Native Americans in Jazz—Present and Past 2020 Jazz Day AZ Pays Tribute To Russell Big Chief Moore Presenter Name Dr. William Doc Jones Presentation Date April 30th Int’l Jazz Day
Project Overview •
What is the project about?
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To illuminate the contributions of Native Americans in the world of Jazz
Define the goal of this project To show the connection that Jazz forged between the Madi Grads Indians (Black) and Native Americans
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Define the scope of this project
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That Native jazz exists shouldn’t really surprise us, given the common thematic ground, (homesickness, hardship, heritage) between African and Native American cultures—
The Heard Museum & International Jazz Day AZ Foundation Proudly presents
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Native Americans in Jazz—Present and Past
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The purpose of this Lecture on International Jazz Day April 30th and Int’l Jazz Day AZ concert on May 3rd at the Heard Museum is to illuminate the contributions of Native Americans—present and past—to the art form we love: Jazz. I’m very excited to
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Collaborate with the Museum and Produce this annual first of many educational concerts to bring attention To the contribution Native Americans has Made in the world of Jazz.
BIG CHIEF DOANLD HARRISON Mardi Gras Indian It was brought to my attention by accident when I was at a conference hosted by Arizona Mexico Commission that this important subject that has not been given adequate attention in the published jazz histories. I have been a Jazz musician for over 35 years and was not aware at all the Native American contribution to the music I have loved all these year Jazz. Knowing my mission to unite the State of Arizona around UNESCO/Herbie Hancock Jazz Appreciation Month & International Jazz Day I would be remiss if I didn’t include the contribution Native American has made to this art form call Jazz in 2020 ”2020jazzdayaz”. The little bit I do know about the subject is thanks to my good friend “Big Chief” Alto Saxophone player Donald Harrison who is a Mardi Gras Indian.
Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians Like the Mississippi River, the origins of the Mardi Gras Indian are a little muddy. Most believe that a connection between black people and Native Americans was forged when escaped slaves found asylum with Louisiana tribes. Others believe that the Mardi Gras Indians were inspired by the Native Americans who performed in New Orleans with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show in 1884. They say the first Mardi Gras Indian was Chief Becate of the Creole Wild West tribe who masked as an Indian at a Mardi Gras in the 1880s. Â It was brought to my attention that Big Chief Russell Moore was the first Native American to play Jazz, he played with New Orleans Legend Luis Armstrong.
Big Chief Russell Moore August 13, 1912 – December 15, 1983
That Native jazz exists shouldn’t really surprise us, given the common thematic ground, (homesickness, hardship, heritage) between African and Native American cultures— given also the abundance of historical African-Native intersections, as established within extant African-Native American studies. Back in the big band 1930s era, an immediate Native was presence thanks to Big Chief Russell Moore playing with all the Jazz Cats like Louis Armstrong, Bird Charlie Parker, just to name a few. After Russell hit the scene the cats begin calling what he was doing “Red Jazz” Two instruments are privileged in Red Jazz: the muted trombone, as solo instrument [‘Song’] and vanguards of the killer riff in ‘Rumba’ and ‘Cherokee’; and the clarinet, which figures the eponymous Indian love call of that track.
That Native Jazz exists In privileging muted trombone and clarinet, Red Jazz equates Native America, its “voice”, with the lightness and breathiness of those instruments: in so doing— and deliberately, I think— Red Jazz promulgates a “vanishing Indian” trope. Chromatic patterns (cf. the solo trombone in ‘Song’) and repetition (cf. the ‘wah-wah’ trumpets of ‘Cherokee’ and ‘Rumba’, the opening drum riff of ‘Love Call’) also typify Red Jazz: thus, I think, does the genre aggrandize the simpler, ritualistic aspects of Native culture. Such a reductive approach is belied the clearer by the lyrics of ‘Love Call’ [from 2.00]: no mention of “Indian” or similar; and Native language becomes simple scat (those “dip-de-dip” fills), after earlier ‘yips’ from the whole band. Between the ‘30s and the ‘60s, Native America remained incidental within mainstream jazz. Many famous players had Native roots— Charlie Parker had Choctaw roots; Miles Davis, Cherokee— but this rarely entered into their work.
Other Native Americans who have made a contribution to Jazz •
The bassist Oscar Pettiford is an exception here: as his widow would put it, Pettiford ‘contended that the importance of the American Indian to jazz has been underestimated if not completely overlooked.’ Nevertheless, his theories on jazz’s “Indian rhythms” remained his own.
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1970s Artists from the ‘70s onwards inculcated a conscientious Native jazz. The genre’s leading light was Jim
Pepper [Muscogee-Creek/Kaw], a pioneering fusion jazz bandleader and, intermittently throughout his career, Native rights activist. I will also consider two other major Native jazz players who continue this aesthetic into the ‘90s: pianist Don
Pullen [Cherokee], and bassist William Parker [Choctaw]. For now though, I would like to concentrate upon— and deconstruct— Pepper’s Native jazz album of ‘71 Pepper’s Pow-Wow
JIM PEPPER’S THE JAZZ LEGACY PEPPER’S POW WOW •
I will first identify Pow-Wow’s authentic Native elements, and then evaluate Pepper’s success in fusing and fashioning a Native jazz aesthetic.
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Foremost among Pow-Wow’s authentic Native elements is its almanac of Native language— from chants (cf. the eponymous chants of ‘Witchitai-To’ and ‘Yon A Ho’) to dialectal call-and-response (‘Rock Stomp Indian Style’). Repetition evokes ritualism here as it does in Red Jazz. Pepper’s flute shares the reedy nature and timbre of much Native instrumentation, and tribal rattles govern much of ‘Slow War Dance’ and ‘Stomp’. ‘Senecas’ and ‘Drums’ tackle very pertinent Native grievances: land-rights disputes, and educational integrationist.
PEPPER’S POW POW IS AN ALBUM THAT’S HARDER TO PIDGEONHOLE • •
1990s Pepper’s original Native jazz aesthetic governs also Don Pullen (Cherokee, pianist) and William Pepper (Choctaw, bassist)’s work. Although he came late to exploring Native America in music (playing primarily with one ‘African-Brazilian Connection’), Pullen took earnestly to a ‘95 collaboration with the Chief Cliff singers [Kootenai]. ‘The Eagle Staff is First’ is the first track of
their album Sacred Common Ground: as in Pepper, the blues acquires an additional “redness” (cf. the repeated instrumental 4-bar riff), and the Connection’s vocal emergence underneath the Cliff Singers feels nicely organic. Parker “went Native” intermittently throughout his career, with variable success. ‘The Peach Orchard’ is a commendably conscientious soundscape of New Mexico Navajo/U.S. Army tensions: here, perhaps, is the ‘Senecas’/ ‘Drums’ model writ large (over 20 minutes, to be precise). But in ‘Aquixo Waiting at Dark Corner’, a soundscape of de Soto’s C15 explorers contending with Mississippi Natives, Parker eschews evocative guitarros and the like for a free jazz evocation of conflict: Pepper’s ill-conceived ‘New War Dance’ redux.
2020 Jazz Day AZ Fest will conjures a joyous, Native American Pow Wow at a concert for Kids •
IJD AZ Foundation and The Heard Museum will be looking for a few tribes to join us with this remarkable Kids program on Sunday (May 3rd 26). We would love to have Indians from a dance troupes that has made a mark with the Pow Wow in Arizona.
THANK YOU NATIVE AMERICANS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION YOU MADE TO JAZZ MUSIC