The indefatigable, indomitable, everlasting, Pulitzer-prize-winning, Third-Stream-Music-creating composer Gunther Schuller is interviewed on National Public Radio here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104437778
Jim Pepper updates:
1. Gunther Schuller, 2009 Jim Pepper Chair, Founding Occupant, Portland State University; working on it….
2. 1st annual Jim Pepper Festival of the Arts, October 2009, Portland, Oregon, featuring "Gunther Schuller's Witchi Tai To, the Music of Jim Pepper", Gunther Schuller conducting; working on it….
Sean
Monday, May 25, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
"The Legend of Jim Pepper" coming to a Multnomah County Library near you!
Spoken-word artist Lynn Darroch will perform his new Jazz Stories repertoire, including The Legend of Jim Pepper, at several Portland library locations in early 2009.
Titled “Lynn Darroch's Jazz Stories '09 – Local Heroes and Other American Originals”, these performances will feature Randy Porter on piano and David Evans on tenor sax.
The one-hour shows are free, all-ages and open to the public.
Mr. Darroch’s new jazz stories include:
The Legend of Jim Pepper:
the life of Betty Carter and the death of Chet Baker;
how Glen Moore met William Faulkner's widow and Warren Bracken found peace in Portland;
lessons from George Page and Clare Fischer about standing up and losing; and,
One Woman Confronts the Crows of Autumn.
January 11, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
Woodstock Library (6008 S.E. 49th Ave.)
Free
January 18, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
Sellwood-Moreland Library (7860 S.E. 13th Ave.)
Free
January 25, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
St. Johns Library (7510 N. Charleston Ave.)
Free
February 11, 2009 — 6:30 p.m.
Northwest Library (2300 N.W. Thurman St.)
Free
Link to the website: Lynn Darroch, “Where the stories are always musical:”
http://www.lynndarroch.com/
Sean Cruz writes Jim Pepper House, here:
www.jimpepperhouse.blogspot.com
Titled “Lynn Darroch's Jazz Stories '09 – Local Heroes and Other American Originals”, these performances will feature Randy Porter on piano and David Evans on tenor sax.
The one-hour shows are free, all-ages and open to the public.
Mr. Darroch’s new jazz stories include:
The Legend of Jim Pepper:
the life of Betty Carter and the death of Chet Baker;
how Glen Moore met William Faulkner's widow and Warren Bracken found peace in Portland;
lessons from George Page and Clare Fischer about standing up and losing; and,
One Woman Confronts the Crows of Autumn.
January 11, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
Woodstock Library (6008 S.E. 49th Ave.)
Free
January 18, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
Sellwood-Moreland Library (7860 S.E. 13th Ave.)
Free
January 25, 2009 — 2:00 p.m.
St. Johns Library (7510 N. Charleston Ave.)
Free
February 11, 2009 — 6:30 p.m.
Northwest Library (2300 N.W. Thurman St.)
Free
Link to the website: Lynn Darroch, “Where the stories are always musical:”
http://www.lynndarroch.com/
Sean Cruz writes Jim Pepper House, here:
www.jimpepperhouse.blogspot.com
Saturday, December 06, 2008
Jim Pepper House updated
Now that my time serving in the Oregon state senate is at an end, I am focusing myself on a project very close to my heart: Jim Pepper.
Although I never met this Great Soul personally, I was transfixed by his performance/presence at a Larry Coryell concert in San Rafael, California in the early 1970's. The name of the venue was, appropriately enough, Pepperland!
I left the concert without knowing his name, but more than thirty years later, I can still see him standing at the front of the stage, "Jim" baseball cap and lumberjack shirt, torrents and cascades of notes and pure emotion pouring out of that silver saxophone. He reached deep down inside of me, and I've never forgotten the experience.
I learned his name in 2002, shortly after I bought my home, which was the Pepper family home for many years. Jim had passed on several years before I moved to Portland.
I saw the Remembrance Band perform at the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival, the first time I heard Jim's music as a body of work, and he reached up there (I was in the balcony) and grabbed me again.
