The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet (Reissue)

• The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet – Trio
• The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet – Peace
• The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet – Quartet
• The Archie Shepp-Bill Dixon Quartet – Somewhere

• 1. Trio
• 2. Peace
• 3. Quartet
• 4. Somewhere

The unique quartet recordings by Archie Shepp and Bill Dixon, their only known recorded works together made for Savoy in October 1962. While the album undoubtedly swings, this piano-less quartet definitely prefigures the trailblazing free jazz work the two leaders would be involved in for the remainder of the decade, and beyond. An essential piece of early free jazz.

For approximately 18 months (from the fall of 1961 to June 1963), Archie Shepp and Bill Dixon co-led a group that varied in size between a quartet, quintet and sextet, depending on the gig. They mostly played coffee houses and small theaters in Greenwich Village, and travelled to Scandinavia in July 1962 for a series of concerts at the socialist-leaning First International Youth Festival in Helsinki.