Remembering Jim Pepper...Floyd Red Crow Westerman…a note from David Amram

David Amram on the right

From 1956-1959 when I was a member of the great bassist Oscar Pettiford's big band, we would often go to his house after playing at Birdland and he would show me dances and sing songs he learned as a boy in Oklahoma.

And he talked about the great trombonist Big Chief Russell Moore, Jack Teagarden, pianist Mary Lou Williams  and other masters of jazz who like Oscar had Native American heritage and how the various nations comprising what was known by most people as all being  "American Indians", each had their own music, their own language and their own history. 

And Oscar always had pride in his Choctaw and Cherokee heritage, and felt that jazz and the community it created of players and listeners was an extension of the harmony articulated in the old saying "Respect, Love and Sharing-The Indian Way."

Back in the 50s, Oscar had two French horns, Julius Watkins and myself, as well as a harpist, and Oscar occasionally playing cello.

"Maybe this will hip the symphony cats to opening up their minds as well as their ears" he used to say, when we would talk about Jazz, Native American music  and all the sincere forms of music built to last that  were mostly ignored by the classical music establishment as well as the Pop and rock world.

"Someday, if our band hits it, we won't be going to them, they'll be coming to us."

Oscar passed away in 1960 and we never got the chance to work with any symphony orchestras, but in every symphony I ever worked with, the classical bass players all knew and revered Oscar Pettiford. 

When I met Jim Pepper in the 60s, he knew all about Oscar and shared the same interest in having the treasures of jazz and Native music receive the same respect awarded to the treasures of European classical music.

Jim and I crossed paths many times over the years, and musicians I worked with like Mal Waldron, Colin Wolcott and Don Cherry all loved his music and his spirit. We also appeared together in many benefit concerts for Native American rights during the years I played as the accompanist for Floyd Red Crow Westerman.

In the summer of 1990, Jim was the featured artist in a concert we did at Prospect Park, where I conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic in an evening celebrating Native American music and jazz. Jim was his usual dynamic self and when the concert was over, Jim and his group played almost an hour more and the whole symphony stayed to listen.

He left us way too early, and in 1993, we did a memorial tribute to him, which included his mother reading Chief Seattle's famous speech, accompanied by the orchestra.

I wish I could be there to lend my support and am so happy that Jim is receiving this honor. 

I have been blessed to know and play with three of the people at this concert...Joy Harjo, Pura Fe and John Trudell, and I know how happy Jim would be to have them there as well as the original members of "The Free Spirits."

Jim opened up a lot of doors to take people to places that they had never been before, and we all have to work to keep his legacy alive and open more doors for young people to inspire them to live their lives creatively and make a contribution to the world while we are here, the way Jim did.

Thank you, Sean Aaron Cruz for your years of hard work to make this dream a reality, as well as to all the people in Portland for sharing the gift of Jim's creations with the world with the first Annual Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival.

David Amram

Putnam Valley, New York

June 10, 2013

___________

David Amram (born November 17, 1930) is an American composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and author. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz, folkloric and world music has led him to work with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Langston Hughes, Charles Mingus, Pepper Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Sir James Galway, Tito Puente, Mary Lou Williams, Joseph Papp, Arthur Miller, Arturo Sandoval, Stan Getz, Pete Seeger, Elia Kazan, Christopher Plummer, Ingrid Bergman, Odetta, Lord Buckley, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Allen, Machito, Earl "Fatha" Hines, Allen Ginsberg, Nina Simone, Gregory Corso, Bob Dylan, Steve Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, Thelonius Monk, Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp, Levon Helm, Betty Carter and Jack Kerouac. In the early 1950s, he was encouraged to pursue his unique path by mentors Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, the New York Philharmonic's conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, Miles Davis, Aaron Copland, Gunther Schuller, and visual artists Jackson Pollock, Joan Mitchell, Willem de Kooning andFranz Kline. Today, as he has for over 50 years, Amram continues to compose music while traveling the world as a conductor, soloist, bandleader, visiting scholar, and narrator in five languages. –Wikipedia

