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| 6.554 Ft
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| 1. | Le Matin Des Noire
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| 2. | Lush Life
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| 3. | Don't Get Around Much Anymore
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| 4. | Steam
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| 5. | Misterioso/California Blues
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| 6. | Ujaama
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Jazz / Free Jazz, Avant-Garde Jazz
Archie Shepp - Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor)
Siegfried Kessler - Piano
This is the first release from a new label dedicated to the music of Archie Shepp. At this point in his career, the saxophonist's output has shown a serious lack of consistency, but this meeting between two longtime accomplices proves that he can still deliver. Originally, this was German pianist Siegfried Kessler's live date, and Kessler incidentally decided to invite Shepp. As his excellent recordings with Horace Parlan also bear witness, the saxophonist seems to entertain a special relationship with pianists. He met Kessler in the late '60s and this date gives them the opportunity to revisit some themes that they have often played together, such as the opener, an epic rendition of "Les Matins Noirs," which features Shepp on soprano and is alone worth the price of admission. His raw and emotional blowing is instantly gripping. Elsewhere, he remains in full command of his instrument, constantly switching from tenor to soprano, and delivers some beautifully heartfelt and expressive lines -- he has seldom sounded so moving and dramatic. Kessler can be economical, which always leaves many options to the saxophonist, but what strikes most is his percussive style sustained with a very strong left hand. On most tracks, Shepp sings and his smoky voice has enough endearing power to overcome its limitations. While First Take is far from the innovations and urgency of Shepp's early recordings, it is a fine addition to the saxophonist's collection. ~ Alain Drouot, All Music Guide
Archie Shepp
Active Decades: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: May 24, 1937 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Genre: Jazz
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. Shepp studied dramatic literature at Goddard College, earning his degree in 1959. He played alto sax in dance bands and sought theatrical work in New York. But Shepp switched to tenor, playing in several free jazz bands. He worked with Cecil Taylor, co-led groups with Bill Dixon and played in the New York Contemporary Five with Don Cherry and John Tchicai. He led his own bands in the mid-'60s with Roswell Rudd, Bobby Hutcherson, Beaver Harris, and Grachan Moncur III. His Impulse albums included poetry readings and quotes from James Baldwin and Malcolm X. Shepp's releases sought to paint an aural picture of African-American life, and included compositions based on incidents like Attica or folk sayings. He also produced plays in New York, among them The Communist in 1965 and Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy in 1972 with trumpeter/composer Cal Massey. But starting in the late '60s, the rhetoric was toned down and the anger began to disappear from Shepp's albums. He substituted a more celebratory, and at times reflective attitude. Shepp turned to academia in the late '60s, teaching at SUNY in Buffalo, then the University of Massachusetts. He was named an associate professor there in 1978. Shepp toured and recorded extensively in Europe during the '80s, cutting some fine albums with Horace Parlan, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, and Jasper van't Hof. He has recorded extensively for Impulse, Byg, AristaFreedom, Phonogram, Steeplechase, Denon, Enja, EPM, and Soul Note among others over the years. Unfortunately his tone declined from the mid-'80s on (his highly original sound was his most important contribution to jazz), and Shepp became a less significant figure in the 1990s than one might have hoped.
---Ron Wynn & Scott Yanow, All Music Guide |
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