Scott, Pepper dead

Press, 15 July 1982, Page 14

Scott, Pepper dead

The . exact cause of the death S of James HoneyinanScott v the : Pretenders’ lead guitarist; was not established • by the doctors; in /an initial post mortem; examination, ..according to the June 26 issue of “Melody Maker.": Honeyman-Scott was’found.. dead at. a : friend’s flat in i West London, : on June 16, ■ after spending, tfoe previous - evening at a multiple, sclerosis, charity, show;. ' - It was revealed that' three.. years ' ago , doctors ' had ' advised him to cut down on his drinking after a liver complaint had been diagnosed, “Melody Maker” said. Ironically, WEA . Records announced the departure of

Pete Farndon, the bass guitarist, from the Pretenders, the same day that Honeyman-Scott died. V Across the . Atlantic,- Art Pepper, one of the leading post-war alto-saxophonists, died of a stroke in California, on June 15.' Bom in Gardena, California, in 1925, Pepper took , up < the : clarinet when he was . nine, took.,up the alto saxo- : phone when he was 13, and as a teenager, haunted the jazz clubs of Central Avenue, • Los Angeles, sitting in with Dexter Gordon,; Sonny Criss, and Charlie Mingus.. • • He first found fame as- a . soloist with Stan Kenton at 18, and placed : second to :

Charlie Parker in the Down Beat Poll for' 1951 and 1952. ‘ : However, life on the road with Kenton’s band was not easy, and he had’ his first narcotics, conviction in 1953. He was released from prison in 1966, and came under the spell of Coltrane, switching briefly to tenor sax and playing with the Buddy Rich .Orchestra. In. 1969 he went to Synanon , for. a narcotics cure where he met his third wife. She helped him to make a comeback, and by the mid-70s he had. made some excellent albums with , his own bands, as well as with Elvin Jones and Sonny Stitt. •