Archie Shepp & Max Roach The Long March

[save0904]

I saw this double cd at my local record shop for 30€ and I have this strong feeling that I should buy it :-)

Should I ?

[JSngry]

yes.

[BeBop]

Shop around - Jazz Loft has it for US$25, for instance - but yes.

[jeffcrom]

"South Africa Goddam" is one of the most moving and harrowing pieces of music I've heard, and the rest of the album is not far below that level. Get it.

[JSngry]

DO NOT MISS THAT HAT!!!!

However, do be aware of this one, which is even better, imo:

Don't think it's seen CD release yet, but can't confirm that. The internet is your friend here if it hasn't, or if you can't find the 2LP vinyl.

[David Ayers]

What's going on with Roach/Shepp and Mao? I got the Maoist reference of The Long March, but I wasn't even aware of Force, and I hadn't clocked that Roach/Shepp were in any way identifying with Maoism. If indeed they are.

[JSngry]

It was an Italian label run by some Communists (as I understand it). Archie & Max were some pretty radical talkers. I'm sure that, as with many of us who were caught up in the fervor of "the struggle" at the time, there were some aspects of Communism/Maoism/Marxism/etcism that sure sounded good relative to what we wanted in our world (and some that didn't), but basically, truth be told, I think the bpttp, line is that it was a label run by Italian Communists who offered them some good enough bread to do the date, so they took it.

Bottom line, thoguh - this is one of those "special" recordings for both players. As good as The Long March is, this one is....special.

[clifford_thornton]

Original label was Uniteledis, French, and part of the Palm/Vendemiaire/Jef Gilson scene.

[JSngry]

The notes that I took when I dubbed the LP to cassette waaay back when (yes, I have note cards for all the dubs I made back in the day. Geekus Fatalis, eh?) give the label as Uniteledis Base, the studio as "Studio Arsonor" & the engineer as J.P. Turola.

The only label address give was for Base Records 40136 Via Castiglione, 109 Phone # = 051/237528 Doesn't sound French to me, but Uniteledis does...so maybe this was a joint Italio-Franco venture?

There's also a statement that "This music is dedicated to the memory of Fred Hampton, Jonathan and George Jackson". so you got a Panther vibe going, and the Panthers were "revolutionaries", and most all "revolutionaries" of the time would quote at least some Mao at least some of the time.

But what I've always wondered is, what color bathing suit did the little fella have on. Or was he actually skiiny-dipping?

Recording date, btw, is given as 9/76, three full years before The Long March.

[JSngry]

Search for the given address of Base Records: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&clie...le&resnum=1

Definitely in Italy, but I see that other Unitedledis releses defintley have a French origin. so...who is was Base Records?

[JSngry]

Oh yeah, the did the ESP boots as well...

[JSngry]

Another Base issue: http://mingus.onttonen.info/details/bandstand/bdcd1524.html

Joy Division on Base: http://www.discogs.com/Joy-Division-Still/release/1860431

Also: http://www.discogs.com/label/Base+Record

Base Record

Profile: Italian (Bologna) indie label operating in the 1980s. Specialized in licensing/pressing of well-known new wave and acts on Factory. The re-issues they did of the ESP Disk material (Fugs, Godz, and Sun Ra) were NOT licensed by Bernard Stollman, owner of the music and of ESP Disk.

I'm 97% sure that I read either Shepp or Roach talk about recording for some label funded bu the Communist Party, and they did it for the bread and then the cover comes out with a picture of Mao & shit "much to their surprise" and I thought they said it was "some label in Italy", but perhaps I'm combining several stories into one or something. But I would like to know the deal with "Uniteledis Base" was that how it was originally released or did the guy who loaned it to me in 1984 have an Italian bootleg LP of a totally obscure French side?

[clifford_thornton]

Base booted the French LP. I have another Shepp on Uniteledis, Shepp A Massy U-Jaama "Unite," which is a quintet. Don't know much about the label's history, but those Shepps do pop up a fair amount on the used market. Address is thus: 7 rue Viollet le Duc 75009 Paris.

My copy of Force has this address: Producteur Uniteledis 19 av. Trudaine P 75009. Gravure et pressage Pathe Marconi.

I know Base - they booted tons of shit. ESP, various small-label psych records (International Artists, for example), you name it.

Edited September 7, 2009 by clifford_thornton

[JSngry]

Damn...I can see booting the ESP & psych stuff, I mean there's at least a niche market...but a Shepp/Roach (as well as the other thing you mention) side that was pretty much totally obscure (I don't know what used markets you frequent these days, but I started looking for a copy almost immediately after hearing it in 1984, went to all the usual suspects and some unusual ones and came up totally empty, gave up on it about 10 years ago...) in whenever...that's pretty hardcore, unless there's an appeal to a market of which I know nothing about, which is distinctly possible these days.

[David Ayers]

Thanks guys! Most interesting. The fact that Force and Long March come three years apart might or might not indicate a continuing interest in Mao. By 1979 the phrase 'Long March' might have come to seem as much jokey as anything else.

[clifford_thornton]

Too bad Force is not on CD. I prefer it handily over the Hat, which is "good."

No idea why Base chose to reissue what it did. There is also a Japanese vinyl pressing.

[paul secor]

I have a copy of the Japanese vinyl. Strangely enough, I bought that several years before I saw a copy of the original French issue - skipped buying the one from France because I already had the other.

The liner notes, dated September 10, 1976, are credited to Acklyn R. Lynch - Washington, D.C., speak briefly about Mao's life and death and the revolts in South Africa, and are fairly heavy into the political rhetoric of the time. No quotes from the musicians.

No recording date given on my copy. I have seen three discographies that list the recording date as summer, 1976. Though perhaps all three took their date from the same source.

Edited September 9, 2009 by paul secor