A CLASSIC IN THE HEAVEN OF GOOD ONES |
ARCHIE SHEPP |
| Tenorman Archie Shepp was born in Florida, 1937, and made
his earliest recordings with Cecil Taylor (Air and Into The Bot) sounding at that time,
1960, like an amalgam of Rollins and Coltrane. By 1962 he had emerged as a highly original
voice and his quartet with trumpeter Bill Dixon produced a classic solo on Trio (Bill Dixon -Archie Shepp Quartet). With the New York Contemporary Five of the following year, Shepp picked up ideas about group voicings (Archie Shepp &: The New York Contemporary Five) and al-though the free drumming of J. C. Moses suited him less well than Don Cherry or John Tchicai, the lessons of the NYC5 were fruit-fully continued in a Shepp studio band with Tchicai, trumpeter Alan Shorter and trombonist Roswell Rudd (Four For Trane). His arrangement of Coltrane's Syeeda's Song Flute and Rudd's of Niema are excellent small group writing. The links with Coltrane were rein-forced on the massive collective work Ascension in 1965, fea-turing many of the New Thing musicians, including Shepp. The most readily approachable of ihat group, Shepp's tone is a fiercely exciting blend of hoarse cries, rasps, loose vibrato and cutting clarity, his dramatic control of dynamics similar to Ben Webster's. His feeling for the blues is intensely emotional, while his ballad playing - In A Sentimental Mood (On This Night and Live In San Francisco) or Prelude To A Kiss (Fire Music and Mama Too Tight) - is robustly romantic and recalls an earlier era. Shepp's second major involvement in group writing (Fire Music) pro-duced two magnificent works, Bambone and Los Olvidados, and a deeply moving trio per-formance, Malcolm, Malcolm -Semper Malcolm on which the tenorman reads his own poem to Malcolm X. Shepp's poetry. The Wedding (Live In San Fran-cisco), Scag (New Thing At New-port) or. his later albums like Things Have Got To Change and Attica Blues, are aspects of his fervent political beliefs: 'I play of the death of me by you'. A period with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcher-son in the group (On This Night and New Thing At Newport) gave way to the collaborations with trombonists like Roswell Rudd (Live In San Francisco and Three For A Quarter) and later, additionally, Grachan Moncur ill (One For The Trane and Mama Too Tight). |
1966-7 saw Shepp experimenting with dense
counterpoint, savage collective playing and straight-faced Sousa marches, the lengthy
Portrait Of Robert Johnson (Mama Too Tight) being a fine example. The title track, an
explo-sive tenor solo over a ragged R&B riff, is a genre in which Shepp reigns
supreme, while Damn If I Know (The Way Ahead) follows a similar pattern. Eighteen minutes
of tenor over assorted percussion (The Magic Of Ju-Ju) is either boring or mesmerizing
depending on the listener's stamina, but the unaccompanied Rain Forest made during Shepp's stay in France, 1969-70, is an unqualified master-piece, spinechillingly brutal and tender by turns (Poem For Mal-colm). A great deal of recording went on in 1969 as Paris was seething with expatriate New Thingers like the Art Ensemble Of Chicago and Sunny Murray, and most of the albums for BYG featured extensive sitting-in. MalachiFavors and Philly Joe Jones back the tenor-man, as well as two bluesy har-monica playe:rs, on an album featuring the singer Jeanne Lee (Blase), while Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell, Hank Mobley, Leroy Jen-kins, Anthony Braxton, Noah Howard, Clifford Thornton and Sunny Murray turn up variously on several excellent Shepp dates (Yasmina, A Black Woman, Black Gipsy, Archie Shepp &: Philly Joe Jones and Coral Rock) and during an Algerian festival which also includes Tuareg musi-cians (Live At The Panafrican Festival). Returning to America in 1971, Shepp worked with singer Joe Lee Wilson (Things Have Got To Change and Attica Blues) using some of the practices of Tamla Motown to achieve a broad image of black culture. Recent Shepp re-leases from Europe reveal him to be in great form, and his current group, Charles Greenlea trombone, Dave Burrell piano, Cameron Brown bass and the habitual Beaver Harris on drums, played a magnificent set at the Massy Festival (Shepp A Massy). Archie Shepp's piano playing is interesting, his soprano leaner than his tenor, which remains one of the most commanding sounds in jazz. |
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| Recordings: Cecil Taylor, Air (CBS Barnaby/CBS Barnaby) Cecil Taylor, Into The Hot (Impulse/ Impulse) Bill Dixon-Archie Shepp Quartet (Savoy/-) Archie Shepp &: The New York Contemporary Five (Sonet/ Polydor) Archie Shepp, Four For Trane (Impulse/Impulse) John Coltrane, Ascension (Impulse/Impulse) On This Night (Impulse/Impulse) Live In San Francisco (Impulse/Impulse) Fire Music (Impulse/Impulse) Mama Too Tight (Impulse/Impulse) New Thing At Newport (Impulse/Impulse) Three For A Quarter (Impulse/Impulse) The Way Ahead (Impulse/Impulse) The Magic Of Ju- Ju (Impulse/Impulse) One For The Trane (BASF/Saba) Poem For Malcolm (-/BYG - France) Blase (-/BYG - France) Yasmina, A Black Woman (-/BYG - France) Live At The Panafrican Festival (-/BYG-France) Black Gipsy (Prestige/America) Archie Shepp &: Philly Joe Jones (Fantasy/ America) Coral Rock (Prestige/America) Things Have Got To Change (Impulse/Impulse) Attica Blues (Impulse/Impulse) Shepp A Massy (-/Uniteledis - France) Archie Shepp (-/ Hora -Italy) Steam (Enja/ Enja) A Sea Of Faces (-/ Black Saint -Italy) There's A Trumpet In My Soul (Arista Freedom/ Arista Freedom) Live At Montreux (Arista Freedom/ Arista Freedom) Body &: Soul (-/Horo) |
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| Correo: fogones@ships-yachts.com |
