John Law/Cornucopia Ensemble

Out of the Darkness
SLAMCD 264

With Out of the Darkness, London-based pianist John Law and ensemble has created a pleasant, well-executed work which yokes classical and jazz influences into a mixed mosaic. But enjoyment of this achievement is tempered by the uneasy feeling that no one associated with this project seems to realize that successful jazz-entwined with-classical associations have been the norm for many years.

Someone whose affiliations since the 1990s have included playing Free Jazz with the likes of saxophonist Paul Dunmall, contemporary mainstream with saxophonist Jon Lloyd and performing concerts that feature arrangements of classical pieces by Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Gershwin, Law is by all accounts a masterful pianist. Yet as a composer combining classical and jazz impulses, he’s like a playwright who suddenly creates a sentimental comedy about an upper class English professor who teaches a Cockney girl how to speak and pass for a well-born lady.

Bernard Shaw already wrote that play, and those who have been mixing-and-match classical and jazz impulses before Law include George Russell, John Lewis, Willem Breuker, Barry Guy, Graham Collier, and Misha Mengelberg. And that’s just a list of established jazz and Free Music pioneers who attained portions of the synthesis. Additionally, for the past couple of decades composers and performers who deal with the twin strands of notated and improvised music – as Law does here – try to combine them, not utilize them as two parallel, but non-overlapping sounds as this work does.

Recorded live in a Birmingham, England concert hall, this 46-minute seven-part invention – and the three shorter works that follow it – accordingly illustrate what happens when you have a four piece jazz band and an eight-piece classical ensemble playing at the same time, but never really crossing over into one another’s sound world. Throughout the octet performs note-perfect background sounds, usually with the horns swelling in unison polyphony to emphasis a musical a point, or with flowing string quartet punctuation behind soloist. Occasionally a bassoon or orchestral bells sound by themselves for color. However any extensive soloing and improvisation is evidentially restricted to quartet members. Luckily they come through with the goods.

Someone whose background encompasses membership in saxophonist John Surman’s Quartet and playing in a symphony orchestra backing vocalist Elvis Costello, bassist Chris Laurence is versatile. Here he provides a walking bass line when needed and outputs the repeated ground bass chords on which the familiar-sounding theme of “Chaconne” is hung. Another gentle swinger, who apparently divides his time among jazz, classical and so-called World music, drummer and percussionist Paul Clarvis provides the backbeat on that piece and carefully measured ruffs, bounces and flams elsewhere. His solo in the penultimate movement is brief enough so that it doesn’t become heavy handed. And it’s framed in contrapuntal, tremolo string and horn parts.

As a pianist, Law, who has expressed reservations of the craft of some Free Jazzers, is technically superb. He’s equally proficient in creating precise Rachmaninov-like organic clusters on the plainchant influenced “Talitha Cumi”, or double-gaited Chick Corea style chording encompassing high-frequency arpeggios and stopped inside piano nicks on “Development”, part 2 of the suite. Sliding effortlessly from one genre to the other as the chamber group sounds buzz around him, he can build up a line with metronomic glissandi or limit himself to proper jazz comping.

Despite all this – and the coloring appended to Law’s compositions by the strings and horns – the saving grace throughout the CD in the solo department is Andy Sheppard. The tenor and soprano saxophonist who has toured as part of American pianist/composer Carla Bley’s quartet, is rather like a modern day Tubby Hayes, an exceptional British reed soloist, fully grounded in pre-Free Jazz, yet one who is thoroughly individualistic

On this CD, he plays Booker Ervin to Law’s Charles Mingus – enlivening the compositions with his rooted presence. “Fast Movement - Rondo “, for instance, finds him turning out the kind of melismatic solo that that tenor saxophonist often did for Mingus. Ervin’s soulfulness aimed and abetted the American bassist’s early mixture of jazz and classical inflections. Similarly, Sheppard’s barn-burning, slurry, double-tongued and well-shaped solo encourage the drummer to try out duple metres and flams in the background, Law to comp more forcefully, and brings forth unexpectedly dissonant sul ponticello sweeps from the strings.

This near-atonality is unexpected since the eight-piece Cornucopia Ensemble’s role is that of playing free counterpoint, accompaniment not interjections or dissonance. Hypnotic vamps and muted coloration are its forte.

