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Jim Pepper

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jim Pepper was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and singer with Kaw and Muscogee roots. He was born in 1941 in Salem, Oregon, and grew up in Portland. In 1964 he moved to New York. In the late 1960s he became known as a member of The Free Spirits, an early jazz rock group with Larry Coryell and Bob Moses. That band, active from 1965 to 1968, is regarded as the first to combine jazz and rock. His main instrument was the tenor saxophone; he also played flute, soprano saxophone and percussion, and sometimes sang.

Music and breakthrough

Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman encouraged him to work his heritage into his jazz. The result was a mixture of jazz and Native American music. His best-known piece is Witchi Tai To, based on a peyote song of the Native American Church that he learned from his grandfather. In 1969 he sang it as a member of the group Everything Is Everything. It reached number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100. Later it was covered by many others, including Jan Garbarek and Harpers Bizarre.

Influence

Pepper recorded with Don Cherry, Naná Vasconcelos, John Scofield and many others. His CD Comin' and Goin' became the first CD on the new label Rykodisc. In 1998 Gunther Schuller made a version of Witchi Tai To for symphony orchestra and jazz band. Pepper died in 1992. His saxophone and hat are held in the National Museum of the American Indian.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Witchi Tai To and notice how a simple, song-like melody of Native American origin is played and sung within a jazz and rock sound.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists