Attica Blues (album)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Rolling Stone	favorable
The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide

Attica Blues is an album by avant-garde jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp. Originally released in 1972 on the Impulse! label, the album title is a reference to the Attica Prison riots.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Steve Huey states: "Attica Blues is one of Shepp's most successful large-group projects, because his skillful handling of so many different styles of black music produces such tremendously groovy results". Stephen Davis of Rolling Stone said that it was "not just a masterpiece of protest: [...] it is more a politico/religious experience, an appeal to higher human consciousness to, for God's sake, help us out of this torment."

Track listing

All compositions by Archie Shepp except as indicated

1. "Attica Blues" (lyrics by Beaver Harris) – 4:49
2. "Invocation: Attica Blues" (Harris) – 0:18
3. "Steam, Part 1" – 5:08
4. "Invocation to Mr. Parker" (lyrics by Bart Gray) – 3:17
5. "Steam, Part 2" – 5:10
6. "Blues for Brother George Jackson" – 4:00
7. "Invocation: Ballad for a Child" (Harris) – 0:30
8. "Ballad for a Child" (lyrics by Harris) – 3:37
9. "Good-Bye Sweet Pops" (Cal Massey) – 4:23
10. "Quiet Dawn" (Massey) – 6:12

Recorded at A&R Recording, NYC, January 24–26, 1972

(Track timings slightly differ from one issue to another, due to merging tracks.)

Personnel

• Archie Shepp: tenor saxophone (1, 6, 8, 10) and soprano saxophone (3, 5, 9)
• Brass and reed section on tracks 1, 6, 9 and 10
  • Clifford Thornton: cornet
  • Roy Burrows, Charles McGhee, Michael Ridley: trumpet
  • Charles Greenlee, Charles Stephens, Kiane Zawadi: trombone
  • Hakim Jami: euphonium
  • Clarence White: alto saxophone
  • Roland Alexander, Billy Robinson: tenor saxophone
  • James Ware: baritone saxophone
• String section on tracks 1, 3, 5, and 8—10
  • John Blake, Leroy Jenkins, Lakshinarayana Shankar: violin
  • Ronald Lipscomb, Calo Scott: cello
• Marion Brown: alto saxophone (1, 6), bamboo flute (3), flute (4), percussion (3—5)
• Walter Davis, Jr.: electric piano (1, 6), piano (6, 8—10)
• Dave Burrell: electric piano (3, 5)
• Cornell Dupree: guitar (1, 3, 5, 8)
• Roland Wilson (1, 3, 5–6, 8), Gerald Jemmott (1): Fender bass
• Jimmy Garrison: bass (3—5, 9, 10)
• Beaver Harris (1, 3, 5–6, 8): drums
• Ollie Anderson, Nene DeFense, Juma Sultan: percussion (1, 6, 10)
• Vocals
  • Henry Hull (1, 8), Joe Lee Wilson (3, 5): vocals
  • William Kunstler (2, 7), Bartholomew Gray (4): narrator
  • Joshie Armstead, Albertine Robertson: backing vocals (1)
• Featured exclusively on tracks 9 and 10, written by Cal Massey
  • Romulus Franceschini: conductor and co-arranger
  • Cal Massey: fluegelhorn (10)
  • Waheeda Massey: vocals (10)
  • Billy Higgins: drums

External links

• BBC Music Review, Attica Blues
• Allmusic Review, Attica Blues

• Allmusic review
• Huey, S. Allmusic Review, accessed June 25, 2009.