― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:45 (nineteen years ago) link
he also described the 'passionless creep' of a solo by miles davis and was subjected to the riposte 'there's only one passionless creep in that sentence and it aint davis' by some wag, somewhere
― debden, Monday, 21 March 2005 11:47 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:53 (nineteen years ago) link
wz a bit tired when I posted that last night but I think that free jazz blowing over singing/raps is so totally unexplored - maybe I ougth to start a thread - maybe it is and I haven't heard enough. That's why that 2 CD set of shepp's is really good to me (and got better as I heard more free stuff and realized the possibilities contained within). xp
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 March 2005 11:58 (nineteen years ago) link
Nice to see Morley citing Centipede in his Polar Bear review in yesterday's OMM. Septober Energy doesn't entirely work but at its best it's a phenomenal thing (esp. side four with its "Hey Jude" singalong over 40-odd horns and strings freaking out).
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 12:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 March 2005 12:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 21 March 2005 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link
― NickB (NickB), Monday, 21 March 2005 14:00 (nineteen years ago) link
the el-p blue series continuum album is definitely worth a listen if you can track down a copy.
(nick b reply)
yep i got sent a copy a couple of months ago. it's a bit like ornette's acoustic quartet gone glitch. the centipede/tortoise link in morley's omm review yesterday was inspired. definitely worth getting.
all of polar bear were on that paul the girl record from a couple of years back which no one seemed to like except me. kind of what i hoped the last pj harvey album would have been like.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 21 March 2005 14:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― mcd (mcd), Monday, 21 March 2005 14:33 (nineteen years ago) link
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 21 March 2005 16:45 (nineteen years ago) link
In a bad way? In a good way? How can this NOT be in a good way? It makes me want to put it on and listen, anyway: it's a great line.
V4l Wilm3r (of all unexpected ppl, given her politix and who SHE interviewed and wrote abt) is always very forgiving of Larkin-the-critic: "He was writing about jazz when almost no one else was in Britain" being the gist of her line on him.
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 March 2005 17:53 (nineteen years ago) link
I'll take Pharoah Sanders or Marion Brown over Archie Shepp. And I'll take Larkin over any US poet/jazz critic...Kerouac? RJ Gleason?
― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 21 March 2005 18:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark s (mark s), Monday, 21 March 2005 18:27 (nineteen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 07:05 (nineteen years ago) link
Gawd-DAMN, that IS great poetry! (*Not that I have a clue about the stuff, o'course.)
"Ralph J. Gleason?!" [scoffs]
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 07:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 07:54 (nineteen years ago) link
Although again, as mark said, it makes him sound GREAT! Immediately makes me think of that infamous "Afro-Blue" from Live At Birdland...
― Stormy Davis (diamond), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 08:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― mcd (mcd), Tuesday, 22 March 2005 15:23 (nineteen years ago) link
― jmeister (jmeister), Friday, 15 April 2005 01:50 (nineteen years ago) link
― m0stly clean (m0stly clean), Friday, 15 April 2005 02:07 (nineteen years ago) link
I'm basically always in the mood for version of Archie. Right now, this one is killing it (although Archie is hardly the only bit of awesomeness):http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vw6OpGtF1Ps/S_O34mz8_SI/AAAAAAAAAFk/fIxm4kaPmpM/s1600/mao1a.jpg
― matt2, Thursday, 14 April 2011 16:37 (thirteen years ago) link
Too bad Shepp and Roach fell out: http://ftp.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/775/775.F2d.452.84-1571.html
― Funky Mustard (People It's Bad) (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 14 April 2011 23:12 (thirteen years ago) link
Is that a duo record?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Friday, 15 April 2011 00:33 (thirteen years ago) link
Yep, it's a duo record.
This week I'm really feeling Life At The Donaueschingen Music Festival: http://www.discogs.com/Archie-Shepp-Life-At-The-Donaueschingen-Music-Festival/release/2425397
Basically a 44 minutes piece entitled "One for the Trane" split across two sides of vinyl. Incredible.
Here's the first side:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H1l7fq6Io0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwW2C4t8PI8
― matt2, Tuesday, 19 April 2011 18:34 (thirteen years ago) link
Mamma Too Tight is way underrated on this thread imo. Apologies if anyone thought this was an obit revive.
