Jazz Articles about Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp: Attica Blues

by Trevor MacLaren
November 2, 2004

Archie Shepp Attica Blues Impulse! 1972

In November of 2004, the world stage is set on the American election. In a post-9/11 world the masses have become paranoid, tense and angry. At the forefront is George W. Bush's foreign policy. Thirty years ago artists found themselves in a similar plight with Richard M. Nixon's home and foreign policies as well. With the push of attack in Vietnam, the murders at Kent State and violence ...

Archie Shepp: Tomorrow will be Another Day

by Florence Wetzel
July 25, 2004

Archie Shepp is in fine form on his latest CD, Tomorrow will be Another Day. The New Archie Shepp Quartet is an excellent group composed of Shepp on tenor, soprano and vocals, Amina Claudine Myers on piano and vocals, Cameron Brown on bass and Ronnie Burrage on drums and wave drum. The recording is a nice mix of songs and moods, and the combination of Shepp and Myers is formidable: both are strong performers with long histories, and their collaboration ...

Archie Shepp: The Cry of My People

by David Rickert
June 10, 2004

Archie Shepp is an artist whose work, while not always successful, nevertheless remains compelling and worth a listen. The Cry of My People is not his best effort, but one can respect his maverick approach to jazz scholarship that resists classification and challenges the notion of what can be defined as jazz. This album comes from a period in the early seventies where Shepp was absorbing all manner of black music from gospel to blues to Ellington into his compositions. ...

A Fireside Chat with Archie Shepp

by AAJ Staff
February 21, 2004

I have read Archie Shepp described as “radical," “controversial," or “disturbing." Why? What is so “disturbing" about speaking your mind about subjects beyond the music? And why should writers even be focusing on Shepp's political views anyway? He is first and foremost an artist and as one, we should judge him by his discography, not his politics. I have always been challenged by the tenor, who was immortalized in the 1965 Newport Jazz Festival concert recording, New Thing at Newport. ...

Archie Shepp: I Know About The Life

by AAJ Staff
October 3, 2003

When a jazz musician goes from avant energy music toward age-old standards, the move is usually viewed in one of two ways. Either the artist receives criticism as a traitor who backed off from a forward vision, or he earns respect for moving the spirit of his music in a new direction. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp has seen more than his share of both. Purity is in the ear of the beholder, it seems.

Shepp's quartet date I ...

Archie Shepp: I Know About the Life

by Robert Spencer
September 25, 2003

I Know About the Life is a 1981 recording, now happily reissued by that splendid avatar of avant-garde music, Werner X. Uehlinger of Hat Hut Records. The rap on Shepp is that after his moment of glory in the Sixties and his no-holds-barred Impulse discs, he lost his edge, or his interest, or his nerve, and retreated. He himself is on record saying that avant-garde music was not commercially viable, and that he wanted to make some music that his ...

Archie Shepp: Fire Music

by Robert Gilbert
November 3, 2002

Some of the most exciting jazz albums to listen to are those that try to strike a middle ground between the mainstream and the Avant-garde. One such example is Archie Shepp’s Fire Music : an often-fascinating album, rich in compositional and improvisational prowess. Employing a sextet including drummer Joe Chambers and alto saxophonist Marion Brown, Shepp puts together a record that is both challenging and accessible to most listeners.

Fire Music ’s masterpiece is undoubtedly “Hambone.” A ...