At the time of recording the album Attica Blues in 1972, saxophonist Archie Shepp has
behind him a reputation as a champion of African-American cause in jazz. After
participating in the launch of free jazz with saxophonist Ornette Coleman and pianist
Cecil Taylor, he meets Coltrane and his musicians that open the doors of the Impulse
label!, Renowned for producing avant-garde incurred. In an interview with U.S. magazine
SPIT dating from 1990, he returns to this pivotal moment in the civil rights movement and
free jazz: "Blacks and whites who had previously listened to black music exclusively for
entertaining began seriously listen to John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor,
Albert Ayler and myself. I think we have expanded the horizons of music, and young whites
were politicized through us as well as the civil rights movement ".
For writing 'of Attica Blues , Shepp, with trumpeter Cal Massey, inspired by the mutiny of
the Attica prison in upstate New York, and the massacre that followed. The mutiny broke
out in 1971 after the death of a leader of the Black Panthers, George Jackson was murdered
by a guard at the notorious San Quentin prison in California. In retaliation, some of the
prisoners of Attica wearing a black armband and refuses to participate in the prison.
Mutiny bearing fruit and prisoners from African-American and Puerto Rican communities,
raise claims against racism guards and better conditions of life against prison
overcrowding (Attica contained 2,300 inmates to a prison scheduled for 1600) for access to
care, for better education in prison and a minimum basic wage claims as showers or toilet
paper at will. Forty-two guards and civilian administration were taken hostage, a
committee of prison, the Front for the Liberation of Attica, was elected. After four days
of mutiny and negotiation with the authorities, the Republican governor, Nelson
Rockefeller, gave orders to the army to launch the assault. The balance will be 39 dead:
10 guards and 29 prisoners. In this time of great racial tension, where the memory of the
Watts riots of 1965 is still strong, there are many artists who use various medium to give
vent to their anger. One can cite the group spoken word , The Last Poets, considered the
pioneers of rap and hip-hop.
Shepp is one of those artists. Several months after the events of Attica, he meets 37
musicians and singers (5 vocalists, 14 brass, percussion, strings...). In the ranks, we
note the presence of Jimmy Garrison, bass Coltrane and Clifford Thornton, musicologist and
cornet, who participated in the Pan-African jazz festival in Algiers in 1969 and was
banned from entering France in 1970 following a concert Support Black Panthers. The album
begins with the title track Attica Blues , powerful jazz-funk big band where the leaves
scream his fury. Intersected by the deep voice of the lawyer and mediator committed during
the events of Attica, William Kunstler, the album varies these styles, a detuned music
accompanying a song mid-mid-ballad crooner and a strong rhythmic accompanying flights of
Saxophone Shepp. The last piece Quiet Daw , sung by Waheeda Massey, daughter of Cal Massey
gives a frightening impression of the frail voice of the girl and the sound of free
soloist on a background of classical orchestra that seems outdated, as a willingness to
express a fragile freedom in a world seemingly well adjusted. This album combines the
classicism of the big bands and the emerging funk, unfolds as a soundtrack for a film that
was, unfortunately, a reality. It was recorded in four days as an emergency, as the will
to respond spontaneously to the tragedy of Attica.
Simultaneous recording 'of Attica Blues Archie Shepp recorded the album The Cry of My
People , whose title leaves no doubt about the rage that unleashes jazzman. In 1979, Shepp
saves the entire 'of Attica Blues at the Ice Palace in Paris and in September 2012 he
returned to Paris at Jazz ? la Villette, replay with his Attica Blues Big Band and
celebrate the 50th anniversary of his album mythical reminder that the issue of racism is
far from settled.
Martial (AL Saint-Denis)
Archie Shepp Attica Blues , Universal Music Division Classics Jazz, 1972.
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