Oregon Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen to introduce Joy Harjo

“You must not forget me when I’m long gone, for I loved you so dearly….”

--Jim Pepper, Remembrance

Oregon’s Poet Laureate Paulann Petersen to speak opening night

Paulann Petersen

We are very happy to announce that Paulann Petersen, the State of Oregon’s Poet Laureate, has accepted our invitation to speak and will introduce Joy Harjo to the audience on opening night, the evening of Wednesday, August 7.

Paulann has long been an admirer of Joy Harjo’s poetry, and also has fond memories of her time as a student of Jim Pepper’s mother, Floy Pepper, at Richmond Grade School.

Following Paulann’s remarks there will be the long-awaited performance of:

Joy Harjo and the Arrow Dynamics Band

Featuring Larry Mitchell and Grayhawk Perkins

Find out more about Paulann Petersen here:

http://www.oregonpoetlaureate.org/paulann-bio.html

http://www.paulann.net/index.php

Visit www.JimPepperFest.net

Find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/JimPepperNativeArtsFestival

John-Carlos Perea remembers Jim Pepper

I was first introduced to the music of Jim Pepper while studying for my undergraduate degree in Music at San Francisco State University. At that time I was listening to John Coltrane and also to pow-wow and Native American flute music. I knew there was a connection there but I did not understand how to make that connection in my playing and in my life.

I spoke to saxophonist Francis Wong at that time about my interests and he loaned me his copy of Pepper’s Dakota Song. That loan led me to research Pepper’s discography and eventually to Pepper’s performance of Coltrane’s “Naima” on Everything is Everything featuring Chris Hills. Hearing Pepper play “Naima” helped me finally make that connection between jazz and intertribal Native American music, a connection that set me on my own career as an electric bassist, cedar flutist, singer, and composer.

Pepper’s music sets a precedent in jazz and Native American music for the way he crossed back and forth between straight-ahead, fusion, avant garde, and many other styles. When I listen to Pepper’s playing and composing I also hear bravery and fearlessness. He understood the importance of “Witchi Tai To” as a peyote song but he also saw the importance of rearranging it into the new song that circulates globally today in so many different versions and styles. I feel grateful to have learned these lessons from Jim Pepper and I am happy that the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival will provide a space to remember Jim Pepper and to present new music inspired by him in the future.

http://www.johncarlosperea.com | https://soundcloud.com/johncarlosperea

John Betsch remembers Jim Pepper

“We met the summer of 1966 at a jam session in NYC with Chris Hills and a couple of others whose names escape me, and I was stunned by his sound and spirit. He was complaining about his chops and that special horn that I eventually took to Selmer for repairs, beginning their special relationship, and which is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

“We remet in 1981 at a festival in Austria when he was with Don Cherry and I was with Archie Shepp, Mal Waldron and Santi Debriano, who became key players in our lives later. We realized we were neighbors in Park Slope and thus began our close association, playing together in the Park and at the home of Gordon Lee where Jim was staying.

“When we both moved to Brooklyn our friendship continued to grow and at his and Caren's apartment I met Pura Fe among others. When I moved to Europe in 1985, invited by trombonist Marty Cook, Marty and I began bringing Jim over for tours a year or so afterward.

“Through the Munich associations with ENJA and TUTU Records things began to take shape with tours and recordings with first Marty's quartet with Jim's Portland friend Essiet Essiet, then with Ed Schuller on bass, and later the quartet with Ed and Mal Waldron, Santi and Kirk Lightsey, Claudine Francois with whom I was living near Paris and finally guitarist Bill Bickford.

“The Mal Waldron--Ed Schuller band literally made people cry: three different people came to me after gigs and said, "I was crying and didn't know why".

“My personal high water mark was a gig in a club near Vienna where Jim finally relocated: when we did the songs from the ‘Comin and Goin’ recording, everybody in the club sang all of the words. I will never forget the look on Jim's face when he turned around and looked at me with a ‘Do you believe this shit?!?!’ look on his face.

“When I developed a tumor on my right shoulder bone and Jim's lymphoma forced us into being on chemo at the same time, we decided to phone each other every Monday morning and talk about our experiences. We called each other "the brothers we never had" because of both having sisters as siblings and our musical and personal relationship remains the most special of my life.” – John Betsch, June 21, 2013, Paris, France.

Hear this great band here: Jim Pepper, Mal Waldron, Ed Schuller, John Betsch:

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

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