Four for Trane

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Four for Trane
Archie Shepp's studio album

Publication
(s)

1964

Label (s) Impulses!

Format (s)

LP, CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

5

running time

37:00

occupation
  • Arranger: Roswell Rudd

production

Bob Thiele

Studio (s)

Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey

chronology
The House I Live In
(1963) 		Four for Trane Fire Music
(1965)
Template: Info box music album / maintenance / parameter error

Four for Trane is a jazz - album of Archie Shepp , included in Englewood Cliffs , New Jersey on August 10, 1964, published on Impulse! Records .

The album

In 1965 the saxophonist Archie Shepp began a brief collaboration with John Coltrane , which should have an impact on his further work. Shepp played with Coltrane at various club guest appearances; an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival Shepps was coupled with a Coltrane album ( New Thing at Newport , Impulse! A 94).

This development was preceded by the examination of Coltrane's compositions and his playing style with the album Four for Trane, recorded in August 1964 . The pieces, including four Coltrane compositions from his Atlantic phase after 1959, immediately show the great influence John Coltrane had on his musical environment at that time. Archie Shepp had Impulse for this session, his first for the young jazz label ! , Hired musicians from the jazz avant-garde of the time, such as alto saxophonist John Tchicai and trombonist Roswell Rudd , who had previously played with Milford Graves in the New York Art Quartet . Shepp had previously worked with Tchicai and Don Cherry in the New York Contemporary Five formation .

Other players were the bassist Reggie Workman , who had previously played with Coltrane on his performances in New York's Village Vanguard and on his album Africa / Brass 1961, the drummer Charles Moffett , who had worked with Ornette Coleman - who was admired by Shepp - and the relatively unknown trumpeter Alan Shorter , older brother of saxophonist Wayne Shorter , whose recording debut was this record. Roswell Rudd also acted as arranger of the session.

The first track, “Syeeda's Song Flute”, Coltrane's composition from his Giant Steps album from 1959 , shows a Shepp coming from the blues in an impetuous interaction between the saxophonist and Roswell Rudd.

"Mr. Syms ”, which Coltrane recorded in October 1960 (published on Coltrane Plays the Blues ), initially continues the blues feeling; it begins with a solo by Alan Shorter, with short, sharp staccato tips, to which Archie Shepp answers and finally adds his solo with his typical overblowing technique. The piece ends with the thematic ensemble play.

Coltrane recorded his famous composition "Cousin Mary" in May 1959 for the Giant Steps album. Here she begins with the short unison play of the wind section, from which Archie Shepp immediately breaks out with a creaky solo, framed by the wind section, which briefly alludes to the Cousin Mary theme. This is followed by an interpretation of "Naima", which arranger Rudd calls "Niema", which is immediately deliberately playing away from the original John Coltrane; an open ensemble suite. Morton and Cook described the harmonious conception of Four for Trane , which dispenses with a piano as an accompanying instrument, as free and flowing, which Coltrane would not have tried for himself. The critics particularly highlight John Tchicai's solo in the final track "Rufus", the only track on the album composed by Shepp; with its dramatic end it concludes a set with powerful and committed music.

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton , who ranked the second highest rating in their Penguin Guide to Jazz Four for Trane , consider the album one of the classic jazz albums of the 1960s and a fascinating look at what the musical revolution sparked by Coltrane could sound like. LeRoi Jones in his liner notes points to the importance Shepp acquired as a post-Coltrane saxophonist through this work and the deeply emotional respect that Shepp paid to one of his role models, on the other hand escaped the temptation to play Coltrane, but rather his own roots - as well as the playing of Ben Webster or Sonny Rollins - to be integrated into the conception of the album. The All Music Guide , which awards the album with the highest rating, praises the power of the independent arrangements by Roswell Rudd and the blues-emphasized solos by Shepp and Tchicai.

The music magazine Jazzwise added the album to The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World list ; Keith Shadwick wrote:

“ Four for Trane showed not only a change in following towards Coltrane, but also his ability to arrange and play in a thoroughly independent manner at a time when everyone was imitating Trane or Rollins. It may become even more radical later on, but this was 100% something new when it first appeared ”.

The titles

  • Archie Shepp Sextet - Four for Trane (Impulse AS 71 (LP) / 254644-2 (CD) / IMP 12182 (CD))
  1. Syeeda's Song Flute (Coltrane) 8:26
  2. Mr. Syms (Coltrane) 7:38
  3. Cousin Mary (Coltrane) 7:11
  4. Naima (Coltrane) 7:08
  5. Rufus (Swung, his face at last to the wind, the his neck snapped) (Shepp) 6:23

The record cover, photographed by Chuck Stewart, shows Coltrane and Shepp.

literature

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ cit. Cook & Morton, 2001, p. 1333.
  2. ↑ In the original: “ Shepp was a member of Cecil Taylor's 1960/1 unit that cut sides for Candid and Impulse !, but his first mature playing on disc is on the virtually unobtainable 1962 Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet album released on Savoy. Four For Trane demonstrates not only a shift in allegiance to Coltrane but a real gift for arrangement and a thoroughly original approach to his own playing at a time when everyone was copying Trane or Rollins. He may have got more radical later, but this was a 100 per cent proof shot of the new on its initial release ".
  3. ^ The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World