― calzino, Wednesday, 14 September 2016 14:20 (seven years ago) link
Magic of Ju-Ju is stellar. Brilliant running-or-cycling-through-busy-city music.
― dinnerboat, Wednesday, 14 September 2016 15:47 (seven years ago) link
thanks for inspiring me to listen to Magic of Ju-Ju yesterday. It ruled.
― I wish you could see my home. It's... it's so... exciting (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 15 September 2016 15:34 (seven years ago) link
Attica Blues is such an odd record. Bizarre to see it praised as his best upthread lol old ilm
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 September 2016 15:39 (seven years ago) link
There's good stuff on it sure, but some p dire stuff too. If I had to pick one it might be Blase tbh.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 September 2016 15:40 (seven years ago) link
So many good ones in the late '60s and early '70s - The Way Ahead, Mama Too Tight, Blasé, The Magic of Ju-Ju, Live in San Francisco, Poem for Malcolm, Yasmina, a Black Woman...one that gets overlooked a lot is Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble, a double LP with Alan Shorter, Clifford Thornton, and a French rhythm section (Joseph Dejean on electric guitar, Beb Guerin on bass, and Claude Delcloo on drums).
― Don Van Gorp, midwest regional VP, marketing (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 15 September 2016 16:05 (seven years ago) link
I think another of his underrated albums is the Three For Freedom twin piano trio one with Waldron/Tchangodei, him and Waldron made a few fine duet albums and worked well together - not that I'm saying they are essential but they are personal faves.
― calzino, Thursday, 15 September 2016 17:07 (seven years ago) link
81 years old today. The Magic of Ju-Ju may be one of the most remarkable tracks cut in the “New Thing” era.
― Scam jam, thank you ma’am (Sparkle Motion), Thursday, 24 May 2018 15:49 (five years ago) link
been on a Shepp revival/new discovery thing lately
3 favorite songs all over 18 minutes:
"A Portrait of Robert Thomson (As a Young Man)""The Magic of Ju-Ju" "Yasmina, A Black Woman"
― nicky lo-fi, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 13:18 (five years ago) link
saw this dude at jazzfest this year, he's so fuckin great
― flamenco blorf (BradNelson), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 18:24 (five years ago) link
I interviewed him back in 2014. It was awesome. I'd love to talk to him again.
― grawlix (unperson), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 18:30 (five years ago) link
That may be the only interview where a) Archie is asked about Bill Dixon, and/or b) he actually mentions Bill Dixon.
Bill would get annoyed because interviewers always asked him about working with Archie; "Did you ever ask Archie about working with me?"
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 13 June 2018 18:39 (five years ago) link
I still love his Three For Freedom lp with Mal Waldron and some mystery 2nd pianist called Tchangodei and the other downbeat and bluesy duo albums with Waldron of which I can't remember the names of!
― calzino, Wednesday, 13 June 2018 19:09 (five years ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/how-jazz-legend-archie-shepp-his-nephew-raw-poetic-and-a-cast-of-dc-musicians-teamed-up-for-an-experimental-improvised-album/2020/05/21/9d6e359c-991a-11ea-a282-386f56d579e6_story.html
The lessons he learned from Shepp’s records were finally put to use last year, when Moore and his octogenarian uncle officially collaborated for the first time during one marathon session at Blue Room Productions in Herndon, Va. The result is “Ocean Bridges,” a fully improvised album on which Moore, Shepp and DJ/producer/drummer/vibraphonist Damu the Fudgemunk (a.k.a. Earl Davis), along with several hip-hop and jazz scene stalwarts of the D.C. region, tap into both of those genres’ more experimental sides and ultimately find a sound that isn’t fully aligned with either one.
― j., Saturday, 23 May 2020 05:45 (three years ago) link
can't wait to hear this and Damu the Fudgemunk is such an inspired moniker!
― calzino, Saturday, 23 May 2020 09:29 (three years ago) link
http://rabrab.fi/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 avant-garde music.By focusing on concerts of Shepp–Dixon Quartet, leading avant-garde jazz musicians from the US, in the socialist anti-colonial festival in Helsinki, the book is introducing complexities in the usual Cold War stories about the sixties, and pictures politics of jazz as something transcending boundaries of nation-state and capitalist market regulations.Apart from the theoretical and historical overview by its editors, the book includes testimonies of the collective and international spirit of the 1962 Youth Festival, translated documents from Finnish press, a new interview with Archie Shepp, commissioned text by Jeff Schwartz on the historical context of political engagement of free jazz musicians, and reproduction of three hard-to-find texts by Shepp.
