Description
180g audiophile vinyl reissue of this 1980 LP by a quintet led by revered US saxophonist Archie Shepp and Swedish baritone saxophone player Lars Gullin.
Saxophonist and playwright Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937 in Fort Lauderdale, FL) then 26 years old visited Copenhagen in the fall of 1963 as a member of the famed New York Contemporary Five. Though Shepp at that time was the passionate practitioner of free jazz, this recording in which he shared the bandstand with Sweden's legendary baritone saxophonist Lars Gullin is something quite different from what one normally expects from Shepp in the '60s. It is Shepp playing straight jazz with audible enjoyment showing off his broad range of expression.
"The top-notch rhythm section is composed of the late Catalonian pianist Tete Montoliu and a pair of "young lions," Danish drummer Alex Riel and bassist Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen, seventeen years old when the recording was made. Montoliu's swinging, straight-on solos are a breath of fresh air." - Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
Archie Shepp: tenor saxophone, Lars Gullin: baritone saxophone
Tete Montoliu: piano, Niels-Henning Orsted Pedersen: bass, Alex Riel: drums
Recorded "live" at Montmartre Jazzhus, Copenhagen, November 21, 1963