Interview with American saxophonist Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp.
© Jan Kricke
By: Laurence Aloir
4 min
On the occasion of the release of the album "Let My People Go", in duet with Jason Moran, we welcome one of the fathers of free jazz, the American saxophonist Archie Shepp.
Publicity
Archie Shepp's website
Saxophonist, composer, pianist, singer, committed poet, playwright,
Archie Shepp
is a living legend, "
one of the best performers in Babel's memory of Jazz",
according to the Dictionary of Jazz (Robert Laffont).
Archie Shepp
and
Jason Moran:
there are encounters which reveal, like a thread in the history of music, resonances which have hitherto been almost imperceptible, and which suddenly can be heard clearly.
Archie Shepp and Jason Moran.
© Accra Shepp
In Europe, many people have discovered
Jason Moran
alongside
Charles Lloyd
, in a quartet or in a moving duo.
Lloyd
and
Shepp
, perhaps the most dissimilar and the most complementary of the four great direct heirs of Coltrane on the saxophone - with
Shorter
and
Sanders
- are thus brought together by the great art of the pianist, always attentive, always inventive.
Note after note, the one who has revealed himself over the past twenty years as one of the essential musicians - and one of the most original - of contemporary jazz, asks his elders deep questions, highlighting their singular and essential places. in the history of African-American music.
Archie Shepp, 2011. © Laurence Aloir / RFI
For
Archie Shepp
, this duet with a pianist is part of a long and brilliant series (
Abdullah Ibrahim, Siegfried Kessler, Joachim Kühn),
but more than any other, we think of those with
Mal Waldron
on the one hand, powerful , irresistible evocation of
Billie Holiday
, and with
Horace Parlan
on the other (
Going Home
, an absolute masterpiece also imbued with Negro Spirituals).
Archie Shepp & Jason Moran.
© Artwork Wozniak Adelina
Programming
- Archie Shepp and Jason Moran
Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child
(from the album
Let My People Go
/ Archieball 2021)
see the clip here
- Archie Shepp and Jason Moran
Round Midnight
(Thelonious Monk) (from the album
Let My People Go
/ Archieball 2021)
- Archie Shepp and Jason Moran
Wise One
(John Coltrane) (from the album
Let My People Go
/ Archieball 2021)
- Archie Shepp
Malcolm, Malcolm Semper Malcom
(Fire Music 1965)
- Archie Shepp and Chuck D
The Reverse
(Gemini 2007)
- Archie Shepp, Raw Poetic & Damu the Fudgemunk
Tulips
(Ocean Bridges 2020)
- Archie Shepp
Attica Blues
(Attica Blues 1972).
And 3 new features:
- Wasis Diop
Parler
(from the album De la glace dans la gazelle / MDC 2021)
see the clip here
- Valerie June
Call me a Fool
Feat.
Carla Thomas (from the album
The Moon and Stars
/ Fantasy Rd 2021)
see the clip here
- Made Kuti
Free your mind
(from the Legacy / Partisan Rd / Pias 2021 album)
see the clip here.
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