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Comin´ and goin´
Beskrivning:Jim Pepper (1941-1992) spelade tenorsaxofon, sjöng och komponerade. Han var amerikan, men ingen ättling till de som koloniserade Nordamerika, utan han hörde till urbefolkningen, de som tidigare kallades indianer. Han förenade jazzmusiken med urbefolkningens musik och skapade en mycket personlig musik.
Vi citerar en articel från elsewhere.co.nz:
"Pepper was active in Native American politics during the Seventies . . . although it had been Don Cherry (of Choctaw/Afro-American descent and with whom Pepper later toured West Africa) and Ornette Coleman who had encouraged him to explore his heritage.
Which he notably did on his remarkable album Comin' And Goin' from '83. It was dedicated to his grandfather Ralph, father Gilbert (who wrote two of the songs) and his mother Floy.
Comin' And Goin' opens with an eight minute treatment of Witchi Tia To and closes with a version of Don Cherry's Malinyea, and the various line-ups he employed on the nine tracks included musicians who were then, and later, among the biggest in jazz: guitarists Bill Frisell and John Scofield, percussionist Nana Vasconcelos, sitar player Colin Walcott (from Oregon), bassist Mark Helias, trumpeter Cherry . . .
Out of his own heritage and the contemporary fusion-jazz he was exploring -- with such like-minded players and a consciousness of Native American politics -- Pepper created an album that is unlike any other in jazz: it has a sensibility that is both ancient and current, addressed serious matters but wasn't without humour (the chant-like love song Ya Na Ho written by his father includes the memorable line "I'll drive you home in my one-eyed Ford"), and is as singular and interesting today as it was on release.
Squaw Song (also by Gilbert Pepper) is a melancholy piece based on impressions of various social dance songs; Goin' Down to Muskogee comes from a traditional Creek stomp; and Lakota Song is an arrangement of a traditional Sioux piece of departure and greeting.
Custer Gets It -- George Custer getting it in free jazz maelstom akin to Ornette Coleman -- is from a Kaw war dance.
Aside from the unusual instrumentation and arrangments, it is Jim Pepper's almost impossibly sad voice that makes this album so special.
Jim_PepperAt times he affirms life (listen to his assertion of "glad that I'm not dead" on Witchi Tia To) but on Squaw Song and the title track ("it's good where we've been, good where we're going") you sense an ineffable sadness at the heart of this music.
These days much Native American music has been appropriated by American post-New Age types who somehow think banging drums in teepees and having dream catchers hanging from windows or their rear-view mirror help them get in touch with their ancient spirit.
Maybe it does, but far too much of that music in spiritual bookshops is superficial.
There have been important voices out of the many and diverse tribes of North America, among them Buffy Sainte-Marie, poet and activist John Trudell, saxophonist Joy Harjo, rock guitarist Jesse Ed Davis . . .
And before them all Jim Pepper who, admittedly, could be volatile and battled with alcohol as so many Native Americans tragically do (which makes that "glad I'm not dead" even more poignant).
But he also created sublime music which owed a little to John Coltrane, but mostly to a tradition and cultural memory that was perilously close to being lost.
Sadly much of the music by Jim Pepper -- who died in 1992 -- is in much the same position today.
Comin' And Goin' which came out on the Antilles label was reissued on CD in the early Nineties but is very hard to find today.
Jim Pepper's Indian name was Hung-a-che-eda which translated to Flying Eagle.
On Comin' And Goin' -- which rewards any effort to secure -- he flies still."
I medföljande häfte finns diskografiska uppgifter och en text av Michael Zwerin.
9 spår; speltid ca 44 min.
Språk:
Skivbolag: Antilles ANCD8706 (1982)
Format: CD
Skick: Begagnad
Spår:
- Witchi tia to
- Ya na ho
- Squaw song
- Goin´ down to Muskogee
- Comin´ and goin´
- Lakota song
- Water
- Custer gets it
- Malinyea