Archie Shepp/Richard Davis on Enja - Body and Soul

[BeBop]

I really like Shepp in duos. With Parlan, with NHOP, with just about anyone. So, when I found this in the Amoeba bins for $5.99 (and with the ubiquitous $2 off Amoeba coupon in my pocket), I couldn't pass it up, even though I don't buy much anymore.

Shepp really tears at the melodies, exposing their beauty in the process. Yes, the process is sometimes ugly (to, say, my girlfriend's ears), but emotion can be that way. I sense that Shepp really loves the stuff he plays. In the case of this CD, it's generally done-to-death songs, but Shepp shows them in a whole new light. At the time of the recording, it seems like everyone was putting out a version of 'Round Midnight. This one's different.

I'd agree wholeheartedly with this AllMusic review:

Review by Thom Jurek

This duet date from 1990 demonstrates the deep blues feeling and technical mastery Archie Shepp has on the tenor saxophone. Comprised of four standards — "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," "Body and Soul," "Pannonica," and "'Round Midnight" — this set is one of Shepp's most enjoyable ever. The reasons are myriad, but it is in large part due to the fluid, loping bass of Richard Davis. Recorded in a club in front of a live audience, Shepp digs deep into his own history of influential tenor players and comes out not wanting, but on par with them, from Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis to Sonny Rollins to John Coltrane. His playing here is big, meaty, and warm, full of subtle emotions as well as bleating cries. Davis' sense of time and melody is nearly incredible on the title track and on "'Round Midnight." The interplay Shepp shares with him is tasty, coming from fragmentary elements in Monk's changes; Shepp and Davis move around the lyric and cut to the heart of the tune's color and ambiguity. It's a haunting version and one that offers a completely different reading of the tune over 17 minutes. On "Pannonica," Shepp's blues feeling comes out of Ben Webster as well as Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and his soloing is full of warmth, humor, and a ragged sort of elegance. This — like Shepp's date with Horace Parlan, Goin' Home — is a major addition to the saxophonist's catalog.

[ep1str0phy]

I really like Shepp in duos. With Parlan, with NHOP, with just about anyone. So, when I found this in the Amoeba bins for $5.99 (and with the ubiquitous $2 off Amoeba coupon in my pocket), I couldn't pass it up, even though I don't buy much anymore.

Shepp really tears at the melodies, exposing their beauty in the process. Yes, the process is sometimes ugly (to, say, my girlfriend's ears), but emotion can be that way. I sense that Shepp really loves the stuff he plays. In the case of this CD, it's generally done-to-death songs, but Shepp shows them in a whole new light. At the time of the recording, it seems like everyone was putting out a version of 'Round Midnight. This one's different.

Kind of tangential, but... Amoeba is giving out $2 coupons again? Which location?

[BeBop]

Amoeba has published $2 coupons every week in the East Bay section of the Chronicle for a long, long time. (Also, until recently in the Chronicle Sunday Pink.) This may have come to an end last week with the demise of the East Bay section. Perhaps they will turn up somewhere else. In any event, a good deal while it lasted.