Archie Shepp, Melvin Van Peebles and The Heliocentrics in Paris
Jazz à la Villette 2015
Casting
Archie Shepp — Saxofón tenor
Melvin Van Peebles — Rapero
The Heliocentrics
Adrian Owusu — Guitarrista
Tom Hodges — Electronics
Shabaka Hutchings — Clarinetista bajo
Ollie Parfitt — Pianista
Jessica Lauren — Pianista
Jake Ferguson — Bajista
Malcolm Catto — Baterista
Jack Yglesias — Percusionista
Sobre el programa...
In 2014, the stage of the Jazz à La Villette saw The Heliocentrics gather Archie Shepp and Melvin Van Peebles for an avant-garde performance revolving around the human journey and what philiosopher Blaise Pascal called "the eternal silence of these infinite spaces". The British collective, strongly influenced by Sun Ra—as evidenced by their exploration of themes such as the universe and the human existence—accompanies to perfection the profound slam poetry of the legend of Blaxploitation films and Shepp's virtuosic improvised melodic lines.
The concert is made up of 12 pieces, each leading us on a different journey, beginning with Prologue and ending with Epilogue, traveling through the Big Bang Reincarnation and The Cavern. Adding a cinematic touch to this modernist work, director Alain Rimbert projects a symbolist and experimental video behind the performers. A total work of art in which Shepp's virtuosic ability and Van Peebles's intense and wise voice and words complete each other marvellously. In 2021, the latter sadly passed away, thus joining Pascal in proverbial silence...
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