Enthusiastically received by the concert audience, one wonders how Law’s magnum opus would have fared if presented during a festival of advanced, so-called serious music? More than 79 minutes of perfect recital hall sounds, more polite and polished than exciting or thought provoking, it could guarantee Law a higher profile among those who prefer music to be modern, but not spiky or shrill. Additionally, those who have followed the pianist’s varied stylistic twists and turns and prefer this sort of tonal impressionism will no doubt be taken by this so-called jazz and classical combination.

Others with longer memories and a desire for tougher and more profound sonic intermingling may turn to other sources.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Out of the darkness (for Melanie Day) 1. Part 1: Exposition - Canons 2. Part 2: Development 3. Part 3: Chaconne 4. Part 4: Slow Movement 5. Part 5: Ensemble 6. Part 6: Fast Movement - Rondo 7. Part 7: Coda 8. Talitha Cumi* 9. Nocturne 10. The Loop (for François Corneloup)

Personnel: Andy Sheppard (tenor and soprano saxophones); John Law (piano); Chris Laurence (bass); Paul Clarvis (drums and percussion); Cornucopia Ensemble [Bruce Nockles (trumpet); David Purser (trombone, Tibetan horn*); Melinda Maxwell (oboe); John Orford (bassoon); Rita Manning and Emlyn Singleton (violins); Andy Parker (viola); Nick Cooper (cello)]

September 26, 2006

MILHÁLY DRESCH/ARCHIE SHEPP

Hungarian Bebop
Budapest Music Center Records BMC CD 066

Not quite truth in packaging when it comes to the title, not everyone playing on this fine mainstream effort is Hungarian, nor is what they pay strictly bebop.

The ringer on the date is pioneering American New Thing saxophonist Archie Shepp who brings along a version of his signature tune “Steam”. The rest of the band is Hungarian, under the leadership of Budapest-based reedist Mihály Dresch – his regular quartet joined by cimbalom player Kálmán Balogh on the leader’s “Sorrow, Sorrow”.

Described as “fascinated by Black American Jazz”, Dresch, who has also played with other major Americans saxophonists such as David Murray and Dewey Redman, perfectly complements the older Yank saxophonist here. With both playing tenor and soprano saxophone, the Hungarian’s Central European romanticism fills in some of the tumbrel holes left gaping in Shepp’s playing – he has been an inconsistent soloist for about 20 years.

At the same time Shepp, who has spent time in academe since his high profile period of the 1960s and 1970s, brings a staccato roughness to the sessions – his strained saxophone tone now sounding somewhat like Billie Holiday’s voice in her final days. Dresch’s technique matches Shepp’s textural grit. This ballast is needed. Without it passages on some of the tunes turn uncomfortably sweet, as if a baker has sprinkled more sugar then is necessary on top of a walnut palachinta.

This is especially true since violinist Ferenec Kovács is the other front-line voice. Formalistic and legato, his playing leans more toward the conservatory than the improv sector, so that his doubling of Dresch’s soprano saxophone lines often uncomfortably move the proceedings towards Dinner Jazz.

“Steam”, which the American begins with chording piano, is an example of this, with the proceedings touching on waltz time and threatening to drift away at points. Bassist Mátyás Szandai and drummer István Baló do their job, but no one would ever confuse them with Cameron Brown and Beaver Harris from Shepp’s 30-year-old, original trio recording of the tune.

Other Hungarian jazzers have also made better use of the cimbalom’s traditional zither-like tones. But while the echoing note cascades from Balogh’s large scale zither adds a certain exoticism in its one outing, the addition of its timbres to those of the soprano saxophone and fiddler overly prettify “Sorrow, Sorrow”. Only reed-scraping runs from Shepp and some stop-time swaying from Dresch properly reflect the emotion.

Muting Kovács’ tendency to treat each solo as if he’s Phinchas Zukerman rather than more appropriately Leroy Jenkins – who recorded with Shepp – other pieces fare better. The American’s sparse, braying tone is put to good use contrasting with the smoother line of the Hungarian saxman, especially in stop-time situations.

While the two tenors here are no Griff’n’Lock, the loggy snatches from Shepp’s axe mesh well with Dresch staccato reed bites on the title tune, with the later doubled by a hocketing obbligato from the fiddler. After a Kenny Clarke-like drum break, the head reappears as the tempo slows – a common strategy in Dresch compositions – Shepp takes the piece out with glottal punctuation.

Baló ratcheting tubular bells and chimes on “Búzai song” coupled with double-stopping and jumping sul ponticello decorations from the violinist play up the tune’s folkloric aspects. Furthermore, Dresch’s vibrational accents on the soprano bring forth the Arabic as well as the Magyar background of the Hungarian players. Although the rhythm section almost turns the beat around before the finale, the tune concludes perfectly, with a higher-pitched cadenza from Dresch followed by a grainy affirmation from Shepp.

