Saxophone: Archie Shepp
Piano: Siegfried Kessler
Bass: Cameron Brown
Drums: Clifford Jarvis

Picture Format: 4:3
Sound Format: LPCM Mono (2 channel)
Running Time: 61 mins
Region Code: PAL All
Booklet Languages: GB, F, D
Recording Date: 14 October 1977

Cat no.: DV-JASQ1


TDK continue their much lauded series of jazz issues with another truly great figure of the 1960s jazz movement, Archie Shepp, described by the legendary jazz pianist Mal Waldron as "one of the truly great saxophonists of our time".

Archie Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 24th, 1937. He was brought up in Philadelphia where he met John Coltrane amongst others, forging a fortuitous relationship which later led to a fruitful working partnership in many of Philadelphia's clubs. This exposure as well as Coltrane's endorsement was highly instrumental in establishing Shepp both in the US and internationally. This Turin concert in fact opens with a tribute to Coltrane: "Message from Trane" was composed by Cal Massey, who was not well-known as a trumpeter, but as a composer he worked successfully with "Trane" as well as Shepp.

Evolving his own unique musical style incorporating - often unintentional - squeaks and grunts, Shepp was at the forefront of jazz's 'Avant Garde' movement in the sixties, and although his music often has a strongly political bent, it is less abstract than that of his contemporaries (he described himself as "a sentimentalist, not a romantic"). This programme features Archie Shepp at his best with his Quartet, recorded live at the Teatro Alfieri in Turin in 1977.