Archie Shepp was born on May 24, 1937. He is an American musician who plays the saxophone, teaches, and writes plays. Since the 1960s, he has been an important figure in helping to develop a type of jazz called avant-garde jazz.

Biography

Archie Vernon Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, but grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He started playing the banjo with his father, then studied piano and saxophone while in high school in Germantown. He later studied drama at Goddard College from 1955 to 1959.

He played in a Latin jazz band briefly before joining the band of experimental pianist Cecil Taylor. In 1962, Shepp performed with trumpeter Bill Dixon at the 8th World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki, Finland. His first recording under his own name, Archie Shepp – Bill Dixon Quartet, was released on Savoy Records in 1963. The album includes a composition by Ornette Coleman. Shepp, along with alto saxophonist John Tchicai and trumpeter Don Cherry, formed the New York Contemporary Five. John Coltrane admired Shepp, leading to recordings for Impulse! Records. The first of these was Four for Trane in 1964, an album featuring mostly Coltrane's compositions. Shepp played alongside Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, trumpeter Alan Shorter, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Charles Moffett.

Shepp participated in the sessions for Coltrane's A Love Supreme in late 1964, but none of his recordings were included on the final album. These recordings were released for the first time in a 2002 reissue. However, Shepp, along with Tchicai and others from the Four for Trane sessions, recorded Ascension with Coltrane in 1965. This collaboration highlighted Shepp's role as a leading figure in the avant-garde jazz movement. The pair split a record, New Thing at Newport, released in late 1965, with one side featuring Coltrane and the other featuring Shepp.

In 1965, Shepp released Fire Music, which showed the early signs of his political awareness and focus on African culture. The album's title came from a traditional African music ceremony and included a piece honoring Malcolm X. His 1967 album, The Magic of Ju-Ju, also took its name from African traditions. The music strongly reflected African rhythms and included an African percussion group. At this time, many African-American jazz musicians were influenced by African cultural and musical traditions. Shepp and Pharoah Sanders were leaders in this movement. The Magic of Ju-Ju became a defining work for Shepp, blending freeform saxophone styles with African rhythms and themes.

Shepp performed in Algiers, Algeria, at the 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival of the Organization of African Unity, alongside Dave Burrell, Sunny Murray, and Clifford Thornton. This group later recorded sessions in Paris at the BYG Actuel studios.

Shepp continued to experiment in the 1970s, sometimes including harmonica players and spoken word poets in his ensembles. His 1972 albums Attica Blues and The Cry of My People addressed civil rights issues. Attica Blues responded to the Attica Prison riots. Shepp also wrote for the theater, including The Communist (1965) and Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy (1972). Both plays were produced by Robert Kalfin at the Chelsea Theater Center.

In the late 1960s, Shepp began teaching African-American Studies at SUNY in Buffalo, New York. In 1971, he joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he taught for 30 years. His first two courses were titled "Revolutionary Concepts in African-American Music" and "Black Musician in the Theater."

In the late 1970s and beyond, Shepp explored various musical styles, including African music, blues, ballads, spirituals, and tributes to jazz legends like Charlie Parker and Sidney Bechet. He also worked with European artists such as Jasper van't Hof, Tchangodei, and Dresch Mihály.

Shepp appeared in the 1981 documentary film Imagine the Sound, where he discussed and performed his music and poetry. He also appeared in Mystery, Mr. Ra, a 1984 French documentary about Sun Ra, which included footage of Shepp playing with Sun Ra's Arkestra.

Since the early 1990s, Shepp has often performed with French trumpeter Eric Le Lann. In 1993, he collaborated with Michel Herr to create the original score for the film Just Friends.

In 2002, Shepp appeared on the Red Hot Organization's tribute album to Fela Kuti, Red Hot and Riot. He performed on a track titled "No Agreement" with Res, Tony Allen, Ray Lema, Baaba Maal, and Positive Black Soul. In 2004, Shepp founded his own record label, Archieball, with Monette Berthomier. The label is based in Paris, France, and includes collaborations with Jacques Coursil, Monica Passos, Bernard Lubat, and Frank Cassenti.