_________

David Amram – Floyd Red Crow Westerman – Lakota Rabbit Dance Song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TQdSU_5Co0

David Amram with Dizzy Gillespie and friends

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j69jBSwi-f4

David Amram, "Mama Don't Allow No Music", at Woody Guthrie Folk Festival

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVIGS_3meXU

___________

Find us on Facebook: Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival

I'm Gonna Be Free - Rare Jim Pepper - The Free Spirits Live - on KBOO 90.7FM

Tune into KBOO 90.7FM this Saturday May 25 2:00-3:30pm PST for an hour and a half of rare Jim Pepper audio tracks, Jim PepperFest 2013 updates and more on The Motif’s show.

Live streaming here: http://kboo.fm/content/themotifreimagineajazzsensibilityon052513

The Free Spirits

We will start the show with tracks from the recently-released cd The Free Spirits Live at The Scene, NYC, 1967…. Pioneering jazz/rock mayhem…I’m Gonna Be Free, for the rest of my days….

What Larry Coryell, Rakalam Bob Moses, Chris Hills, Columbus Chip Baker and the late Jim Pepper were up to on February 22, 1967….

And what we are planning for August 7-10, 2013 at the Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center in Portland, Oregon…. Mark your calendars….

The Motif: Re-Imagine a Jazz Sensibility

Post modern representations of improvisation, across dramatic modes, and re-imagined spaces of diverse music genre, hosted by The Motif, aka Yugen Kelsaw.

Jim Pepper: Re-imagining a Jazz Sensibility on KBOO 90.7FM

The Free Spirits

Tune into KBOO 90.7FM this Saturday May 25 2:00-3:30pm PST for an hour and a half of rare Jim Pepper audio tracks, Jim PepperFest 2013 updates and sparkling, witty and erudite conversation on The Motif’s show.

The Motif: Re-Imagine a Jazz Sensibility

Post modern representations of improvisation, across dramatic modes, and re-imagined spaces of diverse music genre, hosted by The Motif, aka Yugen Kelsaw.

Live streaming here: http://kboo.fm/themotif

One of the great things about KBOO (Full Strength Community Radio) is that the station’s programmers have such wide latitude with their time, with time itself, in that they can play tracks that most stations won’t touch because of their length.

Jim Pepper never recorded for pop radio. Probably 95% of his recorded tracks are longer than five minutes. You need a long attention span to really hear and understand his music.

We will start the show with tracks from the recently-released The Free Spirits Live at The Scene, 1967….

City of Portland proclamation of Jim Pepper Day, May 20

Portland Mayor Tom Potter declared May 20 was/is Jim Pepper Day in the City of Portland. Here's what the Mayor had to say:

City of Portland proclamation of Jim Pepper Day, May 20, 2005

Whereas, Jim Pepper, a resident of Portland and a Native American of the Kaw and Creek nations, was recognized best for his eclectic playing style as a jazz musician and collaborated with many world-renowned musicians including several from the State of Oregon; and

Whereas, Jim Pepper, who began playing at jazz clubs in Portland, was an unforgettable tenor and soprano saxophone player, singer, composer, dancer and bandleader; and

Whereas, Jim Pepper has become one of the most important musicians and composers in jazz history—his unique style and blend of traditional Native American rhythms with African and Latin American jazz created a whole new style of music; and

Whereas, in the 1960s, Jim Pepper and his band, The Free Spirits, were one of the first to fuse Native American song with the harmonic structures of jazz and rock to define a new genre of music that remains important worldwide; and

Whereas, Jim Pepper has been the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions both during his lifetime and posthumously including the Lifetime Music Achievement Award by the First Americans in the Arts, and has been inducted into the Indian Hall of Fame and the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame; and

Whereas, an award-winning documentary on the life of Jim Pepper titled “Pepper’s Powwow” was produced by Sandra Osawa and will be shown at this year’s 2005 Portland Jazz Festival; and,

Whereas, the 2005 Portland Jazz Festival will include a tribute to the “remembrance” of Jim Pepper, where many of his songs will be performed; and

Whereas, although Jim Pepper has passed on, his innovative genre of music serves as an inspiration to all indigenous peoples around the world;

Now, therefore, I, Tom Potter, Mayor of the City of Portland, Oregon, the “City of Roses”, do hereby proclaim May 20, 2005 as Jim Pepper Day in Portland and encourage all citizens to observe this day.