With Shepp adding some American hot sauce to spice up the mild paprika that uniformly seasons this take on Eastern European Jazz, HUNGARIAN BEBOP provides a balanced musical meal with most of the condiments in place.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Lily of the valley 2. Búzai song (based on a traditional folk tune) 3. I was beaten because... 4. Stream 5. Sorrow, sorrow 6. Hungarian Bebop*

Personnel: Archie Shepp (soprano and tenor saxophone, piano); Mihály Dresch (soprano and tenor saxophone and flute); Ferenec Kovács (violin); Kálmán Balogh (cimbalom)*, Mátyás Szandai (bass); István Baló (drums)

May 22, 2006

SUNNY MURRAY

Sunshine & An Even Break (never give a sucker)
Fuel 2000 Records 302 061 215 2

Potentially the time when Energy music of both the American and European varieties reached the zenith of acceptance, 1969 was also unique because it suddenly seemed that the very fabric of society was ripping apart.

Riots were commonplace on both continents. Radicalized students were staging sometimes-violent demonstrations to demand more liberalized education processes and to protest against local repression and the war in Viet Nam. Fringe groups had turned to kidnapping, bomb throwing and arson in Europe, while in the U.S., the Black Power Movement had moved into its short-lived, so-called revolutionary phrase.

Articulate American provocateur/musicians, including members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago (AEC) and especially poet Amiri Baraka and tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp were making incendiary statements. And in Paris newly created BYG/Actuel records was attempting to get as many of the new avant gardists on tape.

Looking back from the 21st Century, many of the actions seem futile, as they encouraged greater repression and the election of right wing governments. Many of the so-called generational spokespeople retreated into business or academe, including Shepp and jazz then sought refuge in fusion and neo-conservatism.

Yet some fine CDs were made at that time, including, very definitely this one. Already known because of his association with pianist Cecil Taylor and tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, drummer Sunny Murray’s first LP had been recorded under the aegis of Baraka and he was playing Europe his band in 1969. Combing two LPs on one CD, this disc features the drummer’s regular combo augmented by guests.

The most ferocious -- and longest -- performance comes on “Flower Trane”, which adds the AEC’s trumpeter Lester Bowie and alto saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, plus alto saxophonist Arthur Jones and Shepp to Murray’s group. It’s a dense, snaky, highly rhythmic assault, built on the dual bass strength of Alan Silva and the AEC’s Malachi Favors plus the drummer’s cymbal splashes and snare pulse. With the horns playing screaming, off-kilter multiphonics practically in unison, despite the line-up, no single reed-bleater stands out. It does show however that “Ascension”-like group improvisations work.

Free of the visitors and goosed by Murray’s kit and Favors’ boomeranging 4/4-time invention, little-known Jamaican tenor saxophonist Kenneth Terroade turns out some memorable reed-biting smears and cries here. “Red Cross” -- not the Charlie Parker tune -- features more musicians as well, with individual saxophone lines -- most prominently Shepp’s avant-mainstream tenor -- and Bowie screeching trumpet, combining, splitting and leaping up and down the octaves.

Somewhat more cleanly recorded, the remaining numbers find Philadelphia reedman Byard Lancaster joining Terroade, Favors and Murray. Using both whirling saxes as backing ballast and point makers while exhibiting his percussion collection, Murray intones a portentous Black Nationalist poem on “An Even Break” very much under Baraka’s baleful influence.

With Lancaster screaming in ear-bleeding register and Terroade honking on his instrument’s bottom keys, the saxes construct extended smeary countermelodies on “Giblets - Part 12”. But even Favors’ virtuostic bass thump can’t disguise the tune’s origin as a simple R&B style riff. Resembling Ornette Coleman’s folksy material as well as AEC sound experiments, the final tunes work the same groove, with heads that reappear throughout, unison horn lines and an overall sound and sliding motion very much of their time.

Not the best example of Energy music in existence, this CD still offers up a hearty slice of 1969 free jazz played by some of its most accomplished practitioners, especially the still active, but under-recorded Murray.

