Pepper's Pow Wow

Jim Pepper, a Kaw Indian who fused his Native roots with the soul of American jazz, was a musician ahead of his time. Filmed over a ten year period, this documentary looks at the boy who grew up an "urban Indian" in Portland, Oregon and explores the rich Oklahoma Kaw roots in which his music was grounded. Featuring musical selections and interviews with Pepper, his family and associates, Pepper's Pow Wow offers good insight into the man who came to be known in jazz circles around the world. (His soulful tenor sax tunes can be found in scores of collaborations with other artists, as well as on his own recordings.) Because the interviews and film footage are so fresh, it comes as a shock when associates start talking about Pepper getting sick, his cancer, and eventual death--it just seems impossible to the viewer that the bright personality we've gotten to know over the course of the documentary is gone. With its great sound and beautiful cinematography, libraries that can afford it should consider this Best Documentary Winner from the American Indian Film Festival a "must buy." Aud: H, C, P. (R. Reagan)