Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marion Brown: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited

Marion Brown: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited

By Mark Corroto
June 1, 2024
View read count

Marion Brown: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited

It's not too late to catch up with alto saxophonist and composer

Marion Brown

saxophone, alto
1931 - 2010

" data-original-title="" title="">Marion Brown. Thanks to this excellent reissue and remaster series, you can hear the innovative recordings from this master musician. This release follows his 1965/66 discs Capricorn Moon To Juba Lee Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2019) and 1966/67 discs Why Not? Porto Novo! Revisited (ezz-thetics, 2020).

Chris May's excellent liner notes posit an answer to Brown's relative obscurity. He essentially lays the blame on marketing. Record labels and their PR staff favored predictable one-dimensional musicians back in the 1960s and 70s and Brown was never one to be pinned down or labeled. Judging by the sessions of other artists he played on,

John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane's Ascension (Impulse!, 1966),

Archie Shepp

saxophone, tenor
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Archie Shepp's Fire Music (Impulse!, 1965), Attica Blues (Impulse!, 1972), and Burton Greene
piano
1937 - 2021
" data-original-title="" title="">Burton Greene Quartet (ESP-Disk, 1966), plus a series of musicians that he practiced with including

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra and

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman, he was considered an esteemed member of the jazz avant-garde. Additionally, Brown would eventually invite

Anthony Braxton

woodwinds
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Anthony Braxton,

Wadada Leo Smith

trumpet
b.1941

" data-original-title="" title="">Wadada Leo Smith,

Mal Waldron

piano
1925 - 2002

" data-original-title="" title="">Mal Waldron,

Han Bennink

drums
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Han Bennink,

Andrew Cyrille

drums
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Andrew Cyrille,

Rashied Ali

drums
1935 - 2009

" data-original-title="" title="">Rashied Ali, and

Chick Corea

piano
1941 - 2021

" data-original-title="" title="">Chick Corea to record on his own projects.

Three For Shepp is inscribed to his mentor, as Archie Shepp dedicated his Four For Trane (Impulse! 1965) to Coltrane. The album has three original compositions and three Shepp covers. Brown's eclecticism is evident throughout. His "New Blue" and Shepp's "Delicado" track the New Thing vibe of the 1960s, especially the sounds of Ornette Coleman. Both tracks allow listeners to contrast the piano attack of

Dave Burrell

piano
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Dave Burrell vs.

Stanley Cowell

piano
1941 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">Stanley Cowell and the drumming of

Bobby Kapp

drums
b.1942

" data-original-title="" title="">Bobby Kapp (the original release lists him as 'Bobby Capp') vs.

Beaver Harris

drums
b.1936

" data-original-title="" title="">Beaver Harris. That multi-dimension aspect of Brown is evident here with the gorgeous space travel of "Fortunado," the talking-in-tongues "The Shadow Knows," the

Sonny Rollins

saxophone
b.1930

" data-original-title="" title="">Sonny Rollins' Caribbean sounding "West India," and the retro-swing of "Spooks."

With Gespr?chsfetzen Brown shares leadership with multi-instrumentalist and composer

Gunter Hampel

woodwinds
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Gunter Hampel who sticks to vibraphone and bass clarinet here. The title track, composed by Brown, feels more like a free-for-all group improvisation. It pairs Hampel's vibraphone and Brown's alto before the remainder of the band enters dividing hesitant solos between the players. "Exhibit A" is Brown unaccompanied working the outside edges of sound and his alto. The ensemble switches gear (again) with "Babudah" which comes from the

Gil Evans

composer / conductor
1912 - 1988

" data-original-title="" title="">Gil Evans/

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis canon and "Aba" a cinematic meditation, all to the dismay of a corporate marketing department.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

New Blue; Fortunato; The Shadow Knows; Spooks; West India; Delicado; Gesprachsfetzen; Exhibit A; Babudah; Tomorrow Is the Beginning of the End of Yesterday; Aba.

Personnel

Marion Brown

saxophone, alto

Grachan Moncur III

trombone

Dave Burrell

piano

Stanley Cowell

piano

Beaver Harris

drums

Gunter Hampel

woodwinds

Norris Jones

bass, acoustic

Bobby Kapp

drums

Ambrose Jackson

trumpet

Buschi Niedergall

bass, acoustic

Steve McCall

drums

Burton Greene

piano

Additional Instrumentation

Gunter Hampel: vibraphone and bass clarinet.

Album information

Title: Three For Shepp To Gesprachsfetzen Revisited | Year Released: 2024 | Record Label: Ezz-thetics

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Otis Taylor at Dazzle
< Previous

Paul Auster: The Jazz Music of Chanc...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.