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Archie Shepp

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Musician

The Resume

    (May 24, 1937- )
    Born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
    Jazz saxophonist
    Performed with Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane
    Recorded the albums ‘Four for Trane’ (1964), ‘New Thing at Newport’ (with John Coltrane, 1965), ‘Fire Music’ (1965), ‘The Magic of Ju-Ju’ (1968), ‘Poem for Malcolm’ (1969), ‘Attica Blues’ (1972), ‘The Cry of My People’ (1972), ‘A Sea of Faces’ (with Shirley Bunnie Foy, 1975), ‘Lady Bird’ (1978), ‘Archie Shepp Plays Sidney Bechet’ (1981), ‘Blue Ballads’ (1995), ‘Conversations’ (with Kahil El’Zabar’s Ritual Trio, 1999), and ‘Phat Jam in Milano’ (2009)
    Wrote the plays ‘The Communists’ (1965), ‘Junebug Graduates Tonight’ (1967), and ‘Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy’ (1972)

Why he might be annoying:

    He initially planned to be a lawyer.
    He participated in the sessions for John Coltrane’s classic ‘A Love Supreme,’ but none of the takes he played on were included on the released album.
    He performed poetry readings on his albums.
    Admitting that his output was often uneven, he noted, ‘One advantage of being an avant-garde player [is] people don’t know the difference.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He incorporated traditional African music into his recordings.
    He performed at the Organization for African Unity’s Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algiers (1969).
    He was a professor of music at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a professor of African-American studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
    He was named a NEA Jazz Master (2016).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying