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Archie Shepp
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Archie Vernon Shepp |
| Artist: Archie Shepp |
Similar Artists:
Frank Wright,
Pharoah Sanders,
David Murray,
Noah Howard,
Roscoe Mitchell,
Marion Brown,
John Tchicai,
Frank Lowe,
Joseph Jarman,
Gato Barbieri,
Albert Ayler
Influenced By:
Ornette Coleman,
Charlie Parker,
John Coltrane,
Coleman Hawkins,
Ben Webster,
Cecil Taylor,
Sonny Rollins
Followers:
David Murray,
Sirone,
Brian Glick ,
Jan Garbarek,
Ganelin Trio,
Dave Burrell,
Dudu Pukwana,
Fredrik Nordström ,
John Sinclair
Performed Songs By:
Billy Strayhorn,
Thelonious Monk,
Charles "Majeed" Greenlee,
Duke Ellington,
Kahil El'Zabar,
Grachan Moncur III,
Jasper van't Hof,
Irving Mills,
Mal Waldron,
Horace Silver,
Tadd Dameron
Worked With:
Bob Thiele,
Buell Neidlinger,
Cameron Brown ,
Denis Charles,
Clifford Jarvis,
Jimmy Garrison,
Siegfried Kessler ,
Clifford Thornton,
Roswell Rudd,
Sunny Murray,
Beaver Harris,
Dave Burrell
Formal Connection With:
- Born: May 24, 1937, Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Jazz
- Instrument: Sax (Tenor), Sax (Soprano), Vocals
- Representative Albums: "Four for Trane," "Fire Music," "The Cry of My People"
- Representative Songs: "The Girl from Ipanema," "Rufus (Swung His Face At Last," "Mama Too Tight"
Biography
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. Shepp continued to tour and record throughout the '90s and '00s. Moving from provocative free-jazz icon in his youth to elder jazz journeyman in his latter years, Shepp has appeared on a variety of labels over the years including Impulse, Byg, Arista/Freedom, Phonogram, Steeplechase, Denon, Enja, EPM, and Soul Note. ~ Ron Wynn & Scott Yanow, All Music Guide| Discography: Archie Shepp |
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| Wikipedia: Archie Shepp |
| Archie Shepp | |
|---|---|
 Archie Shepp live at Jazzkeller Frankfurt 1993
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| Background information | |
| Born | May 24, 1937 Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupations | Composer, saxophonist, pianist |
| Instruments | Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, piano |
| Years active | 1960-present |
| Labels | Impulse!, SteepleChase Arista, Delmark |
| Associated acts | John Coltrane Horace Parlan |
| Website | www.archieshepp.com |
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is a prominent African-American jazz saxophonist.[1] Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by the African race, 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.[1]
Shepp also writes for theater; his works include The Communist (1965) and Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy (1972). Both were produced by Robert Kalfin and the Chelsea Theater Center.
Contents |
Biography
Early life and career
Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied piano, clarinet and alto saxophone before focusing on tenor saxophone (he occasionally plays soprano saxophone and piano). Shepp studied drama at Goddard College from 1955 to 1959, but he eventually turned to music professionally.
He played in a Latin jazz band for a short time before joining the band of avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor. Shepp appeared on Taylor's albums Air, The World of Cecil Taylor and Cell Walk for Celeste.
1960s
Shepp's first recording under his own name, Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet, was released on Savoy Records in 1962, and featured a composition by Ornette Coleman.[2] Further links to Coleman came with the establishment of the New York Contemporary Five, which included Don Cherry. John Coltrane's admiration led to recordings for Impulse Records, the first of which was Four for Trane in 1964, an album of mainly Coltrane compositions on which he was sided by his long-time friend, trombonist Roswell Rudd, bassist Reggie Workman and alto player John Tchicai. The album Giant Steps had been one of Coltrane's best-known.
Shepp participated in the sessions for Coltrane's A Love Supreme in early 1965, but none of the takes he participated in were included on the final LP release (they were made available for the first time on a 2002 reissue). [1] However, Shepp, along with Tchicai and others from the Four for Trane sessions, then cut
In 1965, Shepp released Fire Music, which included the first signs of his increasingly prominent political consciousness and Afrocentricity; it included the reading of an elegy for Malcolm X, and the title is derived from a ceremonial African music tradition. [1]
The Magic of Ju-Ju in 1967 also took its name from African musical traditions, and this time the music dived headlong into the continent's music, utilising an African percussion ensemble. At this time, many African-American jazzmen were increasingly influenced by various continental African cultural and musical traditions; along with Pharoah Sanders, Shepp was at the forefront of this movement. The Magic of Ju-Ju defined Shepp's sound for the next few years: freeform avant-garde saxophone lines coupled with the rhythms and ideologies of Africa.
1970s and after
Shepp continued to experiment into the new decade, at various times including harmonica players and spoken word poets in his ensembles. With 1972's Attica Blues and The Cry of My People, meanwhile, he spoke out for civil rights; the former album was a response to the Attica Prison riots. [1]
Beginning in 1971, Shepp began a 30-year career as a professor of music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Shepp's first two courses were entitled "Revolutionary Concepts in African-American Music" and "Black Musician in the Theater."[3] Shepp was also a professor of African American Studies at SUNY in Buffalo, New York.[4]
In the late 1970s and beyond, Shepp's career went between various old territories and various new ones. He continued to explore African music, while also recording blues, ballads, spirituals (on the 1977 album Goin' Home with Horace Parlan) and tributes to more traditional jazz figures like Charlie Parker and Sidney Bechet, while at other times dabbling in R&B, and recording with various European artists like Jasper van't Hof, Tchangodei and Dresch Mihály. Since the early 1990s, he has often played with the French trumpet player Eric Le Lann, with whom he recorded the album Live in Paris in 1995.
