Jazz Articles about Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp Meets Khahil El 'Zabar's Ritual Trio: Conversations

by Jack Bowers
August 1, 1999

I suppose one does mellow with age after all. Time was when I wouldn’t even listen to, let alone review a disc by Archie Shepp and Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio. Now I’m listening, and if not exactly galvanized by the music, I find it far less displeasing than I would have some years ago. Much of it, in fact, is quite good in its own way (although I still believe there’s a tendency in so–called “free Jazz” to blow one’s ...

Archie Shepp: "Something To Live For"

by Glenn Astarita
February 1, 1999

While making every attempt at identifying any inherent musical attributes that result in positive feelings or thoughts, this writer struggled with Archie Shepp’s futile stabs at vocalizing through an array of tried and true jazz standards. Archie Shepp’s place in Modern Jazz history as an innovative stylist and improviser is etched in stone; however, on “Something To Live For” Shepp stumbles through classics such as “My Foolish Heart” and “Georgia On My Mind”. Shepp gets by to some degree when ...

Archie Shepp: Four for Trane

by Robert Spencer
June 1, 1997

This is Archie Shepp’s first album for Impulse (1964); in a gesture of gratitude to the man who got him the gig, he records four Giant Steps -era Coltrane tunes plus one original in an unusual large-ensemble arrangement. It is newly available in a pristine 20-bit remastering.

One listen to this album reveals the debt Shepp owes not only to Coltrane but to Mingus. The group sound here, although Shepp’s ensemble is smaller, recalls nothing more than Mingus’ Impulse recordings ...