Search - Archie Shepp :: Black Gipsy (Reis) (Dig)

Dance, trance and the blues in France, 1969

greg taylor | Portland, Oregon United States | 02/01/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is another marvelous reissue from the America label which specialized in the late '60s in recording American expats living in Paris.

They recorded Braxton, the Art Ensemble, Paul Bley and others. This particular Archie Shepp date has a great odd lineup of musicians.

Shepp himself sticks to soprano sax thourghout, Noah Howard plays alto sax, Clifford Thornton plays trumpet, Leroy Jenkins plays viola, Julio Finn plays harmonica, Dave Burrell plays the piano, Earl Freeman is on bass, Chicago Beauchamp sings and chants, and the great Sunny Murray is on drums.

I am not going to say too much about the music since you can listen to samples. I will offer only the following observations. This is not one of those Shepp CDs that offer a lot of Burrell. He is essential to the session but as a very rhythmic compist. Murray, Burrell and Freeman provide an enormously strong pulse throughout. This is music to dance and march to. It is strongly melodic with the wilder and freer moments coming from Shepp, Howard and Thornton. Finn's harmonica and Beauchamp's chants and shouted encouragements add a real Chicago blues feel to the music. As for Jenkins, listen to the way he starts off Black Gipsy. It is hard to imagine the way strings have been used in jazz for the last almost fourty years without the contributions that Jenkins made at this period of the music's history.

It is odd not to hear any of Shepp's tenor but he sounds great on the straight horn. Mostly, he is to be praised for conceiving the possibility of music like this and for making it a collective vehicle instead of a solo expression of his greatness. I like Shepp quite a bit and regard this CD as one of his great works from the '60s. Give it a listen and let me know what you think."