Archie Shepp - Four for Trane (1964)

From 1964, Archie Shepp's first date as a leader featured -- as one would expect from the title -- four tunes by John Coltrane, his mentor, his major influence, and his bandleader. The fact that this album holds up better than almost any of Shepp's records nearly 40 years after the fact has plenty to do with the band he chose for this session, and everything to do with the arranging skills of trombonist Roswell Rudd. The band here is Shepp on tenor, John Tchicai on alto, Rudd on trombone, Trane's bassist Reggie Workman, and Ornette Coleman's drummer Charles Moffett. Even in 1964, this was a powerhouse, beginning with a bluesed-out wailing version of "Syeeda's Song Flute." This version is ingenious, with Shepp allowing Rudd to arrange for solos for himself and Tchicai up front and Rudd punching in the blues and gospel in the middle, before giving way to double time by Workman and Moffett. The rawness of the whole thing is so down-home you're ready to tell someone to pass the butter beans when listening. Rudd's arrangement of "Naima" is also stunningly beautiful: He reharmonizes the piece for the mid-register tone of Shepp, who does his best Ben Webster and adds a microtonal tag onto the front and back, dislocating the tune before it begins and after it ends, while keeping it just out of the range of the consonant throughout. Wonderful! The only Shepp original here is "Rufus (Swung, His Face at Last to the Wind, Then His Neck Snapped)." It's not a terribly sophisticated tune, but it works in the context of this band largely because of the soloing prowess of all the members -- particularly Tchicai -- here. There is barely any melody, the key changes are commensurate with tempo shifts, and the harmonics are of the sliding scale variety. Still, there are the blues; no one can dig into them and honk them better than Shepp. When it came to sheer exuberance and expression, he was a force to be reckoned with in his youth, and it shows in each of the tunes recorded here. Four for Trane is a truly fine, original, and lasting album from an under-celebrated musician.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free Jazz
Hard Bop

Tracks:
01 - Syeeda's Song Flute (8:30)
02 - Mr. Syms (7:41)
03 - Cousin Mary (7:14)
04 - Naima (7:09)
05 - Rufus (Swung His Face At Last To The Wind, Then His Neck Snapped) (6:25)

Line-up:
Archie Shepp - tenor saxophone
Alan Shorter - flugelhorn
Roswell Rudd - trombone
John Tchicai - alto saxophone
Reggie Workman - bass
Charles Moffett - drums

Archie Shepp - Mama too Tight (1966)

The octet Archie Shepp surrounded himself with in 1966 was filled with new and old faces. The twin trombones of Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III embodied this, but so did bassist Charlie Haden and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, while familiar figures like drummer Beaver Harris and tubaist Howard Johnson had been part of Shepp's regular band. There are four tracks on Mama Too Tight, all of them in some way acting as extensions of the opening three-part suite, "A Portrait of Robert Thomson (As a Young Man)." Shepp had hit his stride here compositionally. The track is, at first, a seeming free jazz blowout, but then traces the history of jazz, gospel, and blues through its three sections. Certainly there is plenty of atonality, but there is plenty of harmonic and rhythmic invention too. The piece, almost 19 minutes in length, has an intricate architecture that uses foreshadowing techniques and complex resolution methods. The title track is a post-bop blues swinger with a killer front-line riff turning in and out as the trombones go head to head. And finally, "Basheer," with its Eastern modality that transposes itself toward blues and folk music, becomes a statement on the transitional ties the '60s were ushering in musically. Here again, lots of free blowing, angry bursts of energy, and shouts of pure revelry are balanced with Ellingtonian elegance and restraint that was considerable enough to let the lyric line float through and encourage more improvisation. This is Shepp at his level best.

by Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free Jazz

Tracks:
01 - A Portrait Of Robert Thompson: A. Prelude to a Kiss / B. The Break Strain-King Cotton / C. Dem Basses (18:57)
02 - Mama Too Tight (5:25)
03 - Theme for Ernie (3:21)
04 - Basheer (10:38)

Line-up:
Archie Shepp: tenor saxophone
Tommy Turrentine: trumpet
Grachan Moncur III: trombone
Roswell Rudd: trombone
Howard Johnson: tuba
Perry Robinson: clarinet
Charlie Haden: bass
Beaver Harris: drums

Charlie Haden - Liberation Music Orchestra (1969)

A fascinating reissue that comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing. Haden leads the charge and contributes material, but the real star here may in fact be Carla Bley, who arranged numbers, wrote several, and contributed typically brilliant piano work. Also of particular note in a particularly talented crew is guitarist Sam Brown, the standout of "El Quinto Regimiento/Los Cuatro Generales/Viva la Quince Brigada," a 21-minute marathon. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna has done his best with the mastering here, but listeners will note a roughness to the sound -- one that is in keeping with the album's tone and attitude.

by Steven McDonald in All Music Guide

Styles:
Experimental Big Band
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - The Introduction (1:15)
02 - Song of the United Front (1:52)
03 - El Quinto Regimiento/ Los Cuatro Generales/ Viva la Quince Brigada (20:58)
04 - The Ending to the First Side (2:07)
05 - Song for Ché (9:29)
06 - War Orphans (6:42)
07 - The Interlude (Drinking Music) (1:24)
08 - Circus '68 '69" (6:10)
09 - We Shall Overcome (1:19)

Line-up:
Charlie Haden — bass
Perry Robinson — clarinet
Gato Barbieri — clarinet, tenor saxophone
Carla Bley — piano, tambourine
Sam T. Brown — guitar, thumb piano
Don Cherry — flute, cornet
Andrew Cyrille — percussion, drums
Howard Johnson — tuba
Michael Mantler — trumpet
Paul Motian — percussion
Bob Northern — percussion, French horn
Dewey Redman — alto saxophone, tenor saxophone
Roswell Rudd — trombone