(signed)

Tom Potter

Rakalam Bob Moses -- When Elephants Dream of Music

On Rakalam Bob Moses of The Free Spirits

By Sean Aaron Cruz

Portland, Oregon—

“Drummer, composer, artist, poet, dancer, visionary, nature mystic (Rakalam) Bob Moses's life has been a continuous quest for vision, spirit, compassion, growth, and mastery in a multiplicity of art forms.”—New England Conservatory

Among the four members of the legendary, pioneering jazz-fusion band The Free Spirits coming to Portland in August to celebrate their friend and bandmate Jim Pepper is world-renowned master drummer and educator Rakalam Bob Moses.

Photo by Andrew Hurlbut

Born in New York City, Bob Moses began his career as a teenager performing with the great Rahsaan Roland Kirk. In 1965, Bob Moses, guitarist Larry Coryell, bassist Chris Hills, guitarist Columbus Chip Baker and Jim Pepper formed The Free Spirits.

The Free Spirits jazz-rocked New York City in 1965-67, releasing just one LP, Out of Sight and Sound, before parting, each taking his own path, and now more than four decades later reuniting in the neighborhood where Jim Pepper first picked up his saxophone.

Jim PepperFest 2013: Rise of the Free Spirits

The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival

Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center, Portland, Oregon

August 7-10, 2013

“I can see two major traditions or trains of thought colliding and merging in my music.

“One is the path of the nature visionary; one who can travel without moving, to and through various dimensions and planes of reality. In my life I have seen through the veils, kissed butterflies, envisioned animated three-dimensional scenes and stepped into those scenes, talked to and played with spirits of other worlds, past, present and future. I have been a flower, a mountain, a raging river, a stone….

“The other tradition or stream that I swim in is the Great River of African Music in all its manifestations: the importance of clave’, groove, swing, rhythm, dance, hip-shaking, rhythm and rhyme sublime, shadows and light by day, by night, Jazz, Funk, Rhythm and Blues, Hip Hop, Rap, Reggae, Calypso, Zouk, Soukous, Samba, Afro-Cuban, Salsa are all psychically if not geographically emanating from Africa….

“So the streams merge and become one vast, deep, infinite music:

“Music with groove but no walls

Music with soul but no boundaries

Music with roots but no ceilings

Music of hope and love and humor”

                                  --Rakalam Bob Moses, from When Elephants Dream of Music

Trevor, from When Elephants Dream of Music

http://youtu.be/Zb1K0VVrwYs

–on Bob Moses’ When Elephants Dream of Music:


"Bob Moses has now emerged as the possessor of one of the grander imaginations in America's true classical music. No orchestral composer of this scope, mellow wit, and freshly distinctive range of colors has come along since Gil Evans."-Nat Hentoff, Modern Recording and Music

“Bob Moses, composer, drummer, poet, artist, conceptualizer, inspirer of people, has created a musical environment that is balanced, between discipline and freedom, compositional design and spontaneous inspiration. A party with a purpose. This album is original, soulful, funny…and very special. I hope a lot of people get as much enjoyment from it as I have”. –Gil Evans

