Shepp Cunningham

Archie Shepp - True Blue (1998) {Venus Records VHCD-2023}
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© 1998 Venus Records | VHCD-2023
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Saxophone

This 1998 studio recording by tenor sax legend Archie Shepp is a study in blues and ballads as the title might suggest, but it also marks the return of Shepp as a true bandleader. With pianist John Hicks, drummer Billy Drummond, and bassist George Mraz, Shepp sounds more inspired here than he has in literally decades. There is no crutch-like reliance on hard bop and blues stylings, nor is there any over-the-shoulder tosses at being the king of the avant-garde. Instead Shepp focuses on what he does best: being a fine stylist and one of the great blues phraseologists in the business. Opening with Coltrane's "Lonnie's Lament," Shepp goes one better than just saluting his old boss – he reharmonizes the tune and slows it down, making it a true elegy.

Archie Shepp has been at various times a feared firebrand and radical, soulful throwback and contemplative veteran. He was viewed in the '60s as perhaps the most articulate and disturbing member of the free generation, a published playwright willing to speak on the record in unsparing, explicit fashion about social injustice and the anger and rage he felt. His tenor sax solos were searing, harsh, and unrelenting, played with a vivid intensity. But in the '70s, Shepp employed a fatback/swing-based R&B approach, and in the '80s he mixed straight bebop, ballads, and blues pieces displaying little of the fury and fire from his earlier days.

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.

Archie Shepp & Mal Waldron - Left Alone Revisited (2002) {Enja Records ENJA CD 9141-2}
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© 2002 Enja Records | ENJA CD 9141-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Saxophone / Piano

The duo of Archie Shepp and Mal Waldron come together beautifully here – in a mode that echoes some of the duets that pianist Waldron recorded with other reedmen in the 70s and 80s, but which has an especially wonderful contribution from Shepp! Archie blows both tenor and soprano sax – and the warmth of his horn in later years is really perfect here – especially as the album's sometime of an update of Waldron's earlier Left Alone classic, recorded after the death of Billie Holiday at the end of the 50s. As with that one, the tunes here include some numbers very strongly tied to Billie's legacy, but the vibe is very different, and very personal along the lines of the spirit of Shepp and Waldron.

Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA) is an African-American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African people, as well as for his work with The New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and his collaborations with his "New Thing" contemporaries, most notably Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane.

John Coltrane and Archie Shepp - New Thing at Newport (1965) {2000 Impulse!}
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© 2000 UMG / Verve / Impulse! | 314 543 414-2
Jazz / Post Bop / Hard Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz

The classic John Coltrane Quartet made one of its final appearances at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1965. The tension among bandmembers is evident on the advanced versions of "One Down, One Up" and "My Favorite Things." Coltrane's performance is moving…yet weary. It's apparent the saxophonist wasn't getting the sound he wanted and by the end of the year he would take a different direction, hiring Pharoah Sanders and wife Alice Coltrane for the band. Tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp's earlier afternoon New Thing performance includes engaging versions of "Call Me by My Rightful Name" and "Gingerbread, Gingerbread Boy" (included as a bonus track on this package) with Bobby Hutcherson on vibes.

In their series of Jazz greats, TDK release on DVD the first part of a jazz night in Torino in 1977 with famed sax player Archie Shepp and his Quartet. Archie Shepp was much discussed among jazz fans during the 1970s as it was becoming increasingly clear that a profound change was taking place in his approach to music and even his physical appearance. For years he had been the embodiment of black resistance, dressing in traditional African garments and protesting against the suppression of black people. But now he was wearing suits and had given up his free style of playing in favour of interpretations of known pieces from the jazz tradition. Inevitably, the changes upset some people and pleased others. But Shepp never made it easy to judge him, and ignoring the talk he went ahead on his straight path, which had already led him to a place among the jazz greats while he was still a young man.

Archie Shepp Quartet feat. Annette Lowman - Lover Man (1988) {2015 Japan Timeless Jazz Master Collection Complete Series}
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© 1988, 2015 Timeless Records / Solid Records Japan / Ultra-Vibe | CDSOL-6356
Jazz / Bop / Modern Post Bebop / Saxophone / Vocal Jazz / Jazz Blues

Reissue with the latest remastering. Features original cover artwork. Comes with a descripton in Japanese. A real gem from the great Archie Shepp – an overlooked treasure from his years as a straight jazz musician – a time we come to appreciate more and more as the years go by! The Shepp heard here is one who's still got all the raw tone and bite of the old days, but also finds a way to swing things on a set of familiar standards – so that he's cutting these great raspy lines out of tunes you might already know – but which are taking on a whole new life in the process.