Archie Shepp

身兼音樂(lè)家、詩(shī)人、作家、劇作家多重身份的高音薩克斯風(fēng)手Archie Shepp，是60年代最有煽動(dòng)力的自由樂(lè)派樂(lè)手。帶著深厚的種族情感和覺(jué)醒意識(shí)，這位雙子座、曾以音樂(lè)藝術(shù)為武器、宣揚(yáng)族人權(quán)益的音樂(lè)家，似乎永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)缺少創(chuàng)造力，只要拿起薩克斯風(fēng)，他那股奪目耀眼的風(fēng)采便如泉涌現(xiàn)，這就是為什么他一出道便驚艷爵士樂(lè)界，也能輕易感染他人意識(shí)的原因。2004年，Shepp特別替Venus錄制了最新專輯。音樂(lè)除了展現(xiàn)如原曲般對(duì)人生的強(qiáng)烈感慨外，還帶點(diǎn)濃濃的愛(ài)與愁。在1966、1967這兩年中，臺(tái)上的Shepp常常會(huì)癲癇般完全失去了控制，將手中的高音薩克斯吹得似一輛尖嘯的救火車，與他配合的樂(lè)手都不知該怎樣和他合奏，只好呆在一邊發(fā)愣。Archie Shepp說(shuō)：“我玩音樂(lè)是發(fā)自于一種不可抗拒的需要...”，這句話很好的詮釋了他自己的風(fēng)格。

Archie Shepp has been at various times a feared firebrand and radical, soulful throwback and contemplative veteran. He was viewed in the 60s as perhaps the most articulate and disturbing member of the free generation, a published playwright willing to speak on the record in unsparing, explicit fashion about social injustice and the anger and rage he felt. His tenor sax solos were searing, harsh, and unrelenting, played with a vivid intensity. But in the 70s, Shepp employed a fatback/swing-based R&B approach, and in the 80s he mixed straight bebop, ballads, and blues pieces displaying little of the fury and fire from his earlier days. Shepp studied dramatic literature at Goddard College, earning his degree in 1959. He played alto sax in dance bands and sought theatrical work in New York. But Shepp switched to tenor, playing in several free jazz bands. He worked with Cecil Taylor, co-led groups with Bill Dixon and played in the New York Contemporary Five with Don Cherry and John Tchicai. He led his own bands in the mid-60s with Roswell Rudd, Bobby Hutcherson, Beaver Harris, and Grachan Moncur III. His Impulse albums included poetry readings and quotes from James Baldwin and Malcolm X. Shepps releases sought to paint an aural picture of African-American life, and included compositions based on incidents like Attica or folk sayings. He also produced plays in New York, among them The Communist in 1965 and Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy in 1972 with trumpeter/composer Cal Massey. But starting in the late 60s, the rhetoric was toned down and the anger began to disappear from Shepps albums. He substituted a more celebratory, and at times reflective attitude. Shepp turned to academia in the late 60s, teaching at SUNY in Buffalo, then the University of Massachusetts. He was named an associate professor there in 1978. Shepp toured and recorded extensively in Europe during the 80s, cutting some fine albums with Horace Parlan, Niels-Henning ?rsted Pedersen, and Jasper vant Hof. He has recorded extensively for Impulse, Byg, Arista/Freedom, Phonogram, Steeplechase, Denon, Enja, EPM, and Soul Note among others over the years. Unfortunately his tone declined from the mid-80s on (his highly original sound was his most important contribution to jazz), and Shepp became a less significant figure in the 1990s than one might have hoped.