–on On Time Stood Still




"Leave it to Moses, a multi-directional shamanistic groovilator, to put all the pieces together. On Time Stood Still, another sprawling production of DeMille-ian scale. He seamlessly blends Monk, funk, tap, hip hop, bebop, big band, blues, Bahia, Tanzania, and the avant garde into one organic package while paying homage to the spirits of Gil Evans, Charles Mingus, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Jaco Pastorius."-Bill Milkowski, Down Beat

~~~~~~~~~

This article was written while the author was listening to and under the influence of When Elephants Dream of Music.

The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival is a project of the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and its partners:

The Regional Arts & Culture Council

Parkrose Neighborhood Association

Parkrose School District

Russellville Grange

Travel Portland

KBOO 90.7 FM Community Radio

Save the dates: The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival Aug 7-10, 2013

Save the dates:

Jim PepperFest 2013: Rise of the Free Spirits

The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival

Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center, Portland, Oregon

August 7-10, 2013

A project of the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission and its partners

RACC Opportunity Grant kicks off Jim PepperFest 2013 fundraising

The Regional Arts & Culture Commission (RACC) has awarded a $10,000 Opportunity Grant to the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (OCHC) in support of Jim PepperFest 2013: The Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival.

A message from OCHC President David Milholland just arrived, announcing:

“Today we opened a letter that stated: “Congratulations! It is my pleasure to inform you that the Regional Arts & Culture Council is awarding funds for your Special Opportunity Grant proposal. Your award amount for this cycle in 2012-13 is $10,000 based on the review panel scoring as approved by the RACC Board of Directors.” These are the first funds formally committed for our Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival this August 7-10 at Parkrose High School, an exciting project led by Sean Aaron Cruz.

“More news in the near future on this groundbreaking cultural event.

“Please visit our website – www.ochcom.org/events.html – which details six April, 2013 events in celebration of OCHC’s 25^th birthday this spring. All are free and each reflects our longstanding Mission Statement:

The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission discovers,

celebrates, and commemorates contributions to

Oregon’s diverse literary and cultural legacy,

raising awareness through publications and

other media, memorials, and public events.

“May your own spring be fruitful. Thanks for your support and interest these many years.”

            Cordially, David Milholland – OCHC President

The Regional Arts and Culture Council serves Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.

RACC Vision, Mission and Core Values statements:

Vision

To enrich community life by working with partners to create an environment in which the arts and culture of the region flourish and prosper.

Mission

Through vision, leadership and service the Regional Arts & Culture Council works to integrate arts and culture in all aspects of community life.

Core Values

We value freedom of artistic and cultural expression as a fundamental human right.
We value a diversity of artistic and cultural experiences.

We value a community in which everyone can participate in arts and culture.
We value a community that celebrates and supports its artists, and its arts and cultural organizations.

We value arts and culture as key elements in creating desirable places to live, work and visit

http://racc.org/about/about-racc

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.

Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival steering committee re-forming for 2013

“It’s good where we’re goin’ and where we’ve been

Hey yeah Hi yi Hi yi Hi yi Hi yi”

--Jim Pepper, Comin’ and Goin’, 1985

  

Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival Steering Committee re-forming

  

Greetings:

After a two-year hiatus, we are re-forming the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival Steering Committee.

From the beginning, our number one priority has been to establish a home closely allied to an educational institution, where proceeds from Pepper-related events would be dedicated in support of Native American students, and music and arts programs.

Our earlier efforts were focused on building a partnership with Portland State University, in largest part due to this language in SJR 31, the 2005 senate resolution honoring the life and achievements of Jim Pepper, but also because Jim’s mother Floy Pepper retired there after a career spanning some 60+ years as an educator:

(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.

