Conversations

Kahil El'Zabar's Ritual Trio, Archie Shepp | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 29, 1999)
• Original Release Date: May 25, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Delmark
• ASIN: B00000IQN9
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,493 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Best of 1999

Maybe it's just Archie Shepp's preeminence over musicians who came in his wake or maybe it's his mahogany tone, big and thick. Then again, maybe it's Kahil El'Zabar's love of polyrhythms. But this marriage of Chicago's Ritual Trio and jazz veteran Shepp is an utterly compelling one. The whole CD bounces in broad jumps, taken at a midtempo pace with an ecumenical command of every post-bebop, acoustic-jazz style. --Andrew Bartlett

Amazon.com

This recording brings together two generations of the avant-garde, with the '60s John Coltrane-tutored tenor saxophonist-educator Archie Shepp teaming up with the Chicago-based Ritual Trio. Led by drummer-percussionist Kahil El'Zabar, the trio, with tenor saxophonist-pianist Ari Brown and bassist Malachi Favors, provides the perfect rhythmic and harmonic canvas for Shepp's stratospheric sax flights. As to be expected, 'Trane's spirit dominates the session, as evidenced by the florid, McCoy Tyner-like passages on "Crescent" and the vibe on "Conversations 1/The Introduction," "Whenever I Think of You," and "Revelations," which features Brown's smoother lines. Brown's elliptical solos illuminate the neoboppish "Kari," while Shepp's wails on "Conversations 2/The Dialogue" fly over the rhythm section's straight-ahead groove. El'Zabar's hand-drummed, Afro-anthems with Shepp and company's blues-tinged vocals choreograph the diaspora dances of "Big Fred," for the late bassist Fred Hopkins, and "Brother Malcolm," for Malcolm X. This dates proves that the avant-garde is alive and well in founding fathers like Archie Shepp, and in disciples like the Ritual Trio. --Eugene Holley Jr.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Archie Shepp in top form, April 17, 2000

By 

Ian Muldoon (Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Conversations (Audio CD)

Everything seems right about the music on this CD, from its somber arco bass and poignant piano chords and keening saxophone that open it with the drum a muffled background to the swinging joy of Big Fred with its vocals, congas and joyful groove to Conversation 2 (a highlight) a piano vamp, the yawp and call of the tenor, a bass figure, the splash of cymbals, which turns into a tour de force for Mr Shepp. An overall tribute to the late great bassist Mr Fred Hopkins, the notes by Neil Tesser open with the phrase "the miracle of improvised music" and to me the album represents some of the best improvised music has to offer. What a joy to hear Mr Shepp in full flight in such sympathetic company - it clearly sounds like a labour of love but the programming mirrors the traditional dirge to begin used in New Orleans funerals by jazzmen followed by the joy of release (eg, Flee as A Bird)on the return from the burial. Modern music acknowledging its heritage perhaps. All the compositions are by the leader Kahil El Zabar except track four - Whenever I Think of You by pianist and tenor saxophonist Mr Ari Brown (who by the way sounds uncannily like McCoy Tyner on this track.) Mr Shepp's control and expression and inventiveness is as good as I've ever heard it on record. Perhaps note up to his masterpiece Live at the Donaueschingen Music Festival but in terms of his tenor playing comparable to Trouble in Mind. I'm glad I bought this album.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best of 99, May 18, 2000

By 

riot67 (detroit) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conversations (Audio CD)

Few jazz records released these days sound this good and in ten or twenty years this should be a record that jazz fans and muscians alike are still playing and talking about. A tribute ablum to the late great bassist Fred Hopkins it is equally compelling and exploratory though somewhat more excessible than many of Shepps recordings. The general feeling of the session is one of four musicans at ease with themselves and each other sharing a spiritual kindred that is rarely evident in music today. Shepp is in top form and Kahil El'Zabars Ritual Trio which includes the great Malachi Favors and the formidable Ari Brown is equally impressive. As a whole this lp is a must and is perhaps the best jazz release of 1999 definitely worth a 5 star rating as a believe it is destined to become a classic. Buy now!

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Archie at his Best, March 14, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Conversations (Audio CD)

This is Archie Shepp at his best. This is not the honking Archie of Coltrane days, but a mature, skilled sax player who weaves in an out of melodic lines driven by a powerful rhythm section. This is one of the more enjoyable CD's I've purchased in the last year.