Making jazz history in Copenhagen

Archie Shepp + The New York Contemporary Five: Vol. 2

Archie Shepp, tenor sax
Don Cherry, cornet
John Tchicai, alto sax
Don Moore, bass
J. C. Mose, drums

Two LPs' worth of music by Archie Shepp + The New York Contemporary Five were recorded at the Montmartre jazz club in Copenhagen in 1963. A previous CD tried to include both, but a track had to be dropped because of lack of space on the disc. This reissue of the second volume is welcome; short measure at less than forty minutes, but this remastering is excellent, and it wouldn't do to leave out any music this amazing. This may be jazz of an avant garde variety - post-bop or hard bop, on the way to free jazz - but it gets under your skin after a while. I guess that's what was intended!

This was the swan song for The New York Contemporary Five, with this lineup, at least. Soon Shepp and others in the group began to work with Ornette Coleman, making new kinds of jazz history. Here, from the Montmartre session, the group plays Coleman's Emotions.