by Scott Yanow
This particular early Archie Shepp recording has its strong moments, although it is a bit erratic. Four selections utilize an advanced sextet. Of these songs, &Hambone& has overly repetitive and rather monotonous riffing by the horns behind the soloists, and Shepp's bizarre exploration of &The Girl From Ipanema& gets tedious, but the episodic &Los Olvidaos& is quite colorful, and the tenorman sounds fine on a spacy rendition of &Prelude to a Kiss.& &Malcolm, Malcolm-Semper Malcolm& has Shepp reading a brief poem for the fallen Malcolm X before he jams effectively on tenor in a trio with bassist David Izenzon and drummer J.C. Moses. Overall, this set, even with its faults, is recommended. [The CD is rounded out by a &bonus& cut not on the original LP -- a live version of &Hambone& that is much more interesting than the earlier rendition.]