Fire Music
Archie Shepp
Impulse through GRP/MCA
Tauhid
Pharoah Sanders
Impulse through GRP/MCA
Karma
Impulse through GRP/MCA
Reviewed by Norm Dixon
John Coltrane's music evolved as black America moved from the optimism sparked by the gains of the mass civil rights movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, through the mid-'60s explosion in black pride and militancy, to the late '60s era of "black power".
From the mid-'60s, the optimism began to falter. The promise of equality evaporated as the cities and ghettos became increasingly run-down and the reality that the US system was racist to the core became obvious. The militant ideas of black nationalism, black power and socialism were embraced by large numbers of African-Americans as they sought solutions outside the system.
Coltrane's music was the jazz soundtrack of black radicalisation. Coltrane's classic quartet — with McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums and Jimmy Garrison on bass — from 1961 to 1965 explored new terrain in improvisation, investigating adventurous new polyrhythms and tempos borrowed from African, Arab and Indian music.
But by 1966, Jones and Tyner were not prepared to follow their leader further into uncharted waters. Coltrane increasingly was drawn towards a younger generation of radical young black musicians who were abandoning the accepted rules of jazz to play avant-garde or "free jazz".
Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders soon became Coltrane's most important collaborators — at live gigs and on records — until his untimely death in 1967. As these brilliant '60s reissues prove, they were capable of startling work in their own right.
Between them, Shepp and Sanders personified the two allied streams of black radicalism in jazz in the late '60s — the political and the spiritual. As US socialist Frank Kofsky pointed out in 1970, both trends reflected the black ghettos' "vote of 'no confidence' in Western civilisation and the American Dream".
Politically, black youth were fired up by the civil rights struggles in the southern states, the liberation movements in Africa and Asia, and the struggle to end the Vietnam War. The ideas of Marx, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, Kwame Nkrumah, Franz Fanon and especially Malcolm X were popular. Revolution was openly espoused.
There was also a vigorous cultural radicalisation. African-Americans explored art, music and religious and philosophical ideas from Africa and Asia. They set about rediscovering African history. It was a period of turbulence, impatience, excitement and determination to create a better society.
Shepp embraced political black nationalism and Marxism while Sanders, like Coltrane, was uncompromisingly in the vanguard of the cultural and spiritual radicalisation.
Fire Music, released in 1965, was Shepp's second Impulse album. Every track radiates warmth and determination. It has a horn-laden big band feel without any of the staidness that tag implies. While challenging many preconceived notions of jazz, it is thoroughly accessible. Shepp's tenor sax exudes a rich, hoarse tone that can move from "down and dirty", to plaintive, to insistent in a single tune.
The album conforms to Shepp's 1968 statement that free jazz musicians "are only an extension of that entire civil rights-Black Muslim-black nationalist movement that is taking place in America. That is fundamental to the music." His saxophone, Shepp added, was "like a machine gun in the hands of the Viet Cong".
Fire Music opens with "Hambone", a tribute to African-American folk music — gospel, blues and a touch of r&b. The simple melodies contrast with soaring solos and complex rhythms. The album also closes a mind-boggling live version. "Los Olvidados (the forgotten ones)" is about the frustration Shepp felt when employed as a counsellor with a government-funded program aimed at reducing "juvenile delinquency" in New York. The program was under-resourced and was simply a band-aid which, said Shepp, allowed the wealthy and powerful to "assuage their own guilt about the forgotten ones".
"Malcolm, Malcolm, Semper Malcolm" is a moving, moody eulogy to the radical black leader Malcolm X, who was assassinated that same year. Shepp's, with sax and poem, conveys respect, love and anger while David Izenzon's beautiful bowed bass "sings" along. It was first composed as part of "The Funeral", a longer composition dedicated murdered Southern civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
"I call it 'Malcolm forever' because [although Malcolm] was killed, the significance of what he was will grow. He was the first cat to give actual expression to much of the hostility most American Negroes feel. A further significance of Malcolm was that toward the end of his life, he was evolving into a sound political realist", Shepp explained.
Pharoah Sanders' radical egalitarian cosmic mysticism, which also characterised Coltrane's last years, is central to Tauhid (1967) and Karma (1969). Sanders seems to begin where Coltrane left off. Like many other African-Americans, he sought to go beyond the hypocrisy of mainstream white Christianity and philosophy to find a creed that was inclusive, non-discriminatory and tolerant. Finding none, he invented his own.
Karma best illustrates Sanders' utopian outlook. "The Creator Has a Master Plan", a majestic 32-minute opus not unlike Coltrane's seminal "A Love Supreme", is both deeply melodic and "caconophonic".
Sanders lures the unsuspecting listener with a beautifully conventional introduction which gently leads to his trademark wild and wonderful screams, squalls, squeaks and growls, all the time softened by the soothing background pulse of bells, shakers and percussion. Sander's world view is summed up by the chant that pervades "Creator": "Peace and happiness for every man, through all the land".
Tauhid concentrates on the historical and spiritual heritage of African-Americans. "Upper and Lower Egypt" is the product of Sanders' long research into the history and religions of Egypt. Using the unusual-in-jazz piccolo, Sanders glides through the Lower Nile, moving deeper into Africa. Once in the upper reaches, the mood changes with energetic, chant-like cadences that make the hairs rise on the back of your neck.
A third element is the interest in the planets and outer space — a theme common to black musicians as divergent as Sun Ra and George Clinton — in "Aum", "Venus" and "Capricorn Rising".
Archie Shepp's political radicalism led to a falling out with Impulse, and he found it extremely difficult to persuade other US record companies to record him. Instead, Shepp has taught music at the University of Massachusetts since 1978. Sanders, his radicalism being far less threatening, has continued to record and perform. Neither has compromised.
What makes these artists — and these albums — great is not simply their immense musical ability, but the fact that they drip with passion, honesty and commitment. Check them out.