Four for Trane

Occupation

• Tenor saxophone: Archie Shepp
• Trumpet: Alan Shorter
• Trumpet Roswell Rudd
• Alto Saxophone: John Tchicai
• Bass: Reggie Workman
• Drums: Charles Moffett
• Arranger: Roswell Rudd

Four for Trane is a jazz album by Archie Shepp, recorded in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on August 10, 1964 and released on Impulse! Records.

The album

In 1965, saxophonist Archie Shepp a brief collaboration with John Coltrane, which should have a corresponding impact on his future work began. So Shepp played at various club guest performances with Coltrane; an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival Shepp has been paired with a Coltrane album ( New Thing at Newport, Impulse! A 94 ).

This development was preceded by the analysis of Coltrane's compositions and his playing style with the recorded in August 1964 album Four for Trane. The pieces, including four Coltrane compositions, which came from the Atlantic phase after 1959, immediately show the great influence John Coltrane on his musical environment of that time. Archie Shepp had for this session, his first for the young jazz label Impulse!, Musicians of the then avant-garde jazz is involved, such as the alto saxophonist John Tchicai and trombonist Roswell Rudd, who had previously played with Milford Graves in the New York Art Quartet. With Tchicai and Don Cherry Shepp had previously worked in the New York Contemporary Five formation.

Other players were the bassist Reggie Workman, who had previously played with Coltrane in his appearances on stage at New York's Village Vanguard and on his album Africa / Brass in 1961, the drummer Charles Moffett, of the - admired by Shepp - had worked Ornette Coleman, and the relatively remained unknown trumpeter Alan Shorter, older brother of saxophonist Wayne Shorter, whose recording debut was this plate. Roswell Rudd also acted as arranger of the session.

The first title, " Syeeda 's Song Flute ", Coltrane's composition from his album Giant Steps, established in 1959, is a coming of Blues Shepp in a boisterous interplay of saxophonist with Roswell Rudd.

"Mr. Syms, "which grossed Coltrane in October 1960 (published on Coltrane Plays the Blues ), is initially continued the blues feeling; it starts with a solo by Alan Shorter, with short sharp staccato tips, the Archie Shepp responds and finally appends his solo with his typical Überblas technique. The piece ends with the thematic ensemble playing.

His famous composition " Cousin Mary " took Coltrane in May 1959 also for the Giant Steps album. Here it starts with the short unison game of the brass section, from the Archie Shepp immediately erupts with a creaking solo, surrounded by the brass section that briefly alludes to the cousin Mary- topic again and again. The following is a - immediately aware wegspielende from the original John Coltrane - interpretation of " Naima ", the Arranger Rudd " Niema " calls; an open plan Ensemble suite. Morton and Cook described the harmonious conception of Four for Trane, which dispenses with a piano as an accompanying instrument, as free and flowing, the Coltrane himself would have not tried for themselves. Critics raise particular John Tchicais solo in the last track, " Rufus " out, the only composed by Shepp title of the album; it decide with its dramatic end, a set of powerful and committed music.

Album Review

Richard Cook and Brian Morton, which provided in its Penguin Guide to Jazz Four for Trane with the second highest rating, consider the album as one of the classic jazz albums of the 1960s, and a fascinating look at how the triggered by Coltrane musical revolution might sound. LeRoi Jones in his liner notes indicates the importance Shepp as a post- Coltrane saxophonist gained through this work and a deep emotional respect, the Shepp paid tribute to one of his idols, on the other hand, escaped the temptation to enact Coltrane, but rather his own roots - just like the game of Ben Webster and Sonny Rollins - into the conception of the album. The All Music Guide, with the highest rating, characterizes the album, praising the power of independent arrangements of Roswell Rudd and the blues accentuated solos by Shepp and Tchicai.

The music magazine Jazzwise recorded the album in the list The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World; Keith Shadwick wrote:

The title

The album cover, photographed by Chuck Stewart, shows Coltrane and Shepp.