Archie Shepp – The Way Ahead [Stereo] (Verve Record Club Series Edition)

(AAA) — Lacquers cut from the original analog master tapes by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound.

This is saxophonist Archie Shepp’s first album with a pianist and it brings an immediate accessibility to his music which was not there before. It is perhaps most obvious on the funky ”Frankenstein” by trombonist Grachan Moncour III who forms a three horn frontline together with Shepp and trumpeter Jimmy Owens. It is not just that Shepp uses a pianist, the rhythm section is the most professional of all he had worked with up to that time. Pianist Walter Davis Jr had played with Art Blakey, and bassist Ron Carter had just left Miles Davis. The drum duties are split between Shepp’s regular drummer Beaver Harris, and Roy Haynes who have played with everyone from Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughn to John Coltrane.

* Mastered from analog sources

* Pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI)

* Numbered Tip on Gatefold Jacket

* Limited to just 2,500 copies

(Above description from VerveRecords.com)