13. Archie SheppAttica Blues
Genre-defying. Archie Shepp is a total genius. But most of all I love all the singing on this. The project is dealing with a lot of anger and outrage, but it’s funnelled into these really beautiful songs. And that’s a really interesting way of dealing with anger. Almost every song has moments of chaos that then come under control, and the control side of it doesn’t feel like repression, it feels like: “We’ve dealt with it, now we’re focused and ready to do what’s next”. I go back to this album when I’m in chaos mode, when I need to straighten some shit out. It returns me to centre and reminds me that shit is going to be all right if you work at it. Sometimes, free jazz experiments are about letting the chaos be chaos, but this feels more like acknowledging the chaos and letting it, exist and then figuring out what do we do with it.
