The Way Ahead

Performer: Archie Shepp
Artist: Ron Carter; Roy Haynes; Grachan Moncur III; Walter Davis, Jr.
Engineer: Dick Weissman; Bob Simpson
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: This 1998 reissue contains 2 bonus tracks. Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Charles Davis (baritone saxophone); Jimmy Owens (trumpet); Grachan Moncur III (trombone); Walter Davis Jr., Dave Burrell (piano); Ron Carter, Walter Booker (bass); Beaver Harris, Roy Haynes (drums). Producer: Bob Thiele Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna Recorded at RCA Studios, New York, New York, January 29, 1968 and National Recording Studios, New York, New York, February 26, 1969. Includes liner notes by Michael Cuscuna. Digitally remastered by Erick Labson using 20-bit technology at MCA Studios. This is part of Impulse's The New Thing Series. Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Charles Davis (baritone saxophone); Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn); Grachan Moncur III (trombone); Dave Burrell, Walter Davis, Jr. (piano); Roy Haynes, Beaver Harris (drums). Audio Remasterer: Erick Labson. Liner Note Author: Michael Cuscuna. Recording information: National Recording Studios, New York, NY (01/29/1968/02/26/1969); RCA Studios, New York, NY (01/29/1968/02/26/1969). Photographer: Chuck Stewart. The Way Ahead was a turning point for Archie Shepp. For starters, he had looked all over the jazz/improv arena for the proper combination of players -- without a piano. One can speculate that this was because he cut his first teeth with pianist Cecil Taylor and that would perhaps ruin anybody for life. Recorded in 1969, The Way Ahead featured Ron Carter on bass, Grachan Moncur III's trombone, Jimmy Owens' trumpet, and drums by either Beaver Harris or Roy Haynes, with Walter Davis, Jr. on piano. The set is a glorious stretch of the old and new, with deep blues, gospel, and plenty of guttersnipe swing in the mix. From the post-bop blues opener "Damn If I Know (The Stroller)," the set takes its Ellington-Webster cue and goes looking for the other side of Mingus. Shepp's solo is brittle, choppy, honky, and glorious against a set of changes gracefully employed by Moncur and Owens. Harris' stuttering, skittering rhythm may keep it anchored in the blues, but holds the line for anything else to happen. Likewise, the modern edge of things evidenced by Moncur's "Frankenstein" (first recorded with Jackie McLean's group in 1963) turns up the heat a bit more. Shepp's take is wholly different, accenting pedal points and microharmonics in the breaks. On "Sophisticated Lady" and "Fiesta," Haynes fills the drum chair and cuts his manic swinging time through the arrangements, lending them more of an elegant flair than perhaps they deserve here, though they also dig deeper emotionally than one would expect. The final two tracks on the CD are sessions left over from February 1969 that replace Davis with Dave Burrell and Carter with Walter Booker, and add Charles Davis on baritone with Harris on skins. They sound apart from these sessions, though; there is a fury and darkness in them that sucks a bit of the joyous party feel from the original album. ~ Thom Jurek

Saxophonist Archie Shepp was one of the key figures in the free-jazz movement of the 1960s. A follower of John Coltrane, Shepp paid tribute to his mentor on 1964's FOUR FOR TRANE. Shepp's approach was marked by fiery improvisations, the incorporation of a diverse array of black musical forms (from gospel to R&B), and an ideological focus on revolutionary politics and themes of black power and identity. Shepp continued to record and perform into the 2000s.

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