ARCHIE SHEPP

Archie Shepp was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, in 1937. He grew up in the Philadelphia ghetto and later attended Goddard College in Vermont, where he majored in drama.

Always a prolific musician, Shepp began playing tenor sax full-time while at Goddard, which eventually led him into the New York jazz scene, where he met pianist Cecil Taylor. In 1959, the Taylor-Shepp group replaced Jackie McLean and Freddie Redd in performing the background music for the celebrated Jack Gelber play, The Connection. Shepp performed on one Cecil Taylor album, Air, and with Cecil and other musicians on Gil Evans’ Into the Hot. In 1963, he lead a band with trombonist Bill Dixon, and later was a member of the New York Contemporary Five, which also included saxophone player John Tchichai, trumpeter Don Cherry and drummer J.C. Moses.