Now, if somebody could only locate saxophonist Terroade, who was rumored to have returned to Jamaica in the early 1970s. If he’s still with us, it would be interesting to hear how his musical conception has evolved.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Flower Trane*#+ 2. Real; 3. Red Cross+#*; 4. An Even Break&%; 5. Giblets - Part 12% 7. Complete Affection% 8. Invisible Rules%

Personnel: Lester Bowie (trumpet)*; Arthur Jones+, Roscoe Mitchell+ (alto saxophones); Byard Lancaster (soprano and alto saxophone, bass clarinet, flute)%; Archie Shepp*, Kenneth Terroade (tenor saxophone, flute); Dave Burrell (piano)#; Alan Silva*, Malachi Favors (bass); Sunny Murray (drums, balafon and poetry reading&)

October 7, 2002

ROSWELL RUDD/ARCHIE SHEPP

Live in New York
Emarcy 013 482-2

Time changes everything, or if not time, age. At least that's the conclusion you can make about the fervent reception former enfants terribles Archie Shepp and Roswell Rudd received when they reconvened a band they co-lead in the mid-1960s for a gig at a New York night club that lead to the recording of this accomplished CD.

In reality, the response shouldn't be much of a surprise. For between the updated tailgate forays trombonist Rudd introduced and the sophisticated piano and vocal (!) stylings of Shepp, this performance at the Jazz Standard -- and think of the implications of that name -- was probably the most accomplished mainstream show to hit Manhattan since the late Doc Cheatham's 1980s heyday.

That's because Rudd, Shepp and the other members of their combo should be regarded as the real jazz mainstreamers. With an average age of 63, and more than 200 years of playing experience among them, over the past 40 years these men have worked alongside such certified jazz giants as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Jackie McLean and Cecil Taylor to extend the jazz tradition.

Yet the neo conservatives and major industry powers have tried to rewrite recent jazz history the same way Stalinists attempted to subvert the official Soviet experience. Dismissing these men as clueless, radical experiments, nothing of importance is supposed to have happened in jazz from 1965 to 1985.

LIVE IN New York puts a lie to that fiction. Working with a series of compositions that date from the 1960s to 2000, the players not only easily demonstrates their staying power, but also show how their advances are without question part of the jazz continuum.

Take the lovely unison trombone coda from the dual 'bones of Rudd and Grachan Moncur III on "Acute Motelitis". It's modern, original and perfectly completes this freebop excursion, which is also enlivened by a heavy, hearty Rudd solo. If tunes are still describes as finger snappers this is one par excellence.

Or what about Shepp's "Hope No.2", named after Elmo Hope, another outstanding bop pianist? Recreating the crying staccato tenor tone he gained notice for in the 1960s, he builds his solo out of little pods of wavering pitches. Later, as bassist Reggie Workman's steady rhythm and drummer Andrew Cyrille's rolls smooth the background, he begins chording the piano behind a blustery trombone solo, which is probably from Rudd.

Quasi-Dixieland, the nearly 12 minute "Slide By Slide" moves along on the bassist's diamond-hard tone as Rudd and Moncur make like Vic Dickenson and Jack Teagarden playing "Show Me The Way To Go Home". Floating on what seems to be a two beat feel from Cyrille -- who, after all, did back up Coleman Hawkins as well as Cecil Taylor -- the tune still changes tempo several times.

Unashamed of their past, the band members even make room for another 1960s icon, poet Amiri Baraka, on "We Are the Blues". Here he intones a verse honoring Coltrane backed up by suitably romantic (Shepp) and blowsy (Rudd) tones. Luckily too, he doesn't try to dominate the session, as he did on the recent New York Art Quartet reunion disc that also featured Rudd and Workman.

Mainstream encompasses the present as well. Rudd's composition "Bamako", written following a recent trip to Mali and built on a burning funk bottom, allows the band to let itself go to such an extent that Shepp even ventures into split tone territory. The exuberant "yeahs" that echo on that track continue on "Pazuzu", which mixes Shepp's slippery alto-like tone, a stunning Cyrille solo and protracted buzzes from the horns that reflecting the flying sand demons for which the song was named.

Time has taken some toll, though. There was a period when, due to intonation problems, Shepp couldn't play saxophone at all. He has improved, but doesn't seem to miss a chance to switch to piano and sing. "Deja-Vu" finds him warbling self-composed lyrics in a Billy Eckstine-influenced baritone. While "Steam", which began life as a blistering tenor showcase when Shepp recorded it in 1976, has become a sentimental piano-vocal feature that needs the other horns to make it palatable.