In 2004 Archie Shepp founded his own record label named Archieball together with Monette Berthomier. The Label is located in Paris/France and features works and collaboration with the following musicians Jacques Coursil, Monica Passos, Bernard Lubat and Frank Cassenti.
Discography
As leader
- 1964: Four for Trane
- 1965: Fire Music
- 1965: On This Night
- 1965: New Thing at Newport
- 1966: Archie Shepp Live in San Francisco
- 1966: Three for a Quarter, One for a Dime
- 1966: Mama Too Tight
- 1967: The Magic of Ju-Ju
- 1968: The Way Ahead
- 1968: For Losers
- 1969: Kwanza
- 1971: Things Have Got to Change
- 1972: Attica Blues
- 1972: The Cry of My People
- 1979: Bird Fire: A Tribute To Charlie Parker
- 1981: Passport To Paradise: Archie Shepp plays Sydney Bechet
- 1982: Mama Rose
- 1984: Archie Shepp and Jeanne Lee
- 1995: Sophisticated Lady
- 1975: There's a Trumpet in My Soul
- 1975: Montreux One
- 1975: Montreux Two
- 1969: Live at the Pan-African Festival
- 1969: Yasmina, a Black Woman
- 1969: Poem for Malcolm
- 1969: Blasé
- 1970: Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble
- 1977: Ballads for Trane
- 1977: Day Dream
- 1977: On Green Dolphin Street
- 1978: Duet with Dollar Brand
- 1978: Live in Tokyo
- 1977: Parisian Concert Vols. 1 & 2
- 1977: Live in Europe
- 1979: Invitation (Siegfried Kessler Trio featuring Archie Shepp)
- 1963: The House I Live In with Lars Gullin
- 1980: Trouble in Mind with Horace Parlan
- 1977: Goin' Home with Horace Parlan
- 1981: Looking at Bird with Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen
- 1975: Body and Soul
- 1975: Jazz a Confronto 27
- 1975: Mariamar
- 1977: In the Tradition
- 1975: A Sea of Faces
- 1982: Soul Song
- 1985: Little Red Moon
- 1985: California Meeting: Live on Broadway
- 1991: I Didn't Know About You
- 1995: Lover Man
- 1997: Something to Live For
- 2000: Black Ballads
- 1969: Black Gipsy
- 1970: Pitchin Can
- 1970: Archie Shepp & Philly Joe Jones
- 1972: Coral Rock
- 1984: African Moods
- 1984: Devil Blues
- 1984: Tenor Saxes
- 1985: Passion
- 1987: En concert: 1st set
- 1987: En concert: 2nd set
- 1989: En concert à Banlieues Bleues
- 1975: Bijou
- Witness
- Other labels
- 1962: Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet (Savoy Records)
- 1970: Doodlin' (Inner City)
- 1975: U-Jaama (Unite) (Uniteledis)
- 1976: Steam (Enja)
- 1976: Hi-Fly (Compendium) with Karin Krog
- 1976: Force: Sweet Mao - Suid Africa '76 (Uniteledis) with Max Roach
- 1977: The Rising Sun Collection (Just a Memory)
- 1977: A Touch of the Blues (Fluid) with Joe Lee Wilson
- 1995: Blue Ballads With John Hicks (piano), George Mraz (bass) and Billy Drammond (drums)
- 2001: Live in New York (reunion concert with Roswell Rudd)
- 2002: Hungarian Bebop (with Mihály Dresch Quartet (BMC Records)
As sideman
With Cecil Taylor
- The World of Cecil Taylor (1960)
- Air (1960)
- Cell Walk for Celeste (1961)
- Jumpin' Punkins (1961)
- New York City R&B (1961)
With the New York Contemporary Five
- Consequences (Fontana, 1963)
- Rufus (Fontana, 1963) without Don Cherry
- New York Contemporary Five Vol. 1 (Sonet, 1963)
- New York Contemporary Five Vol. 2 (Sonet, 1963)
- Bill Dixon 7-tette/Archie Shepp and the New York Contemporary 5 (Savoy, 1964) (One side of LP)
With John Coltrane
Ascension (1965)- The Major Works of John Coltrane (1965)
- A Love Supreme (1965)
With Dave Burrell
- Echo (1969)
With Material
- One Down (1982)
Filmography
Shepp is featured in the 1981 documentary film Imagine the Sound, in which he discusses and performs his music and poetry.
Shepp also appears in Mystery, Mr. Ra, a 1984 French documentary about Sun Ra. The film also includes footage of Shepp playing with Sun Ra's Arkestra.
References
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Force: Sweet Mao - Suid Africa '76 (1976 Album by Max Roach) |
| Hi-Fly (1976 Album by Karin Krog) |
| There's a Trumpet in My Soul (1975 Album by Archie Shepp) |
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 | Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Artist. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Archie Shepp". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Force: Sweet Mao - Suid Africa '76 (1976 Album by Max Roach)
- Hi-Fly (1976 Album by Karin Krog)
- There's a Trumpet in My Soul (1975 Album by Archie Shepp)
- The Fifth of May (1987 Album by Archie Shepp with Jasper Van't Holf)
- Horace Parlan By Horace Parlan (Music Film)
- Archie Shepp: The Geneva Concert (1994 Film)
- Live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival (1968 Album by Archie Shepp)
- Montreux, Vol. 2 (1975 Album by Archie Shepp)
- Looking at Bird (1980 Album by Archie Shepp)
- Jumpin' Punkins (1961 Album by Cecil Taylor)
- The Rising Sun Collection (1977 Album by Archie Shepp)
- Keystone Trio (Jazz Band, '90s)
- Live in Tokyo (1971 Album by Albert Mangelsdorff)
- Soul Song (1982 Album by Archie Shepp)
