James Minter Knepper was born on November 22, 1927, and passed away on June 14, 2003. He was an American jazz trombonist. In addition to making music as a leader on his own recordings, Knepper performed and recorded with musicians such as Charlie Barnet, Woody Herman, Claude Thornhill, Stan Kenton, Benny Goodman, Gil Evans, Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, Toshiko Akiyoshi and Lew Tabackin, and most famously, Charles Mingus during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He died in 2003 due to complications from Parkinson's disease.

Biography

Jimmy Knepper was born in Los Angeles, California, United States. He was the second son of a nurse and a police officer. His parents divorced shortly after his birth, and his mother had to go to court to get child support from his father. He and his older brother, Robert, were sent to several boarding and military schools, including Page Military Academy and St. John's Military Academy, while their mother worked. At age six, he began learning to play the alto horn at school. His first teacher suggested he switch to the trombone, saying he had a "trombone mouth." He played his first professional music jobs in Los Angeles and traveled to Spokane, Washington, at age 15. He graduated from high school and later took classes at Los Angeles Community College.

In 1954, Knepper married Maxine Helen Fields, a trumpet player in the all-female jazz band the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. The ceremony took place in Tucson, Arizona, while he was touring with the Maynard Ferguson Band. They had two children: a daughter named Robin Reid Knepper Mahonen and a son named Timothy Jay Knepper, who died before him. Knepper chose the names "Robin" and "Jay" to honor his idol, Charlie Parker, who was known as "Bird." He had four grandchildren.

In 1959, the U.S. State Department funded a trip for bandleader Herbie Mann to visit Africa after hearing his version of "African Suite." By chance, Knepper replaced Willie Dennis as the trombonist in the band for this tour.

The 14-week tour took place from December 31, 1959, to April 5, 1960. The musicians included Herbie Mann (bandleader, flute, and saxophone), Johnny Rae (vibist and arranger), Don Payne (bass), Doc Cheatham (trumpet), Jimmy Knepper (trombone), Carlos "Patato" Valdes (conguero), and Jose Mangual (bongos). The tour visited Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Morocco, and Tunisia. Knepper wrote detailed letters to his wife, Maxine, his daughter, Robin, and his son, Timothy, during the tour. These letters were recently found in a box in the family home and transcribed by his daughter. They offer insight into jazz history and the life of a touring musician who was also a devoted family man. Knepper described the personal lives of the musicians he worked with and provided vivid descriptions of Africa’s landscapes and people during a time when many Africans had limited civil rights. His daughter hopes to publish these letters.

In 1962, Knepper toured the Soviet Union with Benny Goodman’s Big Band as part of a cultural exchange during the Cold War, when the Bolshoi Ballet also performed in the United States. This tour was also documented in Knepper’s letters.

Knepper played in the pit orchestra for the Broadway show Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand and later Mimi Hines. The show opened on March 26, 1964, at the Winter Garden Theatre and later moved to the Majestic Theatre and the Broadway Theatre, running for 1,348 performances. In 1967 and 1968, he played in the pit orchestra for An Evening with Marlene Dietrich, for which Dietrich won a Tony Award in 1968. He also performed in On Your Toes and The Me Nobody Knows on and off Broadway.

While working on Funny Girl, Knepper joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, a big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis in 1965. The band started the tradition of Monday night jazz shows at the Village Vanguard in New York’s Greenwich Village. The original band performed for twelve years, but after Mel Lewis’s death in 1990, it became known as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. The band has continued its Monday-night performances at the Village Vanguard for four decades. Knepper toured the Soviet Union, Japan, and Europe with the band and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1974.

In 1969, Knepper toured and recorded You Never Know Who Your Friends Are with keyboardist Al Kooper, during the jazz period after leaving Blood, Sweat and Tears. He performed at the Philadelphia Spectrum and in Atlanta, where he briefly met Janis Joplin.

In 1980, Knepper received a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Jazz Instrumentalist Performance, Soloist" for his album Cunningbird.

From 1981 to 1984, Knepper won the "Best Trombonist" award from the DownBeat Reader’s Poll. He also won first place in the DownBeat Critics’ Poll in 1981 and again from 1983 to 1987.

With Mingus

Knepper worked with many famous jazz musicians in the 20th century. However, he was most well-known for his partnership and difficult relationship with bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Mingus was known for having a very short temper. He hit Knepper twice. During a memorial concert in Philadelphia, Mingus reportedly tried to hurt pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi by using the keyboard cover to press against her hands, then punched Knepper. However, Akiyoshi and Mingus’s son, Eric Mingus, questioned whether this event truly happened. Later, while working together at Mingus’s apartment on a piece called Epitaph, Mingus reportedly punched Knepper in the mouth. This injury broke one of Knepper’s teeth, damaged the way he played the trombone, and caused him to lose the top range of his trombone sound for nearly two years. After this attack, Knepper could no longer work with Mingus and missed the concert that followed. In January 1963, Mingus was charged with assault and received a suspended sentence. Mingus’s daughter, Robin, said he later sent heroin to Knepper’s home and made an anonymous phone call to the police. At the time, Robin was a young girl and remembered the police asking her father about the package. In the 1970s, the two musicians eventually reconciled enough to perform together in concerts and on at least one of Mingus’s final albums.

