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
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