Attica Blues Big Band, the project - Planete-Aurora

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Attica Big Band, the project Attica Blues, born in 1971, is on the one hand a Big Band in it’s fourth incarnation, and on the other hand a music collection that has been accumulated for years. The artwork of Archie Shepp is at a crossroad, a meeting point between politic and art, where Black Musics meet their «sophisticated» cousins and descendants - a gap that Attica Blues overcomes. It’s a collision between all the rhythms, the swings and the grooves of the Great Black Music through the years. It’s an expression of the black identity, political and artistic, that never stopped and has been reinvented all along it’s history. Giving birth again to this project in Europe makes sens because it’s still really modern. Because the fight and the music of blacks deeply influenced world culture, and because it has been led since it’s creation by a musician and an activist, who was situated precisely at this crossroad, all along it’s 55 years old career. Archie Shepp embodies in a unique and powerful way the African-American experience. His music, his songs, his voice, and even the way he walks are representative of Blues music. He was born in a time of segregation, in the black ghetto of Fort Lauderdale, a short time after Rubin Stacey was beaten to death because he was black. He witnessed the Civil Right movement, the Black Power - and got actively involved in New York at the age of twenty - the revolutions, the repressions and the deceptions. He is one of the leaders of Free Jazz, a very radical music because it is close to the roots of black music and is influenced by it’s history, ( collective improvisation, commitment, narrative dimension, folk form, souvenirs of the African past...) and at the same time deeply new, even revolutionary. On September 13th 1971, the state governor of New York, Nemson Rockefeller, put and end to the negotiations with the mutinies of Attica Detention Centre and decided to take it by force. It turned out that 9 out of 10 hostages got killed by the police. During weeks after the uprising, the guardians, all white, got revenge - humiliations, tortures - on the prisoners. 60% of them were black. The prison authorities knew and didn’t do anything to stop it. As a reaction, a short time after, Archie Shepp composed and recorded Attica Blues. This music is a patchwork of spiritual music, blues music, ellingtonian orchestrations or funk. The whole project in also influenced by free music... From anger to joy, from sadness to hope ... It is deeply one. Beyond their diversity, it expresses the unity of the African Americans, their history, their aesthetic creations and political ideas. In 1979, during a concert to be remembered at the Palais des Glaces, that was recorded live, Archi Sheep set Attica Blues Big Band up again and added new tracks, always aiming at the same goal. 3
Attica Big Band, the project Since then, Shepp never stopped working on the African American heritage, more particularly those last few years with rap musicians (Chuck D from Public Enemy, Napoleon Maddox, Rocé) continuing the story with the last born of the popular black music stream. Following that pattern, Attica Blues, won’t lose it’s identity, deeply black and American, and is opened to new compositions and to a new generation of musicians. As a matter of fact, to a whole continent of musicians. All along the 20th century up to today, the influence of black culture has never stopped spreading. There is very few modern musics that are not influenced by it. The struggle for freedom of the African Americans was an example to the world. The strong link between «avant-garde» and popularity, that makes that culture so dynamic, has inspired many artistic movements. Those movements found their strength and their roots in the Brut. This simple listing aims at explaining the universal goal of Attica Blues. And creating this new group, as a melting pot of generations and cultures makes sens : it’s the reflection of the universal. Martin Sarrazac 4
Page 1 and 2: A t t i c a B l u e s B i g B a n d
Page 3: Attica Blues Big Band, the project
Page 7 and 8: Archie Shepp Saxophone player, comp
Page 9 and 10: Ambrose Akinmusire http://www.ambro
Page 11 and 12: Francois Théberge www.cnsmdp.fr/en
Page 13 and 14: Darryl Hall Bassist; b. Philadelphi
Page 15: Marion Rampal www.myspace.com/mario

Attica Blues Big Band, the project - Planete-Aurora

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