airfix model aeroplanes. Pepper seems to be the same, though whether he emphasised the sexual content in the hope of boosting sales to buy more junk, I don't know. I shall seek out the autobiography and the music. As with so much jazz now, it seems to be possible to buy every single note Pepper ever blew on a plethora of boxed sets.
Book details are:
Straight life. the story of Art Pepper. by Art and Laurie Pepper.
discography by Todd Selbert
Pepper. Art
New York. Schirmer Books. London. Collier Macmillan. 1979
ISBN: 0028720105
Mingus, Charles
Beneath the underdog: his world as composed by Mingus, edited by Nel
King.
London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971.
SBN 297 00446 8 366.