Wednesday 22 July 2009

Archie Shepp & Karin Krog - Hi-fly (1976)

A landmark meeting from one of the two greatest talents in jazz on the 70s European scene
vocalist Karin Krog and saxophonist Archie Shepp both coming together in an extremely evocative session! The work has a very moody feel as Krog's singing in a spacious tone that allows for plenty of tenor work by Shepp done in a mode that colors in the spaces between the words, and made all that much better by support from his regular group members Charles Greenlee and Beaver Harris.
Shepp was hitting a more traditional tone at this point in his career but as with his other recordings of the same time, there's still a strongly modernist undercurrent that shines through nicely.
Combined with Krog's vocals, the result is a beautiful approach that really opens up jazz standards like "Soul Eyes", "Solitude", and "Hi Fly" and which is matched perfectly for Shepp's "Steam" and Carla Bley's "Sing Me Softly Of the Blues".

1.Sing Me Softly of the Blues
2.Steam
3.Daydream
4.Solitude
5.Hi Fly
6.Soul Eyes.

Karin Krog - vocals
Archie Shepp - tenor sax
Charles Greenlee - trombone
Jon Balke - piano
Arild Andersen - bass
Beaver Harris - drums
Cameron Brown - bass.

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