Three For A Quarter, One For A Dime

ARCHIE SHEPP
Three For A Quarter, One For A Dime
impulse! AS-9162
Recorded February 19th, 1966 at the Both/And Club

Side 1

1. Three For A Quarter

Side 2

1. One For A Dime

PERSONNEL

ARCHIE SHEPP; tenor sax and piano
DONALD GARRETT; bass
BEAVER HARRIS; drums
ROSWELL RUDD; trombone
LEWIS WORRELL; bass

Recorded at the same gig as 'Live in San Francisco', this 1966 recording reveals the darker side of Shepp's 1966 group. This period was Shepp's angriest, anger about the plight of African-Americans that gave him such creative drive.

Sometimes, though, his creativity became blurred by his furious worldview. This album stands as one of his most passionate, but subtle it is not. The loud, intense blowing of side one of this album stands as the wildest in his discography.

The track names given above are superfluous - this is one piece of music split into two by the imperatives of the LP format. Much of side one is taken up by the type of free blowing described above - torrents of 16th notes expressing Shepp's rage at the difficulties faced by his people. As he says in the liner note for sister LP 'Live In San Francisco' - "This music has to get back to the people because it is the people who produced it". Unfortunately, few of the people would be inclined to listen to this type of free expressionism. Perhaps this failure to communicate effectively with his intended audience was one of the reasons for Shepp's exploration and subsequent appropriation of the history of black music.

Side two is a little lighter in tone; after completing his solo (running for an amazing 20 minutes!), some entertaining interplay heralds the entry of Rudd with a more lyrical effort than i'd usually associate him with. Shepp features on piano as accompaniment to Rudd, pushing him farther out with each passing moment.

This is incredible music, full of life - anger, passion, rage, and some of the most intense ever recorded by Shepp.