ART PEPPER: STRAIGHT LIFE EVERY SUNDAY

Art Pepper Every Sunday. Laurie reads the book.

Straight Life is a critical favorite and a cult classic. Praised for its honesty and poetry in the New Yorker, Time, The Village Voice, etc. and by fans everywhere, It's the story of a complicated man who really lived his life. Adventure, comic upsets, tragic losses, madness, passion, crime and punishment, all remembered and recalled in language as unique and powerful as the soulful jazz solos he improvised.

I fell in love with Art's stories as I fell in love with the man. I fancied myself an oral historian and believed Art to be masterful storyteller with a style unlike any I had ever heard, and I became obsessed. I interviewed him for seven years, asking endless questions, researching and verifying details. Writing and rewriting.

Straight Life was originally published by Schirmer/Macmillan in 1979. It's now available from Hachette as both paperback and ebook, I'm an audiobook fanatic and have decided that there needs to be an audio version, and since I own the performance rights, I've been recording "episodes" of 10 to 30 minutes for six years. Occasionally I'll include Art's voice and or his music when they seem apropos to the episode.

Warning: Straight Life is grossly politically incorrect. Art spoke the language of his class, his race, his gender, and his time, so I'm labeling almost every episode "explicit." If you're triggered by dirty words, racism, sexism, suicide, domestic violence, drugs, alcohol, sex or jazz music. this book isn't for you. As for me, I'm now recording readings once a week—as my voice deteriorates—and will continue until I finish or drop dead.

NEW EPISODES WILL BE POSTED EVERY SUNDAY

• No. of episodes: 7
• Latest episode: 2025-11-23
• Music Society & Culture Music History

Where can you listen?