Jazz concert to raise money for music legend Skipp Pearson

Columbia’s music community is rallying around master saxophonist Skipp “Pops” Pearson, who is fighting stage 4 bone cancer.

Pearson, 79, has long been a jazz institution in South Carolina. The Orangeburg native’s music career spans more than 50 years and includes collaborations with music greats like Otis Redding, Wynton Marsalis and Sam Cooke. He was named the Ambassador of Jazz Music by the South Carolina Senate and House and, most recently, was slated to receive from Gov. Nikki Haley the Order of the Palmetto, the state’s highest civilian honor awarded to citizens for “extraordinary lifetime service and achievements of national or statewide significance,” according to the governor’s website.

“Skipp is a legend. There’s no one more of a real deal than Skipp,” said Mark Rapp, a Columbia jazz musician and friend of Pearson’s. “His tone, his phrasing, his ideas, his whole life embodies the truest essence of jazz music.”

Rapp will be one of several musicians performing at the Feb. 28 Skipp Pearson Jazz Bash and Love Fest at The Big Apple on Hampton Street. Proceeds from the benefit concert will go toward several initiatives for Pearson. The lineup also features Reggie Sullivan, Amos Hoffman, Tony Lee, Jonathan Lovett and Dustin Retzlaff. Pearson himself is expected to be well enough to attend, organizers said.

Some of the money would be used to send Pearson to Paris, where he played on weekends while serving in the military in England in the late ’50s, his manager and director of the Skipp Pearson Foundation Shirley Martin said.

“There are tons of musicians that are waiting to play with him in Europe, we just have to get him there,” she said.

The money also would go toward two studio albums – a holiday and “best of” – and a book about Pearson’s life, Martin said.

“How do you have someone like Pops in your midst and not do everything you can for him?” she added.

Richard Durlach, who bought The Big Apple with his dance partner Breedlove in September, is donating the venue for the Jazz Bash. He and Breedlove have been dancing to Pearson’s music for the past 20 years.

“I’ve seen him when I know he’s feeling ill and in pain, and he’s still whaling on his saxophone,” Durlach said. Recalling a story about Pearson in the hospital after a surgery, he said, “After a major operation, your nurse will usually give you a device to blow into to exercise your lungs. After his surgery, Skipp pointed at his sax and says, ‘How about if I blow into this, ma’am?’”

For those who know him, Pearson is most appreciated for his tireless education and gentle grooming of young musicians. With his foundation, Pearson has sought to preserve live jazz music and provide avenues for younger people to learn and share it.

Rapp remembered his first meeting with Pearson in the late ’90s, when he was a junior at Winthrop University and would come to Columbia on weekends to play in jazz jam sessions.

“I remember him being very kind and generous and helpful. At the jam sessions he was very welcoming, saying, ‘Yeah, man, play!’”

Sharing the stage with Pearson is fun, but also humbling, Rapp said.

“I can play a thousand notes and then Skipp will come up and play two notes and I’ll go, ‘Oh, that sounded a lot better.’ It’s fun, but at the same time, he knows his music inside and out.”

On his Facebook page, Pearson has posted intermittent updates on his health.

“I want to begin by thanking everyone for their calls, cards and well wishes. Got through the second dose of the second round of Chemo,” he wrote Feb. 5. “Please send good thoughts my way as I battle this beast.”

The Jazz Bash and Love Fest will hopefully go a long way to providing those good thoughts by way of a well-deserved tribute, organizers said.

“We need to do something for this man while he’s still alive to enjoy it,” Durlach said. “He has done so much for jazz in the state of South Carolina, and beyond that, frankly. He deserves to not just be remembered but to be thanked for what he’s done.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Jazz concert to raise money for music legend Skipp Pearson."