Archie Shepp was a very busy man in August 1969. He recorded 3 sessions for the French BYG label in that month, each only a few days apart – this one, a 14th August session which resulted in the album “Poem for Malcolm” and another on 16th August which led to “Blasé”. 1969 was a fertile time for free jazz, with many of it’s players decamping to Paris and recording for BYG or other labels such as Free America.
This particular session was the result of collaboration between Shepp’s current band and members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (as represented by Lester Bowie, Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors). There were numerous other big names involved – not all of them people you’d normally associate with free jazz – Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones to name two.
Side one is entirely taken up by the 20-minute plus “Yasmina”, an exercise in groove-based improvisation that both Shepp and the members of the Art Ensemble were to repeat later in their careers. This is one funky piece of free jazz – there’s a fair bit of blowing going on over the top, but the rhythm section keeps a solid groove going – a circular piano line anchoring the whole thing down whilst the soloists set off on their flights. The whole thing is pretty effective, with only the slightly shoddy audio quality letting it down.
On a different tack entirely, side two’s opener, “Sonny’s Back”, starts out in a pretty standard hard bop inspired vein, perhaps to accommodate Hank Mobley, heard here on tenor trading lines with Shepp. Despite the band taking the whole thing fairly straight (well, relatively straight – this is Archie Shepp, after all) there is some nice playing here, and a palpable sense of enjoyment in the ecstatic shouts of the rhythm section. The closing “Body and Soul” is taken at a more sedate tempo and is a lovely example of Shepp playing it sweet.
Although they all have their merits, this is probably my favourite of the three Paris sessions, with some great playing and a real sense, in “Yasmina” of the sort of places the jazz avant-garde was headed in the next few years. Shepp’s own exploration of the groove-based extended blowout surely reached it’s peak in 1975’s “Hipnosis” from the “A Sea Of Faces” LP, a 26 minute free improvisation perched on top of the most hypnotic groove on the planet.
YASMINA, A BLACK WOMAN
BYG Actuel 4
Recorded 12th August, 1969
Side One
1. Yasmina, A Black Woman
Side Two
1. Sonny’s Back
2. Body and Soul
Personnel
1st tune;
CLIFFORD THORNTON; cornet
LESTER BOWIE; trumpet
ARTHUR JONES; alto sax
ARCHIE SHEPP; tenor sax, voice
ROSCOE MITCHELL; bass sax
DAVE BURRELL; piano
MALACHI FAVORS; bass
EARL FREEMAN; bass
PHILLY JOE JONES; drums
SUNNY MURRAY; drums
ART TAYLOR; rhythm logs
LAURENCE DEVERAUX; balafon
2nd tune;
ARCHIE SHEPP; tenor sax
HANK MOBLEY; tenor sax
DAVE BURRELL; piano
MALACHI FAVORS; bass
PHILLY JOE JONES; drums
3rd tune;
ARCHIE SHEPP; tenor sax
DAVE BURRELL; piano
MALACHI FAVORS; bass
PHILLY JOE JONES; drums
