| "It's Good Where We've Been..." |
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| by Bill Siegel "It is necessary to view everything from the concept of wholeness rather than dividing it into parts... The circle of a human being should be of harmony and courage." Floy Pepper "You must not forget me/When I'm long gone/ Because I love you/So Dearly/Sugar Honey." Jim Pepper Few musicians, few artists -- indeed, few people -- represent the "circle of a human being" as well as Jim Pepper. Friends, colleagues and fellow musicians have called him a "friendly, smiling bear," and even "a sweetie." They also say that he was "beset by demons," that he was "constantly driven by a deeply seated fear, the traumatic terror of absolute extermination -- which pursued him like a shadow." |
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| written for jazz'halo magazine (Belgium), 2000 |
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| Links to other articles about or related to Jim Pepper, by Bill Siegel: Jim Pepper Lives! Home Page PDX Jazz Festival 2005: Jim Pepper Tribute (AllAboutJazz.com) Jazz and the Politics of Identity (In Motion magazine) Jim Pepper: The Man Who Never Sleeps (In Motion magazine) Driving with Jim Pepper "It's Good Where We've Been..." (jazz'halo magazine) There Are No Coincidences... Before the Drum (poem) NEW! Comprehensive PEPPER Discography Other great links: Jim Pepper Legacy in Recorded Music (In Motion magazine) "Listen to Your Own Voice": Sandra Osawa (In Motion magazine interview) NEW! 1968 Interview with Jim Pepper (Jazz & Pop magazine) John-Carlos Perea Web Site Chassidic Jazz Project Web Site (Reuben Hoch) AllAboutJazz.com CLICK HERE FOR MORE GREAT LINKS! |
| Jim Pepper's music chronicles for us the courageous struggles of a man to bring his own "circle of being" into harmony.This was the man who could make songs like balladist Jimmy van Heusen's Polka Dots and Moonbeams into his own signature performance pieces; the man who could put standards like What's New on the same album as his own Dakota Song and Ornette Coleman's Comme Il Faut. Or Rodgers and Hammerstein's romantic Hello Young Lovers together with Witchi Tai To, a song based on his grandfather's Native American Church Peyote chants. The man who could use his saxophone to croon Somewhere Over the Rainbow or a John Coltrane-influenced Greensleeves, and yet challenge us with the insistent No War Dance. The same man who would group van Heusen's It Could Happen to You with his own Commander G.A. Custer Git the Buzz on the same album. This is the man who sang, "It's good where we've been/And where we're going..." in his Comin' and Goin'. And the man who sang in Witchi Tai To, "Water spirit feelin'/Springin' round my head/Makes me feel glad/That I'm not dead..." How many of us can celebrate life so fully -- in the face of deep-seated demons and inner fears -- the way that Jim Pepper did? The music of Jim Pepper, years after his passing, continues to provide us lessons in life. Young musicians cite him as one of their primary influences -- not just in playing the music, but in keeping alive the tradition of educating people, of expressing themselves through their own artistic media. People who knew him, played and recorded with him, or just saw him perform, still talk about his energy, his infectious smile, the sheer joy of his music. With Jim Pepper, the harmony and the courage are right there in his music. His is a lesson for all of us. Let us not forget Jim Pepper. # # # |
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