Jim Pepper House: Rakalam Bob Moses on Jim Pepper and The Free Spirits

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Rakalam Bob Moses on Jim Pepper and The Free Spirits

By Sean Aaron Cruz

The Free Spirits were the first jazz-rock fusion band in the history of music, the cutting edge of jazz groups experimenting in rock music and rock bands experimenting in jazz in 1966-67. Their LP, “Out of Sight and Sound”, pre-dated Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew, and the formation of Blood, Sweat and Tears, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and other similar fusion bands by several years.

The quintet consisted of:

Larry Coryell, guitar and vocals

Jim Pepper, tenor saxophone, flute and vocals

Columbus Chip Baker, guitar and vocals

Chris Hills, bass and vocals

Bob Moses, drums

Primarily jazz musicians, The Free Spirits formed in New York City with a commitment to take the music in new directions and performed on bills with Jimi Hendrix, Cream, the Doors and Andy Warhol’s Velvet Underground.

Rakalam Bob Moses recently had this to say about Jim Pepper:

“Jim Pepper (Flying Eagle) was the heart and soul of The Free Spirits. For me, in terms of being touched, moved and healed by his soaring, majestic, instantly recognizable sound, he is in the top four saxophonists of all time.

He was an absolutely unique, soulful, visionary musician who had a way of playing on changes that was all his own and borrowed nothing from Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Sonny Rollins or anyone else.

He was also a great composer, who was able to draw on his Native American roots in a most original way, his best known piece of many being WitchiTai-To, which is still played by people all over the world. To my ears, he excelled at all styles, particularly jazz ballads, R&B/fund and free playing. He had the most beautiful scream I’ve ever heard on the saxophone.

We often started our sets with a 10-minute unaccompanied free saxophone solo, which was quite radical for rock clubs. I remember people like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Jack deJohnette coming to our gigs, mostly to hear Jim Pepper.

He was also a great dancer, a consummate ladies’ man and a proud, defiant and profoundly hilarious individual…To this day, he is one of the few musicians who can bring me to tears with the heart-piercing beauty of his sound.” Bob Moses, liner notes, The Free Spirits Live at The Scene, February 22, 1967

The Free Spirits Live at The Scene, February 22, 1967, has been recently released. Two tracks include Dave Liebman, Randy Brecker and the late Joe Beck sitting in on the band’s second set.

For those of you who read down this far, we are working on a historic reunion concert of The Free Spirits to kick off the first annual Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival in late summer 2013.

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Oregon Senate Joint Resolution 31 (2005), Honoring Jim Pepper

Sponsored by Senator Avel Louise Gordly (at the request of Suzie Pepper Henry):

"Whereas the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival paid tribute to the musical legacy of Jim Pepper, a true son of Oregon, with a concert dedicated to the late Native American saxophonist and jazz legend; and

"Whereas workshops, panel discussions, performers and audiences at the festival recalled how Jim Pepper, born to Gilbert and Floy Pepper in Salem on June 18, 1941, blazed a unique trail across the musical horizon with his innovative synthesis of Native American song, the harmonic structures of modern jazz and the rhythms of Africa, South America and the Caribbean; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper performed throughout the United States, Europe and Africa, played with such jazz giants as Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, Colin Wolcott, Larry Coryell and Mal Waldron; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper also collaborated with many Oregon musicians, including Gordon Lee, Tom Grant, Leroy Vinnegar, Nancy King, Caren Knight-Pepper, Obo Addy, David Friesen, Dan Balmer, Glenn Moore, Ron Steen, Sonny King, Dennis Springer, Mel Brown, Nick Gefroh, Marianne Mayfield, Ralph Black, Lee Reinoehl, Carlton Jackson and many others; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper's 1971 crossover hit 'Witchi Tai To, ' based on a Native American Church peyote chant taught to him by his grandfather, earned him a spot on both the jazz and Top 40 radio charts and continues to be widely popular among national and international performers and recording artists to this day; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper's remarkable career was marked by more than 50 recordings as bandleader, featured artist and composer, including 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' 'Comin' and Goin'' and ' Remembrance'; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper's symphony 'Four Winds' was performed by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra in New York and by the Cologne Symphony Orchestra in Germany; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper 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

"Whereas Jim Pepper toured Africa with Don Cherry as part of a United States-Africa cultural exchange program; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper succumbed to lymphoid cancer in February 1992 in Portland, Oregon, at age 50; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper was honored posthumously in 1999 with the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by the First Americans in the Arts and was inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame in 2000; and

"Whereas 'Pepper's Pow Wow,' the 1996 award-winning documentary of his life produced and directed by Sandra Osawa and Yasu Osawa, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS in 1997 and 1999 and has since been presented to enthusiastic audiences at the Amiens Film Festival, the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the Native American Film and Video Festival, the Red Earth Film and Video Festival and the Portland Jazz Festival; and

"Whereas the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute and the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named Jim Pepper 'Jazz Artist of the Year' and presented the Bill McClendon Award for Excellence in Jazz to his mother at the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper's music continues to be performed and recorded in countries throughout the world, including Germany, where a performance of 'Witchi Tai To' by the WDR Radio Orchestra and the Remembrance Band, arranged and conducted by Gunther Schuller, was recorded; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper's life and music harmonized distinct cultures and served as a poetic example for all indigenous people, ' walking in three worlds with one spirit'; and

"Whereas Jim Pepper is survived by his mother, Floy Pepper, his sister, Suzanne Henry of Portland, his nephews, Jim Pepper Henry and Jesse Laird Henry, and his grandnephew, Jackson Laird Henry; and

"Whereas Floy Pepper said during her acceptance of her son's First Americans in the Arts award in 1999, '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 remain alive for time immemorial'; now, therefore,

"Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon:

"(1) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly honor the extraordinary accomplishments and musical legacy of Oregon native son Jim Pepper and direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Oregon Historical Society for inclusion in its permanent collection.

"(2) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., for inclusion in its permanent collection.

"(3) The members of the Seventy-third Legislative Assembly direct that a copy of this resolution be delivered to the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute at Portland State University for inclusion in its permanent collection and encourage the creation and endowment of a Jim Pepper (hUnga-che-eda 'Flying Eagle') Chair at the university to further the study of Native American music and its relationship to jazz."

Adopted by Senate May 19, 2005
Adopted by House June 7, 2005

It was my honor and privilege to research and draft this resolution on behalf of Senator Gordly and the Pepper family--Sean Cruz