Skip to main content

Archie Shepp, Coltrane and Impulse Records

For weeks Archie Shepp had been trying to get in touch with Bob Thiele at Impulse Records. A family man living on meagre cash in hand, he had harassed Impulse's offices with phone calls: "I phoned from the pharmacy at the bottom of my building and, with ten cents a call, I spent a dollar a day trying to reach Bob. Each time, Lillian his secretary answered that he had gone to lunch, or gone home".

One night, Shepp sat in with John Coltrane at the Half Note and got up enough courage to ask if he would intercede with Thiele. After some hesitation and suggesting that "a lot of people think I'm easy", he agreed.

The next day Bob Thiele is out again, but his secretary tells Shepp that her boss is waiting for his phone call. When they finally talk to each other, the producer sets his conditions. It will be an album of John Coltrane's compositions in tribute form. "I had a reputation for being a strong leader, with already very decided ideas, and he probably hoped that I would refuse. But, I knew that he had used this strategy with some other musicians recommended by Trane. I had already arranged and started to play some of his tracks. So I accepted Bob's proposal".

Coltrane's recommendation wasn't a coincidence. The two men had known each other for a long time. "I was at college, spending the summer at my aunt's house in Harlem because I wanted to get closer to the music. I often went to the Five Spot when Monk was on". One evening, at the closing of the club, four o'clock in the morning, Shepp asks if he agrees to give him some advice, Coltrane gives him his address.

"I was so excited that I went to his home at ten o'clock the next morning and he was still sleeping. He was used to working his instrument after gigs until he fell asleep, and sometimes even fell asleep on the saxophone at the window. That day, he left his bedroom around one o'clock, took his saxophone off the sofa and began to play something evoking Giant Steps, which he would record a few months later.  He improvised on it for a good fifteen minutes without interruption. It was really impressive. Other times I've heard saxophonists warm up, for example Dexter Gordon, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Sonny Rollins - I've always kept something from them. Then he asked me to play. I was very intimidated, but I did the best I could. He told me to keep my fingers closer to the keys for speed". Shepp will visit Coltrane two or three times.

On August 10th, 1964, under the exasperated gaze of Bob Thiele, Shepp approaches the pre-modal Coltrane repertoire.  ABC-Paramount will be paying for the session, so Thiele will be expected to get results. As the session progresses, Bob Thiele finally lets himself relax. "He relaxed, and from the third piece onwards he was really excited and he called John for him to come". Coltrane leaves his Long Island home for Englewood Cliffs by car. He arrives around 11PM. While they listen to the tapes, Bob Thiele shows enthusiasm except for the last song recorded, an original of Shepp's, Rufus (Swung, His Face at Last to the Wind, then His Neck Snapped). Coltrane loves the piece and convinces him to include it on the record.
The Front Line of the Archie Shepp Sextet
Archie Shepp, Alan Shorter, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai 







References: Jazz Magazine (France), The House That Trane Built (Kahn), English translations by Jamo 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Coltrane's Only British Tour in 1961

Britain’s Musicians' Union found the 1950s difficult, with the rise of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the growth of outside musicians coming to play in Britain. By the early 60s an agreement had been reached with the US that an equivalent number of touring American and British musicians could play in each country. Most headline US Jazz artists up to that point had used local musicians, and the live exposure to ‘modern’ Jazz artists was limited. Through the 60s and beyond, Britain was still problematic for outside artists due to the (then) power of the MU. Having said that, the MU was sometimes a force for good. For example, in 1961 the MU boycotted the entire Mecca Circuit for the Bradford Mecca Locarno’s policy of refusing admission to single black males. Norman Granz had been running JATP European tours since 1952, featuring top US jazz artists. Earlier in 1960 Miles Davis had visited Britain, so it missed out on Miles' famous JATP tour of Europe with Trane later in 1960. Granz organised
Post a Comment
Read more

Flying Dutchman Records

Bob Thiele was already an industry veteran when he joined Am-Par/Impulse in 1961. He was mainly an A&R man, but had also been a small record label owner and a jazz magazine publisher. Later on in his Impulse career, towards the end of the 1960s he saw major labels like his own ABC Paramount fundamentally change. Due to the growth of performers who wrote their own music and used independent producers, traditional A&R men like Bob Thiele were becoming obsolete.  Oliver Nelson, Bob Thiele, Ron Carter and Thad Jones at an FD Recording Session (Photo: Chuck Stewart) Whilst at Impulse Thiele had created his own production company called Flying Dutchman, producing Impulse records such as 'Karma' by Pharoah Sanders. When a dispute surfaced with label boss Larry Newton during a recording session with Louis Armstrong, Thiele realised he would have to resign before being pushed from Impulse. He subsequently resigned and created Flying Dutchman Records, developing distribution arra
Post a Comment
Read more

Pharoah Sanders' Philosophical Conversation - July 1967

In the July 1967 issue of Canada's Coda Magazine, Pharaoh Sanders held a long conversation with Elisabeth van der Mei. The feature starts out with the comment "You play so good you made me forget about Trane", and ends with Pharoah saying Coltrane wouldn't have got to where he is now without listening to others. The feature talks about playing in Trane's group and the dynamics between the musicians, how he (and Trane) had dropped playing over chord changes and the concept of time was now radically different. He preferred playing with just Rashied Ali for this very reason. Making 8 or 9 notes out of 2 by putting them through the horn in different ways; And to achieve what he could, you needed ability, control and emotion. Poignant given the issue date, the same month of Trane's death, this is a really insightful interview with Pharoah just as he was ending one phase in his career, before taking his deeply felt spirituality into a new phase. pharoah sanders
Post a Comment
Read more