Name: The Way Ahead
Brand: Grp Records
SKU: 15261
Price: 69.94 SGD
Availability: InStock

Performer Notes

This 1998 reissue contains 2 bonus tracks.
Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Charles Davis (baritone saxophone); Jimmy Owens (trumpet); Grachan Moncur III (trombone); Walter Davis Jr., Dave Burrell (piano); Ron Carter, Walter Booker (bass); Beaver Harris, Roy Haynes (drums).
Producer: Bob Thiele
Reissue producer: Michael Cuscuna
Recorded at RCA Studios, New York, New York, January 29, 1968 and National Recording Studios, New York, New York, February 26, 1969. Includes liner notes by Michael Cuscuna.
Digitally remastered by Erick Labson using 20-bit technology at MCA Studios.
This is part of Impulse's The New Thing Series.
Personnel: Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone); Charles Davis (baritone saxophone); Jimmy Owens (trumpet, flugelhorn); Grachan Moncur III (trombone); Dave Burrell, Walter Davis, Jr. (piano); Roy Haynes, Beaver Harris (drums).
Audio Remasterer: Erick Labson.
Liner Note Author: Michael Cuscuna.
Recording information: National Recording Studios, New York, NY (01/29/1968/02/26/1969); RCA Studios, New York, NY (01/29/1968/02/26/1969).
Photographer: Chuck Stewart.
The Way Ahead was a turning point for Archie Shepp. For starters, he had looked all over the jazz/improv arena for the proper combination of players -- without a piano. One can speculate that this was because he cut his first teeth with pianist Cecil Taylor, and that could ruin anybody for life. Recorded in 1969, The Way Ahead featured Ron Carter on bass, Grachan Moncur III's trombone, Jimmy Owens' trumpet, and drums by either Beaver Harris or Roy Haynes, with Walter Davis, Jr. on piano. The set is a glorious stretch of the old and new, with deep blues, gospel, and plenty of guttersnipe swing in the mix. From the post-bop blues opener "Damn If I Know (The Stroller)," the set takes its Ellington-Webster cue and goes looking for the other side of Mingus. Shepp's solo is brittle, choppy, honky, and glorious against a set of changes gracefully employed by Moncur and Owens. Harris' stuttering, skittering rhythm may keep it anchored in the blues, but holds the line for anything else to happen. Likewise, the modern edge of things evidenced by Moncur's "Frankenstein" (first recorded with Jackie McLean's group in 1963) turns up the heat a bit more. Shepp's take is wholly different, accenting pedal points and microharmonics in the breaks. On "Sophisticated Lady" and "Fiesta," Haynes fills the drum chair and cuts his manic swinging time through the arrangements, lending them more of an elegant flair than perhaps they deserve here, though they also dig deeper emotionally than one would expect. ~ Thom Jurek

Album: The Way Ahead
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Damn If I Know (The Stroller)
2)	Frankenstein
3)	Fiesta
4)	Sophisticated Lady
5)	New Africa - (bonus track)
6)	Bakai - (bonus track)

Album: The Way Ahead
#	Song Title	Time
1)	Damn If I Know (The Stroller)
2)	Frankenstein
3)	Fiesta
4)	Sophisticated Lady
5)	New Africa - (bonus track)
6)	Bakai - (bonus track)