Out Of Print! Limited Copies Available!
Ballads From The Great Tenor Saxophonist On High Quality 180g Vinyl LP!
Intelligent, articulate and controversial tenor sax player, composer and singer Archie Shepp was a strong advocate of "free jazz" in the 1960s and 1970s. He surprised Japanese jazz fans in the 1990s when he released a series of ballad albums from Venus Records, beginning with Blue Ballads in 1995 and True Ballads in 1996.
As evidenced here on the opening number alone, a smoky, steamy rendition of 'The Thrill Is Gone' that could have ended up in anybody's film noir, Shepp's fire may not burn angrily, but it burns low, deep, and hot just the same. The tenor player once said that you could hear every minute of every hour a musician put into practice when he played a ballad. That's certainly true here, and the answer is more than you could ever imagine. The inflection of Shepp's horn that moves somewhere between the deep, robust speech of John Coltrane and the shimmering soulful whisper of Ben Webster.
Features
- 180g Vinyl
- Mixed and Mastered by Tetsuo Hara
- Venus Hyper Magnum Sound Direct Mix Stereo
- Obi strip
- Made in Japan
Musicians
Archie Shepp | tenor saxophone |
---|---|
John Hicks | piano |
George Mraz | bass |
Idris Muhammad | drums |
Selections
Side A:
- The Thrill Is Gone
- Everything Must Change
- Nature Boy
Side B:
- The Shadow Of Your Smile
- Violets For Your Furs
Recorded at Clinton Studio on December 7th, 1996 in New York