Ocean Bridges

Since beginning his jazz career with the Cecil Taylor Quartet in 1960, saxophonist Archie Shepp has sought to illuminate the influence and evolution of the African Diaspora in modern culture in music, literature (as a poet and playwright), and education (he taught university for 30 years). Ocean Bridges is a collaboration with nephew Jason Moore (rapper/children's author Raw Poetic) and DJ/producer Earl Davis (aka Damu the Fudgemunk). It marks Shepp's first recorded foray into hip-hop. Moore sent numerous projects to Shepp over two decades, but after the saxophonist heard the collaborative work by Moore and Damu the Fudgemunk, he signed on readily. Ocean Bridges was 100-percent improvised live in the studio, placing it firmly in the jazz and freestyle wheelhouses. Shepp plays tenor and soprano saxophones and Wurlitzer, Raw Poetic is primarily a vocalist and lyricist, and Damu plays drums, vibes, and turntables. The rest of the band includes guitarist Pat Fritz, keyboardist Aaron Gause, bassist Luke Stewart, Jamal Moore on tenor and clarinet, and Bashi Rose on drums and percussion. In "Learning to Breathe," Raw Poetic's fire-spitting delivery is mic'd at the level of the increasingly funky vamp. The ensemble chants the refrain in unison, and Shepp's tenor soloing moves from inside to outside and back. "Aperture" starts as spacy free jazz with an Afrobeat snare accented by upright bass; Shepp and Jamal Moore trade lines as vibes and scratching turntables fill in the sonic margins. Raw Poetic's rhymes are furious and edifying; they iterate gratitude, anger, unity, collective suffering, the collective creative impulse, and survival. Shepp switches to soprano; his tone and range on both instruments are much more physical than in the last few decades. "Moving Maps" weds turntablism, guitar, and Wurlitzer in an airy, spacious mix that showcases Raw Poetic at his smoothest as Shepp blows soul-jazz underneath. Between each tune are numbered spoken interludes called "Professor Shepp's Agenda." They're off-the-cuff teachings in sociology, political awareness, and cultural reform, and none are preachy. In the first one, Shepp critiques the "anti-academic feeling among black kids" and laments that education "has become a bad word," in America. "Searching Souls" finds upright bass, electric guitar, and keyboards all seeking a vamp but Shepp's tenor establishes it. Raw Poetic describes the countless contributions the African Diaspora has made to the developed world, even as its descendants continually seek new forms of self-determination and expression. Ocean Bridges is inviting; its grooves and lyric flows never let go, making the attraction for modern jazz listeners and cutting-edge hip-hop fans palpable. The set's relaxed pace reveals instrumental music and speech as roots of the same metalinguistic tree, with rap, poetry, and polemic as its fertile branches. Because of the urgency, affirmation, and deeply moving immediacy of this project's voices funneled through an organic process of creation, Ocean Bridges stands in a class of its own.