CHARLIE HADEN — Liberation Music Orchestra (1970) Two Version | 1996, RM | BONUS TRACK | Impulse! – IMP 11882 + 2001, RM | Impulse! Best 50 – 38 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A fascinating reissue that comfortably straddles the lines of jazz, folk, and world music, working up a storm by way of a jazz protest album that points toward the Spanish Civil War in particular and the Vietnam War in passing. Haden leads the charge and contributes material, but the real star here may in fact be Carla Bley, who arranged numbers, wrote several, and contributed typically brilliant piano work. Also of particular note in a particularly talented crew is guitarist Sam Brown, the standout of "El Quinto Regimiento/Los Cuatro Generales/Viva la Quince Brigada," a 21-minute marathon. Reissue producer Michael Cuscuna has done his best with the mastering here, but listeners will note a roughness to the sound -- one that is in keeping with the album's tone and attitude. Steven McDonald 
Tracklist :
1  The Introduction 1:15
Carla Bley 
2  Song of the United Front 1:52
Bertolt Brecht / Hanns Eisler 
3  El Quinto Regimiento (The Fifth Regiment)/Los Cuatro Generales (The Four G 20:58
Carla Bley / Traditional 
4  The Ending to the First Side 2:07
Carla Bley 
5  Song for Ché 9:29
Charlie Haden 
6  War Orphans 6:42
Ornette Coleman 
7  The Interlude (Drinking Music) 1:24
Carla Bley 
8  Circus '68 '69 6:10
Charlie Haden 
9  We Shall Overcome 1:19
Guy Carawan / Frank Hamilton / Zilphia Horton / Pete Seeger / Traditional 
Credits :
Bass, Producer – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Cornet, Flute [Indian Wood Flute, Bamboo Flute] – Don Cherry (tracks: 3, 5) 
French Horn, Wood Block [Hand Wood Blocks], Bells, Reeds [Crow Call], Whistle [Military Whistle] – Bob Northern
Guitar, Kalimba [Thumb Piano] – Sam Brown (tracks: 1, 3 to 7) 
Percussion – Andrew Cyrille (tracks: 8), Paul Motian
Tambourine, Arranged By – Carla Bley
Tenor Saxophone, Alto Saxophone – Dewey Redman
Tenor Saxophone, Clarinet – Gato Barbieri
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Michael Mantler
Tuba – Howard Johnson

ALBERT AYLER - New York Eye and Ear Control (1964-2000) APE (tracks+.cue), lossless

This is a very interesting set, music that was freely improvised and used as the soundtrack for the 34-minute short film New York Eye and Ear Control. Tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler leads the all-star sextet (which also includes trumpeter Don Cherry, altoist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray) on two lengthy jams. The music is fiery but with enough colorful moments to hold one's interest throughout. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     Don's Dawn 1'03
Albert Ayler
2     A Y 21'21
Albert Ayler
3     ITT 23'23
Albert Ayler
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – John Tchicai
Bass – Gary Peacock
Drums – Sonny Murray
Tenor Saxophone – Albert Ayler
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Don Cherry

