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Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd: Live In New York
by AAJ Staff
It's been more than three decades since saxophonist Archie Shepp and trombonist Roswell Rudd recorded together, and Live In New York reunites them in a perfect setting: live performance. To get the record clear, these two players helped bear the flag for free jazz during its dimmest, darkest years: the period from the end of the '60s till the present. With this all-star band, every musician brings mastery to the ensemble. The inclusion of the Grachan Moncur's second voice on ...
Continue ReadingRoswell Rudd / Archie Shepp: Live in New York
by John Stevenson
The year was 1994. The venue: the Eilat Red Sea Jazz Festival. Hundreds of sweltering Jazz aficionados waited in a huge converted cargo shed to witness reedman Archie Shepp and his quartet--a marquee coup for the Israeli festival. When Shepp swaggered onto the stage, the more discerning members of the audience (including this reviewer) could scarcely conceal their disappointment. Here was the 1960s hero of radical Jazz conservatively bedecked in two--piece gray suit and tie. He might as well have ...
Continue ReadingThe Archie Shepp / Lars Gullin Quintet: The House I Live In
by Jack Bowers
Nearly four decades have passed since this nightclub date in Copenhagen was recorded, and I still haven’t caught up with Archie Shepp. Perhaps I never will. Shepp, who never met a squeak, squawk, grunt or growl he didn’t like, is paired with Sweden’s Lars Gullin, one of the most restrained and lyrical baritone saxophonists of his era. How they ever got together is a mystery to me. Talk about your odd couples! On the one hand we have Gullin, struggling ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: St. Louis Blues
by AAJ Staff
Saxophonist Archie Shepp defined his '60s sound with avant energy and melodic freedom, but he's mellowed quite a bit in the ensuing years. Call it maturity or perspective, but Shepp appears to be more interested these days in a return to fundamentals. On St. Louis Blues, he approaches the blues form with a trio of players who've gone as far “out" as anyone in jazz. Ironically, Richard Davis settles down deep into an old-time blues strut here; and Sunny Murray ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: St. Louis Blues
by AAJ Staff
As one of the most assertive tenor sax voices, and one of the most politically charged voices, of the 1960's, it seemed that Archie Shepp would never mellow. Maybe he hasn't. But his voice isn't front and center, as it was, with aggressiveness and gruffness that posited a controversial statement, whether melodically or verbally. Employing a swirl of references rooted in gospel, blues, the African diaspora, ultimately spirituality, and yet anger and exclamatory pronouncements against oppression and injustice, Archie Shepp ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp: St. Louis Blues
by Mark Corroto
Several recent sightings of the ‘bird’ known as Archie Shepp signal, perhaps, his return to the American dialogue on jazz. Last year, Shepp made a guest appearance on guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly’s African/urban Boom Bop record and the year before he was the featured guest of Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio recording, Conversations. Shepp’s voice in the 1960’s ‘new thing’ in jazz fueled John Coltrane’s Ascension recording, plus those by Cecil Taylor, Max Roach, and the New York Contemporary Five. The fiery ...
Continue ReadingArchie Shepp w/ the Ritual Trio: Conversations
by Derek Taylor
Archie Shepp has long held a special distinction as one of the pioneers of the so-called New Thing in jazz. Possessed of a sharp intellect and a deep pride in his African heritage he was one of the most vocal and uncompromising skeptics, challenging both his peers and himself to question not only musical conventions but societal and cultural ones as well. Kahil El’Zabar’s path has taken a similar course and has been undeniably influenced by the example set by ...
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