Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
In Memoriam: John Hammond Jr., 1942–2026
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
Widow’s Taste will release Art Pepper’s The Last Concert on May 30 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Pepper’s last concert, which took place May 30, 1982, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Ten days after the performance, Pepper was hospitalized with a cerebral hemorrhage. He died June 15, 1982.
The set list is comprised of three originals—“Landscape,” “Ophelia,” “Mambo Koyama”—and the standards “Over the Rainbow” and “When You’re Smiling,” a clarinet feature dedicated to Zoot Sims, who shared the evening’s bill at the Kennedy Center with Pepper.
The Last Concert is the second in a series of unreleased art projects documenting the late alto saxophonist’s work.
For more information, visit: www.straightlife.info
Hammond came to the blues through the folk boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which he experienced firsthand in New York’s Greenwich Village.
Mar 2, 2026 9:58 PM
John P. Hammond (aka John Hammond Jr.), a blues guitarist and singer who was one of the first white American…
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