Jim Pepper
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Jim Pepper (born James G. Pepper in Salem, Oregon, June 18, 1941; d. Portland, Oregon, February 10, 1992) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and singer of Native American ancestry.
Beginning in the late 1960s, Pepper became a pioneer of fusion jazz, his band The Free Spirits (active between 1965 and 1968, with guitarist Larry Coryell) being credited as the first to combine elements of jazz and rock. His primary instrument was the tenor saxophone (he also played flute and soprano saxophone), and his characteristic incisive, penetrating tone and soulful delivery was unique for its time. A similar timbre was taken up by later players such as Jan Garbarek, Michael Brecker, and David Sanborn.
Of Kaw and Creek heritage, Pepper also achieved notoriety for his compositions combining elements of jazz and Native American music. Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman encouraged Pepper to reflect his roots and heritage and incorporate it into his jazz playing and composition. His "Witchi Tai To" (derived from a peyote healing chant of the Native American Church which he had learned from his grandfather) is the most famous example of this hybrid style; the song has been covered by many other artists including Harper's Bizarre, Ralph Towner (with and without Oregon), Jan Garbarek, and Brewer & Shipley. Pepper supported the American Indian Movement. He served as musical director for Night of the First Americans, a Native American self-awareness benefit concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. in 1980 and played also on pow-wows.
In his own projects, he recorded with Cherry, Naná Vasconcelos, Collin Walcott, Kenny Werner, John Scofield, Ed Schuller, Hamid Drake, and others. His CD Comin' and Goin' (1983) is the definitive statement of Pepper's unique "American Indian jazz" with nine songs played by four different line-ups. He worked also with the Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian' s quintet, Bob Moses, Marty Cook, Mal Waldron, David Friesen, and Amina Claudine Myers, and toured Europe intensively.
Pepper died in 1992, of lymphoma.[3]
In 1998, composer Gunther Schuller arranged, conducted and recorded The Music of Jim Pepper for symphony orchestra and jazz band. Pepper was posthumously granted the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by First Americans in the Arts in 1999, and in 2000 he was inducted into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame. In 2005 the Oregon Legislative Assembly honored the extraordinary accomplishments and musical legacy of Pepper.[1]
In April 2007, the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. accepted Pepper's saxophone and hat at a ceremony honoring his music and legacy.[2]
[edit] Films
- Pepper's Pow Wow (1995). Directed by Sandra Sunrising Osawa. Seattle, Washington: Upstream Productions.
[edit] References
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^ 3. VH1 website, http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/pepper_jim/bio.jhtml
[edit] External links
- Discography
- NEW Comprehensive Jim Pepper Discography
- Jim Pepper Lives! Web site
- Jim Pepper Tribute at Portland, Oregon Jazz Festival (Feb. 2005)
- "Jazz and The Politics of Identity: The Legacy of Jim Pepper" (In Motion Magazine)
- "Jim Pepper: The Man Who Never Sleeps" (In Motion Magazine)
- Jack Berry, "Comin' and Goin': Memories of Jazzman Jim Pepper," Oregon Historical Quarterly Spring 2006, [2]
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