Art Pepper’s story will haunt you--from his mother’s efforts to abort him to his discovery of heroin as his long-lost friend, to his rise to fame in the jazz world, and to his imprisonment in San Quentin. This is an honest story of prison life, addiction, neediness, and recovery, and it is not for the faint of heart. Pepper is brutally honest, and his story is never pretty. But listen to his music before and while you read to experience the soaring pain and passion of his alto saxophone and the clarity of his seldom heard clarinet. Three of his representatvie albums are Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section, Art Pepper Plus Eleven, and Intensity. There definitely was something special about this artist, and he was fortunate that his wife, Laurie Pepper, was there to encourage him and assist in the creation of this book.