Archie Shepp Quartet: Gemini

Shepp, Archie

ARCH 0701

Archie Shepp, another iconic figure of the early years of free-jazz, has established his identity in a more roundabout way than Ornette Coleman. For all his untutored wildness Coleman sounded eerily mature from the late 1950s on. Shepp seemed to make the gestures of musical freedom first, and found his real sound later. Nowadays he mixes a Coltranesque soulfulness and contemporary openness (rapper Chuck D is a guest on the first track, delivering a faintly indulgent Shepp potted history) with an unsteady but affecting romanticism and lurching swing that spans a lot of jazz history.This beautifully produced double album (drawings are by Le Canard Enchaine artist Wozniak) on Shepp's own label features a quartet set, and a live partnership with the soulful pianist/singer Amina Claudine Myers. Shepp's quartet has a strong early-Coltrane feel (young pianist Tom McClung is a powerful McCoy Tyner admirer) but the leader's flayed, discomfiting sound has its own kind of fierce passion. The Amina Myers disc balances riproaring freebop tenor-blasting and gospel music. It's refreshingly unpolished, and doesn't sound like anyone else's work. • John Fordham

CD x 2

Archieball

8/11/11

3760002137780