Witchi Tai To - Jim Pepper

SONG Witchi Tai To

WRITTEN BY Jim Pepper

PERFORMED BY Jim Pepper

APPEARS ON Pepper's Pow Wow (1971)

This song literally changed my world; when I first heard it back in the early '70s it stopped me in my tracks. I had never heard Native American singing before that, and my knowledge of jazz was pretty much limited to big band and high profile types like Louis Armstrong; I hadn't yet discovered the world of fusion jazz from the likes of Miles and Coltrane and Don Cherry. This song introduced me to all of that, and my musical world hasn't been the same since.

Jim Pepper (1941 - 1992) was of Native American descent, from the Plains tribes of the Kaw and the Cree. He came from a family of "road men", the peyote priests of the Native American Church. He was also a jazz saxophonist, playing primarily tenor sax (but also soprano sax and flute), and as such he was one of the pioneers of fusion jazz, mixing rock, r&b, and jazz into a whole new sound. He played with the likes of Larry Coryell, Ornette Coleman, and Don Cherry. His playing was soulful, very much influenced by r&b, and his tone was incisive and penetrating. His style influenced later saxophonists like Jan Garbarek and David Sanborn. He died in 1992 of lymphoma.

In the mid '60s, encouraged by Coleman and Cherry, Pepper began experimenting with mixing Native American music and jazz, with interesting results. "Witchi Tai To" is a prime example of that blending, taking a peyote song he'd learned from his grandfather and putting it in a jazz setting. The song first turned up in 1969 on an album by the band he was playing with at the time, Everything Is Everything. But it's the 1971 version from his own solo album Pepper's Pow Wow that's the definitive version, starting with the peyote chant plain and unadorned, and slowly segueing into Pepper's beautiful, flowing sax line that sets the tone for the rest of the tune. In a way the song is anthemic, especially the parts based on that sax melody; you can imagine stadiums full of people singing that line with great power. Yet the song remains very simple in all it's elements. It's that simplicity and the spiritual intent behind the words, and the spiritual intent that fuels Pepper's performance, that gives the song it's power. The Kaw words are untranslatable now - Pepper said his grandfather never did tell him what they meant in English - but he sings them anyway, and adds English lyrics which emphasize the roots in the peyote ritual, especially speaking of the Water Spirit, who carries the visions brought by the peyote.

Lyrics

Witchi tai to, gimee rah

Hoe rah neeko, hoe rah neeko

Hey ney, hey ney, no way



Witchi tai to, gimee rah

Hoe rah neeko, hoe rah neeko

Hey ney, hey ney, no way



Water Spirit feelin' springin' round my head

Makes me feel glad that I'm not dead



Witchi tai to, gimee rah

Hoe rah neeko, hoe rah neeko

Hey ney, hey ney, no way



Witchi tai to, gimee rah

Hoe rah neeko, hoe rah neeko

Hey ney, hey ney, no way

This song changed my world because it introduced me to a new way of hearing music. It introduced a new style of jazz I'd never known before, and it introduced me to music outside the Western tradition. I listen to a lot of Native American musicians these days - Primeaux and Mike, Ulale, R. Carlos Nakai, Douglas Spotted Eagle (I just did a Sight & Sound post on my own blog which includes a piece by Doug that incorporates elements of the Diné [Navajo] Beauty Way ceremony), and others - as well as music from other parts of the world, both indigenous artists like Yousou N'Dour and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Western "world fusion" types like Peter Gabriel. All because one day in 1971 or '72 somebody dropped a dime in the jukebox and played "Witchi Tai To" and stopped me dead in my tracks.

This video isn't much visually, just the album cover from Comin' and Goin' (a later compilation album), but the music is that definitive version from the 1971 album. The song has been played by others - Brewer and Shipley, Ralph Towner (both with and without Oregon), Jan Garbarek - but never with the power and spirit of Jim Pepper. Enjoy!