Shortcomings aside, this nearly 74 minute CD nicely situates these five men firmly in the jazz tradition. Not only is it more exciting than any five Young Lions projects you can cite, but it's fine listening on its own merits.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Keep Your Heart Right 2. Acute Motelitis 3. Steam* 4. Pazuzu 5. We Are The Blues^ 6. Ujamma 7. Bamako 8. Slide By Slide 9. Deja-Vu* 10. Hope No. 2

Personnel: Roswell Rudd, Grachan Moncur III (trombones); Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone, piano, vocals*); Reggie Workman (bass); Andrew Cyrille (drums); Amiri Baraka (poetry)^

August 13, 2001

ARCHIE SHEPP

St. Louis Blues
Jazz Magnet Records JAM-2006

In the almost 40 years since his first recording, tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp has gone from being perceived as a fire-breathing revolutionary to someone concerned with intensifying and codifying the tradition -- and this CD is part of that new role.

Unlike most neo-cons who seemed to have discovered Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington around the time they filed their Earth, Wind & Fire albums in their parents' record collection, Shepp -- born in 1937 -- was exploring blues, gospel and Duke Ellington tunes as early as the late 1960s. However, the good media copy provided by his uncompromising Black Nationalistic rhetoric tended to obscure his other concerns.

Intonation and embouchure problems coupled with a teaching gig at the University of Massachusetts seemed to mark the saxophonist as someone who had lost his way; performances singing the blues as well as playing them didn't help matters either. True, over time, Shepp's instrumental prowess has been as inconsistent as the final years' vocalizing of Billie Holiday was in her final years. But unlike the tragically doomed Holiday -- whose signature "God Bless the Child" is reprised here -- or most Young Lions, who seem to stake out a style as rigid as the character on a situation comedy, Shepp tried to be a character actor. He's experimented with the equivalents of classic theatre as well recasting some of the more modern work he pioneered.

Unfortunately many of his more recent better albums -- like this session recorded in Austria in 1998 -- were only released in Europe, far away from the American media glare. Overall, this CD pinpoints the strengths and weaknesses of later day Shepp bands.

Tower of strength throughout is bassist Richard Davis, a frequent Shepp duo partner, who is so endlessly adaptable that his employers have included not only freeboper Eric Dolphy and the maintreamThad Jones-Mel Lewis band, but also Barbara Streisand and symphony orchestras conducted by Igor Stravinsky. Here his potent unvarying tone glues stray notes from the tenor man onto the melody on songs as different as the title tune, "Blue Bossa" and his own "Total Package". Although seven years older than the saxophonist, his rock-solid time and spectacular solos, both bowed and plucked, show that age has scarcely diminished his talents. Listen especially to how his overwhelming finger power cements the beat without having to play an electric model on the popular ballads and "Limbuke". Then note how he's able to modulate in and out of high string arco experimentations with the finesse of a full-time New musician on "Total Package".

Distressingly, drummer Sunny Murray -- like Shepp, another first generation New Thinger -- seems MIA most of the time. The majority of this set appears to have been done as a saxophone-bass duo, intentionally or not. While Murray does rouse himself for some muffled accents on the bassist's tune and his own "Et Moi", the listener could probably attribute most of the percussion color to "special guest" Leopoldo Fleming. Quiet background rumbling appears to be Murray's stock in trade here.

As for the saxophonist himself, to use a cliché, he literally blows hot and cold. There are times, as on "Blue Bossa" or his signature tune "Steam", where you literally wonder whether he's gone out of tune to make a point, or due to technical difficulties. Unsurprisingly lacking the strength of his world beating tone of the 1960s and 1970s, he still rises to the occasion when pushed as on "Limbuke" or on "Omega", even attempting modified multiphonics. Other times he's able to invest the originals with some world-weary tenor sadness that speaks to his maturity rather than the empty bravado of technique.

Even his two vocals -- on the title tune and "God Bless The Child" -- stand up, since his Billy Eckstine-influenced baritone is used sparingly. Plus, as a university drama major, Shepp has always been a master of theatrics.

In short, as a record of a survivor, ST. LOUIS BLUES deserves investigation, by those who knew Shepp in the 1960s ands those who have come to his art in later years. Just don't expect to hear 1968's Shepp in 1998.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. St. Louis Blues 2. Et Moi 3. Blue Bossa 4. God Bless the Child 5. Total Package 6. Steam 7. Limbuke 8. Omega

Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone, vocals); Richard Davis (bass); Sunny Murray (drums); Leopoldo Fleming (percussion)

May 15, 2001

BILL DIXON/ARCHIE SHEPP

Savoy/Atlantic 93008-2

Historical documents sometimes give the contemporary listener a new perspective of the past. It's the same with reissues. This thought-provoking disc, divided between a Bill Dixon 7-Tette and Archie Sheep's New York Contemporary 5 (NYC5), show that in many cases the seemingly monolithic New Thing of the mid-1960s was as diverse as its participants.

