ARCHIE SHEPP — Black Gipsy (review)

ARCHIE SHEPP — Black Gipsy album cover Album · 1970 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Yet another wild experiment of Shepp, this time mostly dealing with jam-filled long bluesy experiments that head in all directions, but often flirts with dissonance. BG is also carrying the Chicago Beauchamp name and rightly so, since both tracks feature him on vocals, while Shepp does not have any songwriting credits. Just two tracks (one aside) on this album, with only Dave Burrell on piano as a usual-Shepp-suspect, the rest of the musicians being from different scenes (I gather anyway). Most likely recorded in Paris (the Cd mentions nothing), given the technician and photographer’s names, BG is somewhat an UFO in Shepp’s discography, even if it’s definitely not the only one.

Opening on the bluesy-boogie of Black Gypsy, a track that is reminiscent of John Lee Hooker’s lengthy tracks, especially when JLH is collaborating with Canned Heat, but the cool viola of Leroy Jenkins and Archie’s screechy sax bring a whole new dimension to the boogie. Lasting over 25-mins, the title track has lots of excellent moments, but tends to overstay its welcome by a good 10-mins, because of over-repetitiveness. Indeed, too much a good thing can spoil a goodie. The flipside sidelong three-part suite Epitaph For A Small Winner, a slow starter with Finn’s harmonica, is jumping along to a Brazilian samba/bossa beat, more or less repeating the improv formula of the previous track, but this time interrupted brutally by a drum solo and later on by a somewhat ill-advised piano improvisation during its Moroccan part, but returning to a bluesier format in its Chicago instalment at the end of the é”-mins. Indeed, the piece veers dissonant and free-form improvised, but it’s not that inaccessible for anyone with an open mind. While BG is a must-hear (at least once), it’s rather difficult to say that it is an essential album to own, because it’s only anecdotic at best in the giant Shepp discography.

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