I spoke to Senator Gordly about the experience the next day as we rode to the Capitol together, and she assigned me to draft what would become a Senate Joint Resolution (SJR 31, 2005) honoring the life and achievements of the Flying Eagle.
Later, motivated by the need to hear the Remembrance Band again, I promoted two performances at Portland's Blue Monk.
In 2007, the Pepper family asked me to speak for them at the National Museum of the American Indian on the occasion of the dedication of Jim's saxophone and other memorabilia to the NMAI permanent collection. This is one of the singular honors and moments of my life....
This event gave me the opportunity to meet and hear the musicians of Yellowhammer, and to understand in greater depth Jim's place in the world, and in the history of American music.
Now, as the Nation faces grave economic times, I am convinced that the world needs Jim Pepper more than ever, and I am dedicating myself to organizing the first annual Jim Pepper Festival of the Arts, to be held in Portland Oregon in 2009.
I invite all comments, from near and far, for one thing we know for certain is that Pepper Lives!
Although I never met this Great Soul personally, I was transfixed by his performance/presence at a Larry Coryell concert in San Rafael, California in the early 1970's. The name of the venue was, appropriately enough, Pepperland!
I left the concert without knowing his name, but more than thirty years later, I can still see him standing at the front of the stage, "Jim" baseball cap and lumberjack shirt, torrents and cascades of notes and pure emotion pouring out of that silver saxophone. He reached deep down inside of me, and I've never forgotten the experience.
I learned his name in 2002, shortly after I bought my home, which was the Pepper family home for many years. Jim had passed on several years before I moved to Portland.
I saw the Remembrance Band perform at the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival, the first time I heard Jim's music as a body of work, and he reached up there (I was in the balcony) and grabbed me again.
I spoke to Senator Gordly about the experience the next day as we rode to the Capitol together, and she assigned me to draft what would become a Senate Joint Resolution (SJR 31, 2005) honoring the life and achievements of the Flying Eagle.
Later, motivated by the need to hear the Remembrance Band again, I promoted two performances at Portland's Blue Monk.
In 2007, the Pepper family asked me to speak for them at the National Museum of the American Indian on the occasion of the dedication of Jim's saxophone and other memorabilia to the NMAI permanent collection. This is one of the singular honors and moments of my life....
This event gave me the opportunity to meet and hear the musicians of Yellowhammer, and to understand in greater depth Jim's place in the world, and in the history of American music.
Now, as the Nation faces grave economic times, I am convinced that the world needs Jim Pepper more than ever, and I am dedicating myself to organizing the first annual Jim Pepper Festival of the Arts, to be held in Portland Oregon in 2009.
I invite all comments, from near and far, for one thing we know for certain is that Pepper Lives!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Jim Pepper featured on KBOO 90.7 FM Saturday Dec 22
Tune in to KBOO at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday for an hour of the late, great Native American saxophone player Jim Pepper on Jazz Rap 2, hosted by Gene the Jazz Machine.
I will be Gene the Jazz Machine’s guest, playing some rare Pepper sides, and discussing the forthcoming 1st annual Jim Pepper Festival of the Arts, to be held in Portland.
Connect to KBOO for live streaming audio here: http://www.kboo.fm/listen
---Sean Cruz
I will be Gene the Jazz Machine’s guest, playing some rare Pepper sides, and discussing the forthcoming 1st annual Jim Pepper Festival of the Arts, to be held in Portland.
Connect to KBOO for live streaming audio here: http://www.kboo.fm/listen
---Sean Cruz
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
The Pepper Family's Gifts to the National Museum of the American Indian
Chief among the gifts dedicated to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian by the family of Jim Pepper:
Jim's late-1950's vintage silver-plated Selmer balanced-action saxophone.
With this instrument, with his unique voice, with that rattle, wearing that embroidered hat, with the eagle feather attached, Jim Pepper bridged cultures and continents, paving the way for future generations of musicians.
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