After Mingus’s death and the death of drummer Dannie Richmond, who led the Mingus Dynasty Orchestra, Knepper took over as the leader of the group. He later toured the Middle East and Europe with the orchestra.

Discography

• Jazz Workshop Presents: "Jimmy Knepper" (First Release, 1957; Danish EP released again on Mingus Rarities, Volume 1, OJC)
• A Swinging Introduction to Jimmy Knepper (Bethlehem, 1957)
• The Pepper-Knepper Quintet (MetroJazz Records, 1958)
• Cunningbird (Steeplechase, 1976)
• Jimmy Knepper in L.A. (Inner City, 1977)
• Just Friends (Hep, 1978) with Joe Temperley
• Tell Me… (Daybreak, 1979)
• Primrose Path (Hep, 1980) with Bobby Wellins
• 1st Place (BlackHawk, 1982 [1986])
• I Dream Too Much (Soul Note, 1984)
• Dream Dancing (Criss Cross Jazz, 1986)
• T-Bop (Soul Note, 1991) with Eric Felten

• Tijuana Moods (1957) RCA
• East Coasting (1957) Bethlehem
• A Modern Jazz Symposium of Music and Poetry (1957) Bethlehem
• The Clown (1957) Atlantic
• Mingus Ah Um (1959) Columbia
• Mingus Dynasty (1959) Columbia
• Blues & Roots (1959) Atlantic
• Mingus Revisited (1960) Mercury
• Reincarnation of a Lovebird (1960) Candid
• Oh Yeah (1961) Atlantic
• Tonight at Noon (1957–61) Atlantic
• Cumbia & Jazz Fusion (1978) Atlantic

• Swingin' Machine (Atlantic, 1963)

With Joshua Breakstone
• Evening Star (Contemporary, 1988)

• Central City Sketches (MusicMasters, 1987)

• Muses for Richard Davis (MPS, 1969)

• Out of the Cool (1960) Impulse!
• The Individualism of Gil Evans (1964) Verve
• Blues in Orbit (Enja, 1971)
• Where Flamingos Fly (1971) Artists House
• Collaboration with Helen Merrill (1987) EmArcy

• Shorter Ideas (Muse, 1984)

• Perceptions (Verve, 1961)

• Weary Blues (MGM, 1959)

• Color Changes (Candid, 1960)

• The Incredible Kai Winding Trombones (1960) Impulse!

• National Jazz Ensemble directed by Chuck Israels (Chiaroscuro, 1976)

• My Kinda Groove (Atlantic, 1964)
• Our Mann Flute (Atlantic, 1966)

• Guitar Forms (Verve, 1965)

• A Genuine Tong Funeral (RCA, 1967)

With the Jazz Composer's Orchestra
• The Jazz Composer's Orchestra (1968) JCOA
• Escalator over the Hill with Carla Bley (1971) JCOA

With the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra
• The Big Band Sound of Thad Jones/Mel Lewis featuring Miss Ruth Brown (1968) Solid State
• Monday Night (1968) Solid State
• Central Park North (1969) Solid State
• Basle, 1969 (1996) TCB Music – recorded 1969
• Consummation (1970) Solid State
• Suite for Pops (1972) A&M
• Live in Tokyo (1974) Denon Jazz
• Potpourri (1974) Philadelphia International
• Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and Manuel De Sica (1974) PAUSA

• In High Profile (Bee Hive, 1984)

• Lee Konitz Nonet (Chiaroscuro, 1977)
• Yes, Yes, Nonet (SteepleChase, 1979)
• Live at Laren (Soul Note, 1979 [1984])

• You Never Know Who Your Friends Are (1969) Columbia

With the Toshiko Akiyoshi – Lew Tabackin Big Band
• Road Time (1976) RCA/Victor

With George Adams & Dannie Richmond
• Hand to Hand (1980) Soul Note
• Gentleman's Agreement (1983) Soul Note

• Chair In The Sky (Electra 1979)
• Live at Montreux (Atlantic 1980)
• Reincarnation (Soul Note 1982)
• Mingus' Sounds of Love (Soul Note 1987)
• Live at the Theatre Boulogne-Billancourt/Paris, Vol. 1 (Soul Note 1988)
• Live at the Theatre Boulogne-Billancourt/Paris, Vol. 2 (Soul Note 1988)