But the University is a very crowded and busy place, its Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute faded away several years ago and, practically speaking, the increased costs of parking and public transportation to that part of the city make accessibility an issue and a hindrance for many.

Now, we are exploring a partnership with Jim’s alma mater, the Parkrose School District in outer NE Portland, where as a student in 1955 Jim first made his mark in Oregon music history as a member of the Young Oregonians, which was also the beginning of his lifelong friendship and musical relationship with Glen Moore, co-founder of the band Oregon. Oregon continues to carry Jim’s music to the far reaches of the globe to this day.

Then there is the wind and the water to consider, and the views of the mountains that Parkrose offers, close to the Columbia Gorge and the Big River. Also from the Resolution:

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,

Parkrose also offers wide open spaces and abundant free parking. There is a much different pace here than in downtown, and the Parkrose School District offers a different set of charitable purposes. These are likely to have a broader reach, and to make a difference in more students’ lives, and in their families’ lives as well, supporting music and the arts “from the ground up.”

Our earlier planning had two charitable purposes: to fund scholarships for Native students to PSU, and to support the endowment of the Jim Pepper Chair as described in the Resolution.

Among its first orders of business, our Steering Committee should develop a charter that contains language directing proceeds of Jim Pepper-related events to be used to support music and arts-related programs throughout the Parkrose School District, including college scholarships in Jim’s name, and to provide pathways for Native students wherever they are, to wherever they are goin’.

And, we must identify some sources of funding to move organizing forward.

About the music of Jim Pepper

It is not enough to describe Jim Pepper as a jazz musician. His first album, Pepper’s Powwow, for example, recorded in 1970, featured traditional Native American songs and chants, Jim’s original compositions, rock, blues, bebop, free jazz and two songs by Peter LaFarge that had been famously sung by Johnny Cash. Wow!

Jazz trombonist Marty Cook, who recorded with Pepper in Munich, Nuremberg and New York City in the 1980s, described Jim's world wide musical range in these liner notes:

"Jim Pepper is hard to categorize. He is an eclectic player. Known best as a jazz player for his work with Don Cherry, Paul Motian and Charlie Hayden, his playing and writing embrace the traditions of African, Caribbean, South American and his own Native American cultures, as well as the traditional standards, and pop and rhythm and blues repertoire."

And Bill Siegel’s excellent biograph, posted on his Jim Pepper Lives! website, has this to say:

But at the base of it all, there was always Pepper’s commitment to the power of music and to its healing message. “The emotion most prevalent in his music,” says mother Floy Pepper, “is intense spirituality.” World-renowned saxophonist Joe Lovano has said that he still thinks of Pepper and that he will sometimes ask himself, “What would Jim do now?” before launching into one of his own solos.

Pepper spent most of his final years living and performing in Austria, where he was wildly popular. According to Hoch, “they loved him in Austria… loved him. He never got that kind of recognition here. It’s too bad… more people should know about him, they should know his music.” Thorne remembers that Pepper

“complained bitterly about America’s lack of support for jazz. That’s why he went to Europe. It’s a typical story – they’ve made movies about it, written books about it, how jazz musicians had to leave America.” His mother has said that “he did not find respect and acceptance of his music in America – but he did find it in Europe, where he was respected as a person and as a jazz musician. There he found peace.“

Jim Pepper was posthumously granted the Lifetime Musical Achievement Award by First Americans in the Arts (FAITA) in 1999, and in 2000 he was inducted into the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame at the 7th Annual NAMMY Awards ceremony. In 2005, the Leroy Vinnegar Jazz Institute and the Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission named Pepper Jazz Musician of the Year at the Portland Jazz Festival. In April 2007, his legendary silver Selmer saxophone, beaded baseball cap, leather horn cases, early LPs, and original sheet music were donated by the Pepper family to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Museum of the American Indian‘s permanent collection. In October 2007, he was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame. And in 2008, the Paul Winter Consort  recorded the CD, “Crestone“, which includes two versions of “Witchi Tai To” sung by John-Carlos Perea and which won a GRAMMY Award in the Best New Age Music category.           

                      --- http://jimpepperlives.wordpress.com/

