May 13
May 13
A giant among jazz drummers, with a rich legacy of sharing his talents
In “The Drummer in Our Time,” Ghanaian poet A.W. Kayper-Mensah wrote of the need to celebrate ancient braveries as heartily as the noise, pulse and distilled beauty of life’s present: “May your drumming, music, meaning/Turn our heads to look about us.”
Resonant words. Words that might well have been meant for Portland drummer, educator and jazz beacon Akbar DePriest, who died May 2 of complications from liver cancer at the age of 76.
Looked up to as a “musical big brother” by the standard-setting Portland drummers Mel Brown and Ron Steen, DePriest was a generous figure with a deep connection to jazz’s golden age—the mythological 1950s and ’60s, when bebop giants walked the earth tilting at windmills. He played with many of those giants, from John Coltrane to Dexter Gordon to Rahsaan Roland Kirk. DePriest was a man who embraced jazz’s love of story, song and sympathetic magic, and shared the wealth.
Alongside Brown, trumpeter Thara Memory, pianist Darrell Grant and others, DePriest was instrumental in galvanizing community support for jazz education throughout the 1990s in Portland. The incredible spate of talented young players bursting onto the jazzscape is in no small part due to DePriest and other passionately committed older artists. He was an elegant embodiment of what Ralph Ellison called the “true jazz moment”—an artist who engaged himself, other players and the threads of tradition in an ongoing taffy pull. Most of all he extended the tradition of jazz’s once fertile systems of apprenticeship, oral tradition and bandstand baptisms-by-fire.
His DePriest Family Jazz organization encouraged family-friendly interaction with jazz’s rich legacy—frequently bringing top-flight legendary talent to Portland for performances, workshops and other community-based activities. With warmth, bare-knuckle dedication and consummate poise and artistry, DePriest time and again illustrated that the riches an artist reaps don’t come from “the gig” but are amassed by connecting to youth and laying the foundation for future generations of jazz titans-to-be. He frequently partnered with community resources such as the University of Portland, Portland Public Schools, Self Enhancement Inc., Tubman Middle School and the Portland Jazz Festival.
Well-known for his impeccable comportment, soft-spoken, determined manner and a musicality that was pure joy and all business when it came to swinging a band, Akbar DePriest was born Robert DePriest Brooks on May 16, 1930, in Imperial, Calif. (He was later rechristened Akbar DePriest by the legendary Kirk.) He came of age during the thriving Central Avenue jazz scene of postwar Los Angeles and gained an initial taste for jazz by sneaking into the Lincoln Theatre or the Dunbar Hotel to catch a glimpse of Duke Ellington or other major acts of the day.
DePriest traveled the byways of jazz’s more vital arteries —Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Europe—during a time when jazz still resonated with force and presence on radio, as popular nightclub entertainment and as a form of sophisticated, street-level modernism in communities throughout urban America.
From 1955 onward, DePriest played with a stellar array of performers from “chitlin’ circuit” acts such as Big Maybelle and Sarah “Relax Miss Frisky” McLawler to a long-standing Chicago gig with saxophonist Eddie Harris at Killer Johnson’s Archway Lounge.
He spent a year on the road with Gene “Jug” Ammons and made an intimate basement recording with Coltrane. He played a two-year stint in Copenhagen with Gordon, and played with such stalwarts as Johnny Griffin and Don Cherry, recording with Jim Pepper, Mal Waldron and onward. He moved to Oregon in 1987 and shortly thereafter started his DePriest Family Jazz.
Throughout his career at home and abroad, DePriest remained close to some of jazz’s major innovators, including pianist-composer Andrew Hill (former head of Portland State University’s jazz department), saxophone greats Harris and Gordon, pianist Ahmad Jamal and drummer Billy Higgins.
“Akbar earned respect through his fierce dedication to jazz . . . not only adhering to the traditions but moving the art form forward,” Portland bassist Skip Elliott Bowman said. “He built new music on those traditions. That’s our paramount duty as creative artists, and Akbar more than did his part.”
Akbar DePriest is survived by his wife, Imogene Jordan; sons, Mario DePriest, Robert Brooks and Rouben Patrick; daughter Nicole DePriest; brothers, William Brooks and Millwea Brooks; and sisters, Lillian Brooks, Christine Benson and Arletha Pappas.
Akbar DePriest Discography
“Mario DePriest: First Things First“ (Media Renaissance Ltd., 2001) Cognac-smooth debut sampling of DePriest’s son Mario, backed by an all-star Portland contingent including the late drummer plus Jof Lee, Javon Jackson, Mel Brown, Dan Balmer and others.
“Akbar DePriest Featuring Javon Jackson: Inclusion“ (DePriest Project, 2002)
Stellar assortment of jazz composer standards (by Horace Silver, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane) and original compositions by Portland stalwarts Gordon Lee, Thara Memory and DePriest.
“Akbar DePriest: Live on the Willamette“ (DePriest Project, 1997)
Live album recorded at Salty’s on the Columbia in the early ’90s, featuring Seattle jazz saxophone greats Hadley Caliman and Jay Collins.
“Akbar DePriest: Central Avenue Roots” (DePriest Project, 1996)
Great tribute to Los Angeles’ once-thriving jazz avenue, featuring Bennie Maupin, Thara Memory and Janice Scroggins (who contributed first-rate, swinging compositions).
“Russell Baba: Earth Prayer” (Ruba Music, 1992)
Rare, out-of-print recording featuring Andrew Hill, Bay Area saxophonist Russell Hisashi Baba and Portland bassist Dan Schulte. —Tim DuRoche
Published originally in The Oregonian
