Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp, byname of Archie Vernon Shepp, is an American tenor saxophonist, composer, dramatist, teacher, and pioneer of the free jazz movement, known not only for his creative improvisation and colourful sound but also for his Afrocentric approach to music.
Archie Shepp, byname of Archie Vernon Shepp, is an American tenor saxophonist, composer, dramatist, teacher, and pioneer of the free jazz movement, known not only for his creative improvisation and colourful sound but also for his Afrocentric approach to music.
The Way Ahead - Kwanza - The Magic of Ju-Ju, revisited
Allow me to expand on a much restated quote from Albert Ayler: "Coltrane was The Father, Pharoah was The Son, and I was...The Holy Ghost.” If we remain with the Christian iconography, that makes Archie Shepp, Simon Peter, or the Apostle Peter whom Jesus called the rock upon which he built his church. Christened by his tenure in the early 1960s with Cecil Taylor, Shepp was baptized into what we now call a modernist approach. In meeting Coltrane, a man always searching for a purity of sound, Shepp…
Fire Music To Mama Too Tight, Revisited
'Jost may have had Fire Music and Mama Too Tight in mind when he suggested that by 1965 Shepp spoke “basically two musical languages whose grammar and syntax had hardly any- thing in common.” This reflected the commentariat’s insistence that a chasm existed between free jazz and mainstream jazz practices, and, implicitly, between the New Wave in Jazz and the New Breed led by James Brown. What was revolutionary about Shepp’s music is that it rejected the underlying binary, and embraced an inclusi…
Rufus
A memorable session in August 1963 when in the hot New York, John Tchicai - alto sax, Archie Shepp - tenor sax, Don Moore - double bass and J.C. Moses - drums, met each other. Four young lions of the New Thing struggling with scratchy themes and a lot of highly contagious rhythms.
Live in Paris (1974) Lost ORTF Recordings - LP
Another absolutely mind-blowing gem from Transversales Disques, Archie Shepp's "Live in Paris (1974) Lost ORTF Recordings" is some of the best jazz of the era that almost no one ever heard. Fully mastered from the original tapes and capturing one of the great giants of free jazz in a crucial moment of change - tracing toward funkier, fusion tinged compositions, and more straight ahead bop at the boundaries of spiritual jazz - the historical importance and raw beauty of these never before release…
Blase and Yasmina Revisited
Temporary Super Offer! The sessions Archie Shepp led for BYG over five days in August 1969 is a body of work that merits revisiting outside the context of the entire Actuel series and the well-trodden trope of the African American avant-garde in radical Paris. The resulting albums were not ad hoc firestorms: rather, they were considered statements mirroring the pan-stylistic of his Impulse! albums. Shepp's BYG are occasionally framed as somewhat anomalous items on his discography, but their subj…
Free Jazz Communism
Rab-Rab Press announces the publication of Free Jazz Communism, a new book actualising Archie Shepp–Bill Dixon Quartet at the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki 1962. Including archive material and documents, commissioned theoretical and historical texts, and interviews, the book edited by Sezgin Boynik and Taneli Viitahuhta contextualizes politics of free jazz music in light of global decolonisation movements, anti-war activism, structures of racial capitalism, and forms of av…
The Tradition
"Alternative Fox present a reissue of Archie Shepp's The Tradition, originally released in 1978. Avant-garde giant Archie Shepp made an indelible contribution to experimental jazz. Double-LP The Tradition was recorded in Rome in 1977 for Horo Records with drummer Clifford Jarvis and bassist Cameron Brown; the raucous Hooray For Mal has shades of be-bop, while Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Lady is largely tackled by Shepp on upright piano (with gorgeous soloing by Brown); Things Have Got To Chan…
Live at the Panafrican Festival
**2019 Repress, 51st volume in the BYG Actuel series, gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl** "Striking live performances recorded at the first Panafrican Festival in Algiers during July of 1969. Archie Shepp with a stellar line-up including Clifford Thornton, Grachan Moncur III, Dave Burrell, Alan Silva, Sunny Murray and poets Ted Joans and Don Lee teaming up with Algerian and Touareg musicians for some wonderful and haunting ethno new jazz."