The Steering Committee will hold its first meeting in November in Parkrose at a date TBD. We will organize ourselves and begin planning a series of small concert events that will start in the Spring and lead to a major festival down the road.

Please contact me if you are interested in joining the Steering Committee, participating in any other way, or being kept in the loop via email.

Best wishes,

Sean

Sean Aaron Cruz

Executive Director

1000 Nations

Public policy research and consulting

Editorial services

www.1000nations.wordpress.com

seancruz@comcast.net

[]Jim Pepper “Ya na ho” with Nana Vasconcellos at Collin Walcott tribute 1985, NYC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41HuypiWxaI&feature=relmfu

[] Jim Pepper, Grand Finale Witchi Tai To at Collin Walcott tribute 1985, NYC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o85aQXg2A0E&feature=relmfu

Trilok Gurtu, Don Cherry, Jim Pepper, Glen Moore, Steve Horn, Dave Holland, Marty Ehrlich, Paul McCandless, John Abercrombie, David Darling. Jack DeJohnette

The Grammys buries Best Native American Music category

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon—

The Recording Academy, which produces the annual Grammy awards, has announced a major restructuring in how the organization will recognize accomplishments by musicians across North America, reducing total categories from 109 to 78.

This development underscores the importance of the Native American Music Association (NAMA) and The Nammys as the nation’s most vital resource serving the musicians and the audiences of Indian Country, second to none in its  mission to provide greater opportunity and recognition for traditional and contemporary Native American musicians, and linking to indigenous cultures and audiences the world over.

Press releases issued by the Recording Academy indicate that someone over there thinks that this is good news for musicians, for the listening public, and for the cultural traditions that generate the new music.

For Indian Country, the blockheaded recategorization is particularly offensive, marginalizing Native American accomplishments into a category freshly titled “Best Regional Roots Music Album.”

The new “Best Regional Roots Music Album” Grammy is a catchall category where former candidates for “Best Hawaiian Music Album”, “Best Native American Music Album”, “Best Zydeco or Cajun Music Album” will compete for the “Roots” Grammy title.

A note appended to the release adds: “NOTE: This category is intended to recognize recordings of regionally based traditional music, including but not limited to Hawaiian, Native American, polka, zydeco and Cajun music.”

In essence, the Grammys consider “regionally based traditional music” an apt descriptor for the vastly fertile and complex grooves streaming up from the lands and cultures of Indigenous peoples.

In contrast, the Native American Music Awards (the Nammys), currently recognizes 30 distinct genres of music emerging from Indian Country, and plans to add more as strength in other musical styles grows with time and accomplishment.

The Grammy announcement includes this load of hooey from the President:

"Every year, we diligently examine our Awards structure to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process," said President/CEO Neil Portnow. "After careful and extensive review and analysis of all Categories and Fields, it was objectively determined that our GRAMMY Categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music. Our Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its dedication to keeping The Recording Academy a pertinent and responsive organization in our dynamic music community."

This decision by the Recording Academy underscores Alex Haley’s maxim that “History is written by the winners.”

Clearly, this development underscores the importance of supporting the Native American Music Association and its awards program, The Nammys.

Link to the Nammys:

http://www.nativeamericanmusicawards.com/home.cfm

Grammy announcement is here:

http://www.grammy.org/recording-academy/announcement/press-release

Jazz at the Native American Music Awards? Join the discussion!

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon--

My friend Marc Bowlegs Anderson, a jazz guitarist of Oklahoma Seminole descent, has instigated a spirited discussion regarding the absence of separate categories for jazz and classical recordings at the Native American Music Awards, now in its 12th year.

The Nammys currently place all jazz and classical nominees in a catch-all category labeled “instrumental,” although there are probably as many jazz and classical recordings with vocals as there are without.

The Nammys require a minimum of six nominations in each of the 28 categories that they currently recognize. They haven’t received the minimum six, they say, six this year, six last year and six next year to create the category.

Marc wrote to the Nammys: “The NAMMYS should take a proactive approach…and foster participation in jazz and classical music by offering these awards without regard to the number of entries in any year. This can only enhance the diversity and visibility of the NAMMYS and will certainly serve Native Classical and Jazz musicians well, thereby benefiting the entire Native American music community.”