By focusing on concerts of Shepp–Dixon Quartet, leading avant-garde jazz musicians from the US, in the socialist anti-colonial festival in Helsinki, the book is introducing complexities in the usual Cold War stories about the sixties, and pictures politics of jazz as something transcending boundaries of nation-state and capitalist market regulations.
Apart from the theoretical and historical overview by its editors, the book includes testimonies of the collective and international spirit of the 1962 Youth Festival, translated documents from Finnish press, a new interview with Archie Shepp, commissioned text by Jeff Schwartz on the historical context of political engagement of free jazz musicians, and reproduction of three hard-to-find texts by Shepp.
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 16:29 (three years ago) link
Wow! Thanks for tip on that. Ocean Bridges is indeed the shit, as I carried on about on Rolling Jazz; that and others are on bandcamp: https://bandcamp.com/search?q=Archie%20Shepp (Note to self;check that New York Contemporary 5 Vol. 2)Yeah, also I second Attica Blues, much more varied than you might think from title, ditto Fire Music, also dig Steam, Sea of Faces, Little Red Moon, and the duo albums of vintage material w Horace Parlan, Going Home and Trouble in Mind (more of that in duet w Charlie Haden on CH's The Golden Number).
― dow, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 16:44 (three years ago) link
the contents of the book sound more interesting than the intro which reads like a parody of leftist boilerplate
― Your original display name will be displayed in brackets (Left), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 17:02 (three years ago) link
Requested a review copy of that book; sounds really interesting.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 17:15 (three years ago) link
do love the title track of Mama Too Tight.
― Stevolende, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 21:25 (three years ago) link
aye, sick track is that!
― calzino, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 21:29 (three years ago) link
sick album as well tbf
― calzino, Wednesday, 26 August 2020 21:36 (three years ago) link
portrait of robert thompson is a wild ride
― ... (Left), Wednesday, 26 August 2020 22:20 (three years ago) link
That book on the Helsinki festival is incredibly informative about the (apparently very strong) influence of the new music on early ‘60s Finnish youth culture, and the book is worth it for that contemporary perspective alone. The recent-ish Shepp interviews, however, aren’t particularly revealing, and the obvious question — “Given your stated commitment to political causes, why did you scab on the Jazz Composers Guild, telling the members it was now ‘every person for themselves’?” — goes unasked and unanswered.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 27 August 2020 01:58 (three years ago) link
i see that it's £30 on the rab-rab site, but was €15 on soundohm (now sold out). new copies on amazon start at $75. can anybody find a copy for sale (preferably in USA) for a more reasonable price ?
― budo jeru, Thursday, 27 August 2020 02:57 (three years ago) link
His embouchure was reportedly messed-up for a while, but I missed that, except the first note of his "Memories" solo is odd, but rest of it works (it better, being historical: first released track by Whitney Houston!)
― dow, Thursday, 27 August 2020 04:01 (three years ago) link
I didn't realize he was active (or at least sporadically active) on social media, but here's Shepp back in late March:
https://www.facebook.com/ArchieShepp.official/videos/746995829386346/
― birdistheword, Thursday, 3 September 2020 03:53 (three years ago) link
Can’t believe I ignored Life at the Donaueschingen Music Festival this long
― zacata, Friday, 23 December 2022 14:08 (one year ago) link
Shepp is on two tracks of this new xpost Raw Poetic alb:https://rawpoetic.bandcamp.com/album/space-beyond-the-solar-systemAnd quite a few other joints on Bandcamp, incl. a New York Contemporary Five round-up and their original album: https://bandcamp.com/search?q=Archie%20Shepp
― dow, Friday, 23 December 2022 21:06 (one year ago) link
Shepp’s (and everyone else’s) BYG/Actuel recordings are being reissued, apparently mastered from the original tapes. I recently got the CD of Blasé and it does sound better than the older CD issue (and original BYG vinyl pressings were inconsistent at best).https://bygrecords.bandcamp.comhttps://www.bygrecords.com/actuel-series
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 23 December 2022 22:17 (one year ago) link
At least some of the digital versions of the BYG records were taken from noisy vinyl copies.
― Halfway there but for you, Friday, 23 December 2022 22:32 (one year ago) link