James Minter Knepper (November 22, 1927 – June 14, 2003) was an American jazz trombonist. In addition to his own recordings as leader, Knepper performed and recorded with 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 in the late-1950s and early-1960s.
Biography
Knepper was born in Los Angeles, California, United States, as part of a cultural exchange during the Cold War, in which the Bolshoi Ballet also came to the US. This groundbreaking yet disastrous tour was also documented in Knepper's letters.
Knepper also played in the pit orchestra through the entire run of the Broadway show Funny Girl, with Barbra Streisand, and later, Mimi Hines. After seventeen previews, the Broadway production opened on March 26, 1964, at the Winter Garden Theatre, subsequently transferring to the Majestic Theatre and the Broadway Theatre to complete its total run of 1,348 performances. In 1967–1968, he played in the pit orchestra at the Mark Hellinger Theatre for An Evening with Marlene Dietrich, for which Dietrich received a Tony Award in 1968. Knepper also appeared on and off Broadway in On Your Toes, and The Me Nobody Knows.
While he was playing Funny Girl, Knepper became a member of the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, a big band formed by trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis around 1965, Nevertheless, in the 1970s, the two eventually reconciled thoroughly enough to play together in concert and on at least one of Mingus's last albums.
Following Mingus's death, and the death of the first Mingus Dynasty bandleader, drummer Dannie Richmond, Knepper led the Mingus Dynasty orchestra