The Nammys replied to Marc: “In our earlier years, we actually had a combined jazz/blues category. Over time, the jazz recording submissions vanished and were non-existent and thus gave way to a complete Blues category, as evidenced today. We are still attempting to hold on to the classical field through our Instrumental category.

"However, we continue to honor jazz and classical musicians with special awards as we have in the past with artists as Frederick Whiteface with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Jim Pepper - Hall of Fame, etc. and allow all jazz and classical artists to submit their recordings in whatever category they feel they are qualified to enter.

"We did not ask the Grammys to "break their rules", when we submitted the Native American music category proposal and sought their approval. In fact, we had to prove a marketplace existed five years prior and five years ahead showing hundreds of recordings each year in both the traditional and contemporary fields just to create ONE category for our genre. The same obviously does not apply to suggesting new categories in the Nammys, but to maintain our credibility among the mainstream music industry and media and keep the fairness among all competing categories - we require a minimum number of entries of six recordings for that year and continuous years just like any other national music awards show."

It’s a complicated subject. I intend to return to it several times over the coming months, any number of times going forward.

The argument is only in part about which should come first, the chicken or the egg, six entries each year for the foreseeable future or the category.

Music is often not easy to categorize or label, and that fact points to a separate but related issue, the arbitrariness of the nomenclature itself.

Coming off the stage after his set at the Isle of Wight music festival, Miles Davis was asked the name of whatever it was that his band had just performed. Miles said, “Call it anything,” and that’s how its labeled on the album.

There’s art, and then there are labels and categories.

Then there is the much larger issue of how Native American music and musicians are perceived and categorized by the recording industry and recognized by the Grammys, its annual self-promotional showcase. The Grammys bestows awards, prestige and other support to artists in 109 categories.

In each of the past 12 years the Nammys have demonstrated the broad diversity of Native American music, while in an entirely separate process the Grammys distills all of Native American music down to one performer per year, regardless of genre.

This discussion reaches to how Native American music is categorized and marketed in record store bins, often clustered with “World Music”, irony noted….

The six-entry rule bars recognition of a lot of Indian talent. Robbie Robertson is an easy example. Among his accomplishments are movie scores for “The Departed” and “Gangs of New York”. The music itself was not “Native”, but regardless, the Nammys are not likely to get six Best Score or Best Song Soundtrack for Motion Picture or Television any time soon. The only option was to award Robbie a Lifetime Achievement Nammy, which he earned for his time with The Band and Bob Dylan alone.

There should be a way to recognize the accomplishment for the accomplishment.

It’s not like there isn’t any Native American jazz or classical music close at hand….

Gabriel Ayala, the Yaqui guitarist, won the 2010 Best World Music Nammy with a recording of Spanish classical guitar music. Most record stores consider World music to be synonymous with indigenous music, not the Spanish classical canon.

On awards night, Gabriel performed a medley of Concierto de Aranjuez (as popularized by Miles Davis) and Chick Corea’s Spain, and that was jazz played on a classical guitar. Gabriel Ayala plays classical and jazz guitar on the same instrument, in the same performance.

His Nammy performance included this duet with Skylar Wolf. Feel free to put a label on it, to place it in a single category. Is it Indian music? Sure, but then what…?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g6Bd3codYA&feature=related




Here are some thoughts going forward:

Muskokee Creek poet and musician Joy Harjo, last year’s Female Artist of the Year at the Nammys, has a new multimedia show titled “We were there when jazz was invented,” featuring her band, three Oklahoma stomp dancers and video.

The Nammies could make a powerful statement about Native Americans in jazz by featuring Joy Harjo’s program at the 2011 Nammys, I’m just saying….

And while we’re at it, let’s nominate Choctaw brother the late Don Cherry for the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame, to join his soul mate Jim Pepper there….

And then there’s the late Don Pullen, whose “Sacred Common Ground” with the Chief Cliff Singers (Kootenai) is just as astonishing a concept today as it was when recorded shortly before his death….

