Recorded in November 1995, saxophonist
Archie Shepp's
Blue Ballads is a counterpart to
True Ballads and
Something to Live For, which date from the same period. All three albums feature pianist
John Hicks, bassist
George Mraz, and drummer
Idris Muhammad. These intimate studies in shared introspection, along with
Black Ballads and
True Blue, document
Shepp's astute exploration of the ballad form during the 1990s. On
Blue Ballads Shepp mingled time-honored standards such as
Rodgers & Hart's "Little Girl Blue,"
Arthur Schwartz's "Alone Together," and
Vincent Youmans' "More Than You Know" with the
Miles Davis-
Bill Evans masterpiece "Blue in Green" and "Blue and Sentimental," which had served as the feature number for
Count Basie's star tenor saxophonist
Herschel Evans some 60 years earlier. Once again and in all the best ways,
Shepp shines in parallel with his contemporary
Pharoah Sanders. Both are skilled balladeers as well as free spirits who simply cannot be bottled or pigeonholed.