Title: Throw away your preconceptions of Mr. Shepp!
Review: I purchased this album after having acquainted myself with albums like "Mama's Too Tight", "Live at Newport", and "The Way Ahead". Needless to say, it is quite unlike any of those albums. This was a bit troubling at first, but I must admit that once I considered this album as an entity unto itself, it amazed me! This is a very likeable and listenable album, and features the same sort of emotional purity of expression found on Shepp's more "out" blowing albums: That purity is captured here through plaintