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Native American jazz musician who traveled the world
with his music will be honored in Grand Ronde with
Tribute concert.
OCTOBER 15, 2001
Hollis Taylor and band will give benefit
performance to help raise money for the
Veteran's Memorial.
Continued from front page
He was, to start, an Oregonian.
But he was also the son of Floy and
Gilbert Pepper, a Creek and a Kaw
respectively. And they were from
Oklahoma originally, brought west
by the lure of work at Chemawa
Indian School in 1940.
Born and raised in Portland, Jim
Pepper possessed many talents. A
four letter athlete at Parkrose High
School, he also was a skilled tap
dancer and a baseball player of tre
mendous ability.
"I always figured he would go on
to play professionally and I pushed
him in that direction," said Floy, who
still resides in Portland. "He
was so good at it."
. Indeed he may have been, but
after hoisting that tenor sax to
his lips one day at the budding
age of 15 there was no doubt
that it was music and not base
ball that would consume him.
Pepper spent many days in
Portland record shops nourish
ing the new direction and many
nights in clubs exercising it.
Floy sensed the talent and even
took steps to transfer him to Madi
son High School where a music
teacher of some repute would men
tor. It worked, as Pepper earned a
scholarship at Brigham Young Uni
versity. But BYU would not be so welcom
ing, particularly of his smoking
habit, a taboo of the Mormon school.
Pepper was kicked out during his
freshman year and his college ca
reer would be short-lived.
After a brief stint in San Fran
cisco, Pepper, like many musicians
of that decade, decided to try his
luck in America's musical Mecca,
New York City. There Pepper fell
in with Chris Hills, Larry Coryell
and Bobby Moses to form The Free
Spirits.
Though the band demonstrated
considerable flair for the rockjazz
combination they parlayed, the late
1960's belonged to Rock and
Motown, even a clever Indian song
couldn't save them from being lost
in a sea of competition. Nonethe
less, Pepper's collaboration with
Chris Hills on "Everything is Ev
erything" helped produce a Top 40
hit, "Witchie Tai To," the first
known blend of jazz and Indian
rhythms.
Pepper's venture into new terri
tory with that hit put him on the
path to his own niche in the annals
of music history. Aside from Jack
Teagarden, a well-known Choctaw
trumpet player in the early part of
the 20th century, jazz hasn't at
tracted many Natives, much less
any who could daringly blend tra
ditional chants and songs with a
music known for instrumental im-
Photo courtesy of www.firstamericans.org
provisation.
Fellow saxophonist Ornette
Coleman, whom Pepper met in the
East Village, was the one who is
generally credited with suggesting
that Pepper incorporate some of his
ancestral tunes into his music. And
since Pepper spent many summers
in his youth visiting his grandpar
ents in Oklahoma, he was versed
enough in his own ethnic back
ground to know a score of catchy
chants, among them which the
peyote chant "Witchie Tai To" was
but one.
Unfortunately, New York City
came particularly 7
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Vienna, moving i-
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mere m laey, two years
before his death.
"He loved it there, re
ally," said Floy. "He felt
like a person over there."
Not until after his death really,
did Americans begin to see that
same person they had overlooked
for so many years. In 1997 Up
stream Productions released an
ephemeral documentary on Jim,
dubbed "Pepper's Powwow," which
was also the title of his most famous
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may have not been ready for Pep
per and his lack of recognition sub
tly nudged him into relocation.
Alaska may not be often thought
of as a hot jazz venue, yet that's
precisely where Pepper ended up in
the early 1970's, making a living
doing social work with Indian chil
dren and playing gigs here and
there, like at the Gold Rush Hotel
in Juneau. The northern confines
would see some memorable mate
rial, such as "Bear Tracks," which
became one of Alaska's state songs,
and the funky "Polar Bear Stomp."
San Francisco hosted Pepper
briefly, where in 1974 he won the
Ralph J. Gleason Award, given to
new young musicians. Europe and
Africa, however, were to be the
places that Pepper found what in
America had eluded him for so long:
recognition.
In the early 1980's the legendary
Don Cherry (part Choctaw himself)
recruited Pepper to play on a tour
of western Africa with the U.S. De
partment of State. The mission was
simply "an exchange of arts," as
Floy put it, but one Jim would never
forget.
"He was very well received by the
Africans," said Floy. "Over there
they carried him around on a sil
ver platter."
Permanent popularity, however,
would be enjoyed just due north of
the Dark Continent, in Europe.
Jazz had always enjoyed a good run
over there, and Europeans quickly
embraced Pepper.
Pepper made recordings and
played in such places as Denmark,
Germany, Turkey and Austria,
where he became a legend. He be-
album. The film premiered and
won an award at the Sundance
Film Festival.
In 1998 the First Americans in
the Arts recognized him with its
Lifetime Achievement Award. That
same year he was inducted into the
Indian Hall of Fame and on that
occasion, like the previous, Floy and
Pepper's old flame Caren Knight at
tended to accept on his behalf.
Floy's acceptance speech may have
captured the essence of Pepper bet
ter than anything ever written.
"Jim Pepper was a member of the
Kaw Indian Nation known as The
Wind People' from his father. From
me, his mother, he was a member of
the Creek Indian Nation known as
The People of the Waters.' It's no
wonder his music was so strong and
powerful with the wind to carry
his music to the four directions of the
Earth. And as long as the grass
shall grow and the waters flow
which is forever may his spirit re
main alive for time immemorial."
His funeral in 1992 was well-attended
by jazz maestros, which
makes the appearance of Hollis
Taylor and Portland bassist Phil
Baker in Grand Ronde on October
26 suddenly not so surprising.
Oddly enough, this will not be the
first time a Baker has attended a
Pepper event. Phil's father, former
Western Oregon University profes
sor, ardent jazz fan record collec
tor, and practicing musician R.S.
Baker crossed paths with Pepper
before. In the 1980's, he booked
Pepper to play at WOU (then West
ern Oregon State College), and
had him over for lunch.
"You now what's funny, he
was also very knowledgeable
about astrology," said Baker,
who was known at WOU for
maintaining an astrological
profile on each of his students.
"Pepper was a Triple Gemini'"
he said, and explained some
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ments or something to that ef
fect. "That means he was very
concentrated... very focused."
But he was not too focused to for
get his roots.
"He neither exploited nor hid his
ancestry," said Baker. "He was re
spectful but not uncritical of both
sides."
Perhaps that explains why no
body ever really has anything bad
to say about Pepper, because his
life was music, and he never had
time for the pettiness that can dis
tract one from one's craft. Perhaps
that's why he was so original.
"In music, you're not 'there' until
you bring something new," said
Baker. "And he was unique."
Original, Unique not bad
words to be remembered by. D
Pepper's Pow Wow (1971)
Embryo SD 731 (distributed by
Atlantic Records)
Comin' & Goin' (1983) - Island
Antilles
Dakota Song (1987) Enja
5043 (CD-34), King K32Y-6225
The Path (1988) Enja 5087
(CD-60)
Bear Tracks (1988) Extraplatte
Remembrance (1994: Live
Recording in Munster, Germany)
Tutu Records
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