Goin' Home (Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan album)

After rising to the top of the avant-garde jazz movement during the 1960s, Archie Shepp faced a career challenge during the 1970s after the style lost popularity in the jazz scene, which had split between artists who played either a tamer or a more experimental sound. Shepp became a more mainstream performer, mostly playing hard bop, although he would occasionally return to his free jazz sound. To support himself financially, he spent most of his time playing in Europe. In 1972, jazz pianist Horace Parlan left the United States and eventually settled in Denmark, where Shepp had signed to SteepleChase Records. recorded ''Goin' Home with Parlan. They recorded the album on April 25, 1977, at Sweet Silence Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. Shepp played tenor saxophone on six pieces and soprano saxophone on three others. Both Shepp and Parlan were artistically satisfied with Goin' Home and recorded another album together, the blues-inspired Trouble in Mind'', in 1980. == Composition and performance ==

According to music journalist Tom Moon, ''Goin' Home'' is a reverent jazz and gospel album played with straightforward simplicity by Shepp and Parlan. They interpret nine traditional Negro spirituals, featuring African-American folk melodies that originated from the 1920s and before. Shepp and Parlan's reverent takes on "Amazing Grace" and Go Down Moses" exhibit split tones and fortes. == Release and reception ==

''Goin' Home'' was first released in 1977 by the Danish label SteepleChase Records. It was reissued on CD by SteepleChase on May 3, 1994. Jazz listeners were divided in their reaction to the album. According to Doug Ramsey of Texas Monthly, some listeners were surprised by Shepp's stylistic change, while others viewed the record as a "fulfillment of promise". Ramsey believed it revealed a "tenderness and humor" from Shepp that his 1960s work only hinted at, writing that it "disclosed an Archie Shepp that many had never known, warm rather than blistering hot, witty rather than contemptuously sardonic". John Swenson, writing in The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide (1985), praised Shepp's work with Parlan and found ''Goin' Home "particularly heartfelt." Fernando Gonzalez of The Boston Globe called it "exquisite", and C. Gerald Fraser of The New York Times wrote in 1987 that "this marriage of avant-garde and soul" is "regarded as a classic". Moon believed its tempoless mood "gives the themes an extra shot of majesty" and found it "supremely melodic", writing that both Shepp and Parlan "do whatever is necessary to bring the spirit to the forefront." JazzTimes cited Goin' Home as one of "the finest [albums] of his career", and Tom Hull of The Village Voice'' cited it as SteepleChase's best release. Phil Johnson of The Independent wrote that the album "can be listened to almost without cease." Jazz historian Eric Nisenson called it "one of the most moving albums of the Seventies", but qualified his praise by critiquing that Shepp, an iconic figure in free jazz, "was no longer the firebrand who had so frightened and unsettled some white critics and jazz fans." Nisenson felt that, like Pharoah Sanders, Shepp's "trial by fire at the heart of the Sixties avant-garde had made him an unusually expressive musician," and ''Goin' Home'' showed that he was "finding inspiration in the entire black musical tradition." == Track listing ==

All songs are traditional compositions, excepted where noted, and were arranged by Archie Shepp. ==Personnel==

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. • Per Grunnet – design • Freddy Hansson – engineer • Horace Parlan – piano • Flemming Rasmussen – assistant engineer • Archie Shepp – arranger, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone • Gorm Valentin – photography • Nils Winther – photographer, producer ==References==