ARCHIE SHEPP - The Impulse Story (2007) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Archie Shepp's volume in The Impulse Story series, with liner notes by Ashley Kahn, author of The House That Trane Built: The Impulse Story, is arguably the best and most representative of any of the editions in it. These ten cuts capture Shepp's many faces. There's his wonderful look inside the music of his mentor John Coltrane ("Naima" from Four for Trane), through to his gaze at the jazz tradition (Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady"), to bossa nova (a very unique read of "Girl from Ipanema") to the weighty concerns of his own compositions that engaged everything from the avant-garde "Les Matin des Noires" to politics ("Malcolm Malcolm -- Semper Malcolm"), to R&B and soul ("Damn If I Know" "Mama Too Tight," and "Attica Blues"). While certain albums are not represented here -- the magnificent Magic of Ju-Ju being one -- the breadth and depth of Shepp's true genius is all here. That said, it is a shame that many of his albums recorded for Impulse (the classic Fire Music and Magic of Ju-Ju just to name two) are currently out of print. Of all the volumes in this fine collection, Shepp's stands, with Alice Coltrane's as the very best in that it gives a true introduction to an artist often misunderstood, but during his tenure for this label, he was creatively unstoppable.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1     Naima 7'10
(John Coltrane)
Bass – Reggie Workman
Drums – Charles Moffett
Flugelhorn – Alan Shorter
Producer – John Coltrane
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
2     Los Olvidados 8'56
(Archie Shepp)
Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown
Bass – Reggie Johnson
Drums – Joe Chambers
Trumpet – Ted Curson
3     The Girl from Ipanema 8'35
(Norman Gimbel / Antônio Carlos Jobim / Vinícius de Moraes)
Alto Saxophone – Marion Brown
Bass – Reggie Johnson
Drums – Joe Chambers
Trumpet – Ted Curson
4     Malcolm, Malcolm - Semper Malcolm 4'51
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – David Izenzon
Drums – J.C. Moses
Vocals [Recitation] – Archie Shepp
5     Le Matin des Noires 8'00
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Barre Phillips
Drums – Joe Chambers
Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson     
6     Scag 3'23
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Barre Phillips
Drums – Joe Chambers
Vibraphone – Bobby Hutcherson
Vocals [Recitation] – Archie Shepp
7     Mama Too Tight 5'25
(Archie Shepp)
Bass – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Drums – Beaver Harris
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Tommy Turrentine
Tuba – Howard Johnson
8     Damn If I Know (The Stroller) 6'19
(Walter Davis, Jr.)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Beaver Harris
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III
Trumpet – Jimmy Owens
9     Sophisticated Lady 7'10
(Duke Ellington / Irving Mills / Mitchell Parish)
Bass – Ron Carter
Drums – Roy Haynes
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III
Trumpet – Jimmy Owen
10     Attica Blues 4'47
(Beaver Harris / Archie Shepp)
Alto Saxophone – Clarence White, Marion Brown
Backing Vocals – Albertine Robinson, Joshie Armstead
Baritone Saxophone – James Ware
Bass [Fender] – Jerry Jemmott, Roland Wilson
Cello – Calo Scott, Ronald Lipscomb
Cornet – Clifford Thornton
Drums – Beaver Harris
Guitar – Cornell Dupree
Lead Vocals – Henry Hull
Percussion – Juma Sutan*, Nene DeFense, Ollie Anderson
Producer – Ed Michel
Tenor Saxophone – Roland Alexander
Trombone – Charles Greenlee, Charles Stephens, Kiane Zawadi
Trumpet – Charles McGhee, Michael Ridley
Tuba – Hakim Jami
Violin – John Blake, Leroy Jenkins, Shankar

ARCHIE SHEPP - Four for Trane (1964-2001) RM | Impulse! Best 50 – 20 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

From 1964, Archie Shepp's first date as a leader featured -- as one would expect from the title -- four tunes by John Coltrane, his mentor, his major influence, and his bandleader. The fact that this album holds up better than almost any of Shepp's records nearly 40 years after the fact has plenty to do with the band he chose for this session, and everything to do with the arranging skills of trombonist Roswell Rudd. The band here is Shepp on tenor, John Tchicai on alto, Rudd on trombone, Trane's bassist Reggie Workman, and Ornette Coleman's drummer Charles Moffett. Even in 1964, this was a powerhouse, beginning with a bluesed-out wailing version of "Syeeda's Song Flute." This version is ingenious, with Shepp allowing Rudd to arrange for solos for himself and Tchicai up front and Rudd punching in the blues and gospel in the middle, before giving way to double time by Workman and Moffett. The rawness of the whole thing is so down-home you're ready to tell someone to pass the butter beans when listening. Rudd's arrangement of "Naima" is also stunningly beautiful: He reharmonizes the piece for the mid-register tone of Shepp, who does his best Ben Webster and adds a microtonal tag onto the front and back, dislocating the tune before it begins and after it ends, while keeping it just out of the range of the consonant throughout. Wonderful! The only Shepp original here is "Rufus (Swung, His Face at Last to the Wind, Then His Neck Snapped)." It's not a terribly sophisticated tune, but it works in the context of this band largely because of the soloing prowess of all the members -- particularly Tchicai -- here. There is barely any melody, the key changes are commensurate with tempo shifts, and the harmonics are of the sliding scale variety. Still, there are the blues; no one can dig into them and honk them better than Shepp. When it came to sheer exuberance and expression, he was a force to be reckoned with in his youth, and it shows in each of the tunes recorded here. Four for Trane is a truly fine, original, and lasting album from an under-celebrated musician.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1 Syeeda's Song Flute 8:28
 John Coltrane
2 Mr. Syms 7:39
 John Coltrane
3 Cousin Mary 7:13
 John Coltrane
4 Naima 7:08
 John Coltrane
5 Rufus (Swung, His Face At Last To The Wind, Then His Neck Snapped) 6:25
Archie Shepp
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – John Tchicai
Bass – Reggie Workman
Drums – Charles Moffett
Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
Producer – Bob Thiele, John Coltrane
Tenor Saxophone – Archie Shepp
Trombone – Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Alan Shorter