Yasmina, a Black Woman
2013 repress; Fourth volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "A great recording session for the French BYG Actuel label dated August 12, 1969. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp met up with members of the Chicago avant-garde school including Art Ensemble of Chicago members Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors. Featuring also Dave Burrell, Sunny Murray, Philly Joe Jones, Art Taylor, Clifford Thornton, Earl Freeman among the others."
A Sea of Faces
Recorded in Milan (Italy) and originally released in 1975, Sea of Faces stands as one of Archie Shepp's strongest recordings of the Seventies. A highly varied program, covering Shepp's entire spectrum and performed by an all-star line-up featuring Archie Shepp - tenor & soprano sax, piano, vocals, Charles Greenlee - trombone, tambourine, vocals, Dave Burrell - piano, Cameron Brown - bass, Beaver Harris - drums, tambourine, vocals, Rafi Taha - vocals, Bunny Foy - vocals, maracas, percussion. The …
Attica Blues / Quiet Dawn
Previously Japan-only 7” featuring two tracks originally released on Archie Shepp's 1972 classic soul-jazz LP, Attica Blues. A powerful mix of psychedelic soul and jazz that retains Shepp’s political sentiment of his earlier works. Attica Blues is a huge funk-soul composition, referring to a mass shooting of inmates at Attica Prison. Henry Hull's vocal sits on top of bass, layered percussion, wah-wah guitars, plus large horn and string sections to create a massive sound. The big band, almost sou…
Live In San Francisco
A great counterpart to some of Archie Shepp's studio albums for Impulse – a live date recorded in San Francisco, with a slightly freer, sharper edge! The sound is almost free at times, but always with that strong sense of focus that Archie brought to his brilliant work of the time – and the group's a well-honed ensemble who really understand each others motivations and inspirations – Roswell Rudd on trombone, Donald Garrett and Lewis Worrell on bass, and Beaver Harris on drums – all almost worki…
The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet
Jeanne Dielman present a reissue of The Archie Shepp & Bill Dixon Quartet, originally released in 1962. The debut as a leader for both Archie Shepp and Bill Dixon, two formidable members of the free jazz and avant-garde elite. Rounding out the quartet are bassists Reggie Workman and Don Moore, and drummers Paul Cohen and Howard McRae, each on various tracks. While the album undoubtedly swings, this piano-less quartet definitely prefigures the trailblazing free jazz work the two leaders would …
Live In Antibes (Vol. 1)
38th volume in the BYG Actuel series; gatefold sleeve, 180 gram vinyl. "Super live recordings (dated July 18 and July 20, 1970) captured in France at the Antibes-Juan Les Pins Jazz Festival. Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble (including Allen Shorter, Clifford Thornton, Joseph DeJean, Beb Guerin and Claude Delcloo) playing four long and really intense tracks."
Live At The Donaueschingen Music Festival
2015 restock / Recorded live at the "Donaueschingen Musiktage 1967", October 21st, 1967. "This is an exciting album. The important tenor Archie Shepp and his 1967 group -- with both Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur on trombones, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Beaver Harris -- romp through the continuous 43-and-a-half-minute "One for the Trane" before an enthusiastic audience at a German music festival. Although he improvises very freely and with great intensity, Shepp surprised the crowd by …
The Magic Of Ju-Ju
Gatefold 180 gram reissue of tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp's 1967 "tour de force." "...combining free jazz tenor with steady frenetic African drumming. Shepp's emotional and fiery tenor takes off immediately, gradually morphing with the five percussionists -- Beaver Harris, Norman Connor, Ed Blackwell, Frank Charles, and Dennis Charles -- who perform on instruments including rhythm logs and talking drums. Shepp never loses the initial energy, moving forward like a man possessed as the dr…