Art Pepper's three nights of recording in August 1981 at the Los Angeles club Maiden Voyage were distinguished by remarkable empathy among the saxophonist, his colleagues, and his audiences. At the peak of creativity and command in his final period of growth as an artist, Pepper was searing in the openness and directness of his playing. He and his rhythm section of George Cables, David Williams, and Carl Burnett thought and performed with a unity seldom achieved in a music preoccupied with individualism. The intensity is leavened by a Pepper clarinet exposition of "When You're Smiling" that is among his best performances on that instrument.

with George Cables, David Williams, Carl Burnett