I’m just saying….

On election to the Oregon Native American Chamber Board

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon—Members of the Oregon Native American Chamber recently elected me to its nine-member Board of Directors.

I am thrilled and honored to have this opportunity to make a contribution to ONAC’s mission and to the People the organization serves.

I am grateful for the friendship and support that ONAC members and friends of ONAC contributed to our work to establish the Jim Pepper Chair, the Jim Pepper Remembrance Scholarship Fund and the Jim Pepper Arts Festival at Portland State University. Their support was vital to our success.

I look forward to working alongside my fellow ONAC Board members on issues of significance to Native American populations statewide and throughout the NW region.

The Portland Metro Area is home to the ninth largest Native American population in the USA, with more than 380 tribes identified in the urban area alone.

ONAC’s mission is:

“We are dedicated to working with all members of the community to advance the educational and economic opportunities for Native Americans in Oregon and Southwest Washington.”

ONAC promotes and supports:

“The education, training and cultural understanding of Native Americans, ONAC members and ONAC partners through access to economic development programs, services and resources.

“The development, growth and advancement of Native American businesses, professionals and students in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

“Networking to increase business opportunities among Native American businesses, professionals, ONAC members and ONAC partners, thereby strengthening and growing economic opportunity for all communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington.”

I want to invite you to become a member of ONAC. You can thank me later. Find out more here:

http://www.onacc.org/

Cornel Pewewardy sang the invocation, a Kiowa psalm

Cornel Pewewardy (Comanche-Kiowa) sang the invocation, a Kiowa psalm, at the recent gathering of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, "Inspiring the Spirit", and he certainly did that!

Professor Cornal Pewewardy is the Director of Native American Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Portland State University, and is Co-Chair of the Jim Pepper Arts Festival Steering Committee.

Celilo Falls: Time to start the clock ticking, time to light the fire....

By Sean Cruz

Portland, Oregon--

We live with the consequences of many disastrous public policy decisions, arguably none more plainly evident than the flooding of Celilo Falls, radioactive nuclear sites aside.

This US Army Corp of Engineers movie was shot in 1956, one year before a confluence of short-sighted idiots at the state, local and federal levels deliberately destroyed all that you see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5Ku9HIyQNQ

The US Army film documents the fact that there was no shortage of information available to the decision-makers. They knew what they were about.

Another video, “See Through the Water”, tells the Celilo story in the words of the Celilo people themselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXFYu7l_rNk

The rock structure of Celilo Falls lies intact below the surface of the pond that now covers this place.

Someday, a study will be taken, weighing the costs and benefits of reclaiming Celilo Falls and all that it stands for versus the costs and benefits of maintaining the dam at The Dalles, and a decision will be made in favor of Celilo Falls and the salmon.

It is only a matter of time until we get to that place, as these two videos make plain. There are costs and benefits either way. It’s time to do the math.

No reasonable person living today would consider building a dam to flood Celilo Falls.

Were it not for the terrible decisions of a previous generation, were Celilo Falls flowing today, it would be regarded as one of the world’s greatest heritage sites, and every effort would be made to preserve it and the cultures it sustained.

No reasonable person living today would consider building a dam to flood Celilo Falls. The notion, just like draining the Aral Sea, would be unthinkable….

There is a way to engineer getting the occasional barge up and down the river, and a way to generate power and a way to bring Celilo Falls back to life as surely as there is a way for a man to walk on the Moon….

Were it not for the terrible decisions of a previous generation, were Celilo Falls flowing today, this place would be regarded as one of the world’s greatest heritage sites, and every effort would be made to preserve the Falls and the cultures it sustained forever, to the last human breath, we would all stand together….

It is time to start the Celilo Falls clock ticking, time to do the math, time to stand vigil for the day that the waters roar and the earth shakes anew….

It is time to light the fire that will still be burning when Celilo Falls reappears, when the salmon leap and all the world celebrates, it is time to light the fire….