ARCHIE SHEPP - Live in San Francisco (1966-2015) RM | Impulse! Classics 50 – 30 | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This Impulse recording features the fiery tenor Archie Shepp with his regularly working group of the period, a quintet also featuring trombonist Roswell Rudd, drummer Beaver Harris and both Donald Garrett and Lewis Worrell on basses. Although two pieces (Shepp's workout on piano on the ballad "Sylvia" and his recitation on "The Wedding") are departures, the quintet sounds particularly strong on Herbie Nichols' "The Lady Sings the Blues" and "Wherever June Bugs Go" while Shepp's ballad statement on "In a Sentimental Mood" is both reverential and eccentric. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     Keep Your Heart Right 1'15
Roswell Rudd
2     Lady Sings the Blues 7'32
Herbie Nichols
3     Sylvia 5'35
Oley Speaks
4     The Wedding 2'52
Archie Shepp
5     Wherever June Bugs Go 10'25
Archie Shepp
6     In a Sentimental Mood 6'14
Duke Ellington / Manny Kurtz / Irving Mills
7     Things Ain't What They Used to Be 7'56
Mercer Ellington / Ted Persons
8     Three for a Quarter, One for a Dime 32'54
Archie Shepp
Credits
Bass – Donald Garrett (pistas: 1, 2, 5 to 6), Lewis Worrell
Drums – Beaver Harris (pistas: 1 to 3, 5 to 6)
Piano – Archie Shepp (pistas: 3)
Tenor Saxophone – Archie Shepp (pistas: 1 to 3, 5 to 6)
Trombone – Roswell Rudd (pistas: 1 to 3, 5 to 6)
Voice [Recitation] – Archie Shepp (pistas: 4)

ARCHIE SHEPP - Mama Too Tight (1967-1998) RM | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The octet Archie Shepp surrounded himself with in 1966 was filled with new and old faces. The twin trombones of Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur III embodied this, but so did bassist Charlie Haden and trumpeter Tommy Turrentine, while familiar figures like drummer Beaver Harris and tubaist Howard Johnson had been part of Shepp's regular band. There are four tracks on Mama Too Tight, all of them in some way acting as extensions of the opening three-part suite "A Portrait of Robert Thomson (As a Young Man)." Shepp had hit his stride here compositionally. The track is, at first, a seeming free jazz blowout, but then traces the history of jazz, gospel, and blues breeze through its three sections. Certainly there is plenty of atonality, but there is plenty of harmonic and rhythmic invention, too. The piece, almost 19 minutes in length, has an intricate architecture that uses foreshadowing techniques and complex resolution methods. The title track is a post-bop blues swinger with a killer frontline riff turning in and out as the trombones go head to head. And finally, "Basheer," with an Eastern modality that transposes itself toward blues and folk music, becomes a statement on the transitional ties the '60s were ushering in musically. Here again, lots of free blowing, angry bursts of energy, and shouts of pure revelry are balanced with Ellingtonian elegance and restraint that was considerable enough to let the lyric line float through and encourage more improvisation. This is Shepp at his level best.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
Portrait Of Robert Thompson (As A Young Man)    18:58
1a    Prelude To A Kiss
Written-By – Ellington, Gordon, Mills
1b    The Break Strain-King Cotton
Written-By – Public Domain
1c    Dem Basses
Written-By – Public Domain
2    Mama Too Tight 5:26
Written-By – Archie Shepp
3    Theme For Ernie 3:22
Written-By – Fred Lacey
4    Basheer 10:39
Written-By – Archie Shepp
Credits
Bass – Charlie Haden
Clarinet – Perry Robinson
Drums – Beaver Harris
Engineer – Rudy Van Gelder
Tenor Saxophone, Liner Notes [Original] – Archie Shepp
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd
Trumpet – Tommy Turrentine
Tuba – Howard Johnson

ARCHIE SHEPP - Live At The Donaueschingen Music Festival (1967-2000) RM | Most Perfect Sound Edition – 28 | FLAC (tracks), lossless

