Albums by Archie Shepp
ALBUMGinseng (Quartet)Tchangodei & Archie Shepp
ALBUMLet My People GoArchie Shepp & Jason Moran
ALBUMOcean BridgesDamu The Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic
ALBUMPassionArchie Shepp & Michel Marre
ALBUMJazz At Radio Rai: Archie Shepp Live (Via Asiago 10)Archie Shepp
ALBUMWo!manArchie Shepp & Joachim Kühn
ALBUMPhat Jam in Milano (feat. Hamid Drake, Cochemea Gastelum & Olivier Lake)Archie Shepp
ALBUMGeminiArchie Shepp
ALBUMTalking Jazz Volume 08 Saxophone 05Ben Sidran, Paquito D'Rivera, Pepper Adams & Archie Shepp
ALBUMLeft Alone RevisitedArchie Shepp & Mal Waldron
Artist Playlists
Archie Shepp Essentials
A free-jazz icon who's always embraced the music's full history.
Archie Shepp: The Session Musicians
The singular bandleader is also an empathetic collaborator.
Artist Biography
One of the fieriest, most politically minded figures in the New Thing free-jazz movement of the 1960s, saxophonist Archie Shepp is a jazz elder statesman who has made the tradition’s standard repertoire and its blues roots equal partners in his Afrocentric practice. He was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1937, and grew up in Philadelphia. After studying drama at college, he moved to New York City, playing Latin jazz before joining the band led by pianist Cecil Taylor, where he first made an impact on the avant-garde scene. Shepp released his debut recording in 1962, a split album with a group led by trumpeter Bill Dixon. He then formed the short-lived but influential New York Contemporary Five ensemble with Danish saxophonist John Tchicai and trumpeter Don Cherry, and by the time its run ended in 1964 he was signed to Impulse Records, which issued most of his work over the next decade. He was supported by John Coltrane—the musician Shepp feted on his 1965 Impulse debut, Four for Trane—who featured him on his iconic Ascension the same year. Shepp’s music became more politically charged, peaking with civil rights-themed efforts in the early 1970s. He began focusing on standards and the blues in his music, sometimes adding vocals, a trend that has continued with his celebrated duo album with pianist Jason Moran, Let My People Go, in 2021.
Hometown
Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States
Genre
Jazz