Blasé / Live At the Pan-African Festival (Disc 1) / Blase / Live At the Pan-African Festival (Disc 1)

When Archie Shepp titled his 1969 album Blasé, he wasn’t seeking to demonstrate indifference and boredom, but to overthrow it. By 1969, blues and gospel had just begun to become accepted by the white mainstream after decades of marginalization in the music industry. With Blasé, Shepp reclaims the deepest of African-American musical forms, and represents them with the harrowing furor they require. With players including vocalist Jeanne Lee, legendary drummer Philly Joe Jones, and members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Shepp deconstructs the blues into thrusting, grunting testimony on “My Angel.” The group’s reading of the hymn “There Is a Balm In Gilead” is surprisingly demure, although Lee and Shepp weave a current of pain through the piece that stings even in the quietest moments. The title track is the centerpiece: a moody, spacious blues that begins with a come-on and ends as a confrontation. Live at the Pan-African Festival is another snapshot of Shepp’s career during his exile in Paris. Appearing with huge ensembles of Algerian and Tuareg musicians, Shepp and his band conjure a stampeding herd, trampling over the jazz academy’s every rule and writ.