Recorded after the music had announced its broad presence following the Dixon-organized October Revolution concert series and before Shepp became a known quantity with his Impulse Records discs, the session pinpoints the divergent paths of the erstwhile partners.

To deal with the sparingly-recorded figure first, trumpeter Dixon -- who would soon devote most of his time to his university teaching post at Bennington College -- seems more wedded to a certain compositional traditional than he would when he began recording again in earnest in the 1980s. His septet of four horns, two basses and a drummer uses a framework of pulsative time, with all the themes related back to a central leitmotif.

In size and conception seemingly related to mid-1950s modernism practiced by arranger/composers Teddy Charles, George Russell and Gil Evans, the emphasis here is on the group rather than the soloists. Furthermore, while he hadn't yet perfected the note-chary minimalism that characterized his 1990s work, Dixon still appears to be the most liberated player here. His this-side-of-off-key forays mark him as someone unafraid of the trumpet's limitations. Ornette Coleman veteran bassist David Izenzon and the little-known Hal Dodson seems to be some of the few other here musicians able to take advantage of the new freedom. Their alternately bowing and plucking teamwork, especially apparent on "Alternate Study of Section III Letter F", would be taken farther and into more abstract forms by others later in the decade and beyond.

Other standout soloists include tenor saxophonist George Barrow, best known for his work with Charles Mingus a few years before, and baritone saxist Howard Johnson, who only brought out the tuba he's now famous for playing in the ensembles. The oboe of Ken McIntyre, who too soon would also become an academic, was mostly used for sonic color.

From a 2001 standpoint, the NYC5, seemingly heavily influenced by the original Ornette Coleman Quartet, sounds like a modern swinging group, not the revolutionary cell it appeared to be at the time. Sun Ra stalwart bassist Ronnie Boykins and McRae, Dixon's drummer of the day before, are responsible for the rhythm, and there are times in Shepp's "Where Poppies Bloom (Where Poppies Blow)" that references " seem to sneak in from "Night In Tunisia" of all things.

Tenorist Shepp had already developed his distinctive sweet'n'sour approach to the horn and it's his solos, which are broken up into miniscule note shards, that sound most experimental. Luckily he gets the most of the solo space. Altoist John Tchicai, more tentative than he would be on future dates, sticks very much to a modified Coleman style, with short, to-the-point work.

Meanwhile, brassmen Ted Curson or Don Cherry takes the secondary role, extending Shepp's ideas, blending their higher tones with his. Incidentally, despite what the liner notes state, Cherry is only present on his composition "Consequences", not "Like A Blessed Baby Lamb." That tune, however, ends with the sort of quasi-Dixieland coda Shepp's subsequent bands with trombonist Rosewell Rudd would develop as a trademark.

Paradoxically in the years following this bifurcated date, Dixon became more committed to pure improv, playing regularly with such European proponents as drummer Tony Oxley and bassist Barry Guy. On the other hand, Shepp -- who also became a university academic in Massachusetts -- gained a reputation for his reinterpretation of ballads and tenor sax standards, referring more to Ben Webster's lineage than John Coltrane's.

In the years since, some of the participants here have died and many have turned to more conventional sounds. Thus this session offers a fascinating glimpse at the new music 1964 and a foreshadowing of how the leaders' music would soon evolve.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Winter Song 1964 1.Section I Letters A,B,C,D 2. Section II Letter E 3. Section III Letter F 4. Section IV Letter G 5. Section V Letter H played three times 7. The 12th December 8. Alternate Take Section III Letter F 9. Alternate Study of Section III Letter F 10. Where Poppies Bloom (Where Poppies Blow)* 11. Like A Blessed Baby Lamb* 12. Consequences^

Personnel: [tracks 1 - 9]: Bill Dixon (trumpet); Ken McIntyre (alto saxophone and oboe); George Barrow (tenor saxophone); Howard Johnson (tuba and baritone saxophone); David Izenzon, Hal Dodson (basses); Howard McRae (drums) [tracks 10, 11, 12]: Don Cherry^ (pocket cornet); Ted Curson* (trumpet, piccolo trumpet); John Tchicai (alto saxophone); Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Ronnie Boykins (bass); McRae (drums)

April 29, 2001