1st annual Native Arts Festival August 7-10, 2013 Parkrose HS Performing Arts Center, Portland, Oregon

The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission (OCHC) and many partners are working hard to create an important cultural and educational institution – the Jim Pepper Native Arts Festival.

OCHC first recognized the accomplishments of Jim Pepper (Creek/Kaw) in 2005, as co-sponsor of a series of events celebrating Jim’s legacy. The same year the Oregon Legislative Assembly honored his life and achievements in Senate Joint Resolution 31. It reads in part:

“Whereas the 2005 Portland Festival paid tribute to the musical legacy of Jim Pepper, a true son of Oregon, with a concert dedicated to the late Native American saxophonist and jazz legend;

“… Jim Pepper, born to Gilbert and Floy Pepper in Salem on June 18, 1941, blazed a unique trail across the musical horizon with his innovative synthesis of Native American song, the harmonic structures of modern jazz, and the rhythms of Africa, South America and the Caribbean.”

Join musicians and Jim Pepper enthusiasts coming from near and far to Portland this August in remembrance of his legacy in the Parkrose neighborhood where he first picked up a saxophone.

We are staging the historic reunion concert of the original The Free Spirits, the first jazz-rock fusion band in music history. It features legendary guitarist , drummer Rakalam , bassist Chris Hills, guitarist Columbus Chip Baker, and special guest artists to be named. Who will take the Jim Pepper chair in this band? Don’t miss this show. There are only 600 seats in the theater – and all seats will be sold reserved.

Jim PepperFest will feature these multiple Native American Music Awards winners: Joy Harjo (Muskokee Creek) and the Arrow Dynamics Band, The Pura Fe Quartet (Tuscarora), Jan Michael Looking Wolf (Kalapuya), Gabriel Ayala (Yaqui), Swil Kanim (Lummi), and more TBA. The power of Jim Pepper’s music is drawing them to Portland.

In addition, the Festival will premiere the Director’s Cut of Pepper’s Powwow, Sandy Sunrising Osawa’s (Makah) award-winning documentary with rare added live performance footage. We will also present a travelling exhibition from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian – IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas – in its first 2013 presentation west of the Mississippi.

Jim PepperFest 2013: Rise of the Free Spirits

Jim Pepper, Quebec City powwow, circa 1980

Buy 2 Early Bird VIP tickets and get a $ 300 tax deduction

With only 600 seats in the theater once tickets go on sale they will go fast.

OCHC is releasing a limited time offer of a pair of tickets for premium seats at all events, VIP receptions, and the After-Festival party. Your name will be printed in the souvenir program as a sponsor. You can plan on having a great time for four days and nights. Your strategic investment of $500 in the Festival and your community includes a $ 300 tax-deductible donation.

Reserve your pair of Early Bird VIP tickets by sending a $500 check to: OCHC, PO Box 3588, Portland, OR 97208; or pay online at – www.ochcom.org – using the PayPal credit card feature. For additional information, call 503-285-8279.

Act now! This Early Bird VIP ticket offer ends soon.