Joe Lee Wilson

Archie Shepp - Things Have Got To Change (1971) {Impulse! Japan MVCI-23081 rel 1992}
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© 1971, 1992 Impulse! / MCA Victor Japan | MVCI-23081
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Soul Jazz / Saxophone

Things Have Got To Change is wonderful post-Paris work from Archie Shepp – a record that has him bringing more focus back into his work after sessions overseas – and also making some great use of the legendary Joe Lee Wilson on vocals! There's a feeling here that's a real change for Shepp, but a great one too – a sound that's trying to reach new levels of expression in jazz – with a bit less of the sharp edges of the 60s, and more of the warmer, more righteous modes of the post-Coltrane generation.

Archie Shepp Attica Blues Big Band - Live At The Palais Des Glaces (1979) {2CD Set Blue Marge 1001 rel 2004}
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© 1979, 2004 Terrones / Blue Marge | 1001
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Experimental Big Band / Fusion / Hard Bop / Jazz-Funk / Saxophone

From the outset, Archie Shepp's terminally misunderstood Attica Blues on Impulse during the 1970s was an attempt by the saxophonist and composer to bring together the various kinds of African American musics under one heading and have them all express the conscience of the day. His ensemble featured singers, string players, horns, drums, guitars, etc. The sounds were a Gordian knot of jazz, free music, R&B, soul, groove, and even funk. In 1979 Shepp was given the opportunity to realize the project with an ensemble of his choosing at the Palais des Glaces in Paris (New York was already courting Wimpton Marsalis). Shepp chose 30 musicians and director/conductor Ray Copeland. Among the throng were saxophonists Marion Brown, John Purcell, Patience Higgins, and John Ware.

Viva Caruso is easily one of tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano's most ambitious and enjoyable recordings. Much like Terence Blanchard's Jazz in Film or Uri Caine's Urlicht/Primal Light, Viva Caruso finds the reedman adapting orchestral melodies and harmonies to a jazz format. Inspired after reading a biography about Italian tenor and opera legend Enrico Caruso, Lovano spent most of 2000 through 2001 researching Caruso's music and developing this project. There is a progressive, third stream appeal to Viva Caruso, with the various instruments laying down intricate counter-melodies and liquid, pulsating rhythms. For example, "Vesto La Giubba" from Pagliacci is slowed down here into a kind of folk-jazz meditation, not unlike something Dave Douglas' Tiny Bell Trio might do. Likewise, "Campane a Sera" features a pretty flute introduction to a very mid-'50s, Stan Kenton-style arrangement, and Gerald Wilson could very easily have scored "Soltano a Te" with its characteristically West Coast, neo-phonic horn sounds.