Archie Shepp

Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp in Warsaw, 2008
Background information
Born	(1937-05-24) May 24, 1937 (age 79) Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
Genres	Jazz, free jazz, avant-garde jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, composer
Instruments	Tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone, piano, vocals
Years active	1960–present
Labels	Impulse!, SteepleChase Arista, Delmark, BYG Actuel
Associated acts	Cecil Taylor John Coltrane Horace Parlan
Website	www.archieshepp.com

Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist. Shepp is best known for his passionately Afrocentric music of the late 1960s, which focused on highlighting the injustices faced by African Americans, as well as for his work with the New York Contemporary Five, Horace Parlan, and his collaborations with his "New Thing" contemporaries, most notably Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane.

Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied piano, clarinet and alto saxophone before focusing on tenor saxophone (he occasionally plays soprano saxophone and piano). Shepp studied drama at Goddard College from 1955 to 1959, but he eventually turned to music professionally. He played in a Latin jazz band for a short time before joining the band of avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor. Shepp's first recording under his own name, Archie Shepp - Bill Dixon Quartet, was released on Savoy Records in 1962, and featured a composition by Ornette Coleman. Further links to Coleman came with the establishment of the New York Contemporary Five, which included Don Cherry. John Coltrane's admiration led to recordings for Impulse! Records, the first of which was Four for Trane in 1964, an album of mainly Coltrane compositions on which he was joined by his long-time friend, trombonist Roswell Rudd, bassist Reggie Workman and alto player John Tchicai.