Jim Pepper


Jim Pepper was a jazz saxophonist, composer and singer of Kaw and Muscogee Creek Native American heritage. He moved to New York City in 1964, where he came to prominence in the late 1960s as a member of The Free Spirits, an early jazz-rock fusion group that also featured Larry Coryell and Bob Moses. Pepper went on to have a lengthy career in jazz, recording almost a dozen albums as a bandleader and many more as featured soloist. Pepper and Joe Lovano held down the two tenor sax chairs in Paul Motian's band, recording three LPs in 1984, 1985 and 1987. Motian described Pepper's playing as "post-Coltrane." Don Cherry was among those who encouraged Pepper to bring more of his Native culture into his music and the two collaborated extensively. Pepper created a body of work that later inspired Gunther Schuller, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music in recognition of his work in developing Third Stream Music, to arrange, conduct and record "Gunther Schuller's Witchi Tai To: The Music of Jim Pepper" in Cologne, Germany in 2000. He died of lymphoma aged 50.

Early life

Jim Gilbert Pepper II was born on June 18, 1941, to Gilbert and Floy Pepper in Salem, Oregon. He grew up in Portland. He attended Parkrose High School and Madison High School.

Music career

Beginning in the late 1960s, Pepper became a pioneer of fusion jazz. His band, The Free Spirits, is credited as the first to combine elements of jazz and rock. His primary instrument was the tenor saxophone. 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. He was 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 at numerous powwows. Pepper supported the American Indian Movement.
Pepper was a member of the short-lived band Everything Is Everything with Chris Hills, Lee Reinoehl, Chip Baker, John Waller and Jim Zitro. Their 1969 self-titled sole album spawned the near-hit single "Witchi Tai To". It was issued on Vanguard Apostolic and UK Vanguard in England,
and is the only hit to feature an authentic Native American chant in the history of the Billboard pop charts.
His "Witchi Tai To" is the most famous example of his hybrid style; the song has been covered by many other artists including Harper's Bizarre, Ralph Towner, Jan Garbarek, Pete Wyoming Bender, Brewer & Shipley, Larry Smith with members of The Bonzo Dog Band, Yes and Keith Moon under the pseudonym of Topo D. Bill, and an unreleased version recorded by The Supremes in 1969. It was also covered in 1973 by Quebec singer-songwriter Robert Charlebois.
Pepper played the saxophone solo on the Classics IV hit "Spooky", which led to him doing a large amount of studio work in Los Angeles and paid him royalties for years thereafter.
In his own projects, Pepper recorded with Don Cherry, Naná Vasconcelos, Collin Walcott, Kenny Werner, John Scofield, Ed Schuller, Hamid Drake, and many others. His CD Comin' and Goin' is the definitive statement of Pepper's unique "American Indian jazz" with nine songs played by four different line-ups. It was also the first CD issued by the then-new all-CD label Rykodisc. He also worked with the Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian' s quintet, Bob Moses, Marty Cook, Mal Waldron, David Friesen, Tony Hymas and Amina Claudine Myers, and toured Europe intensively throughout his career.

Death and legacy

Jim Pepper died on February 10, 1992, of lymphoma.
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. In 2008 the New York-based band Effi Briest released a version of Pepper's Newly-Wed Song as the B-side to their début single, Mirror Rim on Loog Records.
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.

Discography

With Everything Is Everything
  • Everything Is Everything
With The Free Spirits'
With Archie James Cavanaugh
With Marty Cook
With Larry Coryell
With The Fugs
With Gordon Lee
With Charlie Haden
With Sandy Hurvitz
With Tony Hymas
With Paul Motian
With Bob Moses
With Cam Newton
With Ray and the Wolf Gang
With Nana Simopoulos
With Mal Waldron
With Peter Walker
With the World Music Orchestra