From 1964,
Archie Shepp's first date as a leader featured -- as one would expect from the title -- four tunes by
John Coltrane, his mentor, his major influence, and his bandleader. The fact that this album holds up better than almost any of
Shepp's records nearly 40 years after the fact has plenty to do with the band he chose for this session, and everything to do with the arranging skills of trombonist
Roswell Rudd. The band here is
Shepp on tenor,
John Tchicai on alto,
Rudd on trombone, Trane's bassist
Reggie Workman, and
Ornette Coleman's drummer
Charles Moffett. Even in 1964, this was a powerhouse, beginning with a bluesed-out wailing version of "Syeeda's Song Flute." This version is ingenious, with
Shepp allowing
Rudd to arrange for solos for himself and
Tchicai up front and
Rudd punching in the blues and gospel in the middle, before giving way to double time by
Workman and
Moffett. The rawness of the whole thing is so down-home you're ready to tell someone to pass the butter beans when listening.
Rudd's arrangement of "Naima" is also stunningly beautiful: He reharmonizes the piece for the mid-register tone of
Shepp, who does his best
Ben Webster and adds a microtonal tag onto the front and back, dislocating the tune before it begins and after it ends, while keeping it just out of the range of the consonant throughout. Wonderful! The only
Shepp original here is "Rufus (Swung, His Face at Last to the Wind, Then His Neck Snapped)." It's not a terribly sophisticated tune, but it works in the context of this band largely because of the soloing prowess of all the members -- particularly
Tchicai -- here. There is barely any melody, the key changes are commensurate with tempo shifts, and the harmonics are of the sliding scale variety. Still, there are the blues; no one can dig into them and honk them better than
Shepp. When it came to sheer exuberance and expression, he was a force to be reckoned with in his youth, and it shows in each of the tunes recorded here.
Four for Trane is a truly fine, original, and lasting album from an under-celebrated musician. ~ Thom Jurek