This is an exciting album. The important tenor Archie Shepp and his 1967 group -- with both Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur on trombones, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Beaver Harris -- romp through the continuous 43-and-a-half-minute "One for the Trane" before an enthusiastic audience at a German music festival. Although he improvises very freely and with great intensity, Shepp surprised the crowd by suddenly bursting into a spaced-out version of "The Shadow of Your Smile" near the end of this memorable performance. On the whole, this very spirited set represents avant-garde jazz at its peak and Archie Shepp at his finest. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1     One for the Trane, Pt. 1 22:09
Archie Shepp    
2     One for the Trane, Pt. 2 21:54
Archie Shepp
Credits
Bass – Jimmy Garrison
Drums – Beaver Harris
Tenor Saxophone – Archie Shepp
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd

ROSWELL RUDD | ARCHIE SHEPP - Live in New York (2001) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Recorded live at New York's Jazz Standard in 2000, this generally excellent CD marks the reunion of two avant-garde improvisers who were separated for way too long: tenor man Archie Shepp and trombonist Roswell Rudd. The jazzmen played together a lot during the turbulent 1960s but, regrettably, they didn't record together at all in the 1970s, 1980s, or 1990s. After more than 30 years apart, was that old chemistry still there? Absolutely. A 63-year-old Shepp (who doubles on piano) and a 65-year-old Rudd have no problem bringing out the best in one another whether they are embracing pieces from the 1960s (including Shepp's remorseful "Steam") or turning their attention to songs they wrote in the 1980s or 1990s such as Rudd's "Bamako" and Shepp's "Hope No. 2." Some people might wish that the veteran jazzmen paid more attention to their 1960s work, but Live in New York isn't meant to be an exercise in nostalgia. Shepp and Rudd (who are joined by trombonist Grachan Moncur III, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Andrew Cyrille) aren't trying to recreate the past -- nor should they. But that doesn't mean that they aren't excited about being reunited; they bring a wealth of enthusiasm to their post-bop and avant-garde performances -- none of which are as extreme as some of the blistering free jazz that Shepp provided in the 1960s. Shepp's "Déjà-Vu," in fact, is a hauntingly pretty torch ballad that finds the saxman singing. Although Shepp's singing isn't in a class with his tenor playing, he still manages to get his points across on "Déjà-Vu" -- which is an ironic song title for an album that avoids being nostalgic. Shepp and Rudd keep things unpredictable on this inspired reunion. Alex Henderson
Tracklist :
1    Keep Your Heart Right    2:13
 Roswell Rudd
2    Acute Motelitis    8:23
 Roswell Rudd
3    Steam    7:33
 Archie Shepp
4    Pazuzu    8:27
 Roswell Rudd
5    We Are The Blues    5:46
 Amiri Baraka
6    Ujamma    9:16
 Archie Shepp
7    Bamako    5:46
 Roswell Rudd
8    Slide By Slide    11:57
 Roswell Rudd
9    Deja Vu    3:59
 Archie Shepp
10        Hope No 2    10:38
 Archie Shepp
Credits :
Bass – Reggie Workman
Drums – Andrew Cyrille
Piano, Saxophone, Vocals – Archie Shepp
Trombone – Grachan Moncur III, Roswell Rudd

GATO BARBIERI - The Third World (1970-1995) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

The Third World is the initial session that mixed Gato Barbieri's free jazz tenor playing with Latin and Brazilian influences. It's also the album that brought Barbieri positive attention from the college crowds of the late '60s. He would expand on this musical combination with his next few Flying Dutchman releases as well as his first recordings for the Impulse! label. The records made between 1969 through 1974 find Barbieri creating a danceable yet fiery combination of South American rhythms and free jazz forcefulness. Strangely, once Barbieri signed with A&M, he began making commercial records geared to fans of Herb Alpert, sounding nothing like his earlier albums. by Al Campbell
Tracklist :
1. Introduction / Cancion Del Llamero / Tango 11:02
(Barbieri, Piazzola, Quiroga)
2. Zelao 8:00
(Ricordo)
3. Antonio Das Mortes 9:24
(Barbieri)
4. Bachianas Brasileiras / Haleo And The Wild Rose 10:58
(Villa-Lobos)
Musicians :
Gato Barbieri - Tenor Sax, Flute, Vocals
Charlie Haden - Bass
Beaver Harris - Drums
Richard Landrum - Percussion
Roswell Rudd - Trombone
Lonnie Liston Smith - Piano