ARCHIE SHEPP — Live in Antibes (Vol. 1) (review)

ARCHIE SHEPP — Live in Antibes (Vol. 1) album cover Live album · 1971 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
snobb
I have no idea how Antibes looked in 1970, but I believe its great pine forests, sandy beaches and blue sea water were all the same as today. A beautiful town in French Rivera is a piece of heaven on earth. Even those too lazy for a longer walk can enjoy fantastic views from Plage du Ponteil to the sandy beach with palms (looking to the right) or picturesque fortification ruins over the blue sea watching from Boulevard du Maréchal-Leclerc to the left. On sunny days (and days are almost always sunny there) Antibes looks more like the Caribbean than a European seaside town.

This concert, Archie Shepp Live in Antibes Vol 1, is recorded in Juan-les-Pins - formerly a small resort town near Antibes, now - a luxury Antibes seaside district. Jazz fest has been a part of summer Antibes life for decades (and continues every July). The atmosphere is extraordinary - sun, sea, sand, and palms, a small ancient old-town nearby, a lot of cafes and restaurants, but first of all - natural beauty. Many world-class jazz musicians played there (some are recorded as well).

Shepp is in great creative form here, he sounds not as angry as just a few years before, but more inventive, with a lot of improvisation. He is at the peak of his free jazz period, which soon will leave for a more conventional sound.

"Live in Antibes vol.1" contains just one long song, "The Early Bird" - I didn't find that song recorded by Shepp before on any album. The band isn't his regular American one though - no Sonny Murray, Alan Silva, Grachan Moncur III or cornet player Clifford Thornton can be found here. The only link with Shepp's American past is trumpeter Alan Shorter, the rest of the band is completed by members of Claude Delcloo’s (a French drummer and BIG label owner) Full Moon Ensemble. A bit unusual is the presence of guitarist (Joseph Déjean) on board.

Originally a broadcast for French O.R.T.F. radio, the album's sound quality is only very average. Shepp's sax is placed in the very front, the other instruments' sound is a bit muddy and comes somewhere from backstage. Two days later Shepp will play another gig in the same place, and another one-song-long album will be released as "Live In Antibes Vol.2" then.

Both these releases, which offer free music sounding over sandy beaches, pine forests, and blue sea are a piece of emotional evidence from (already moving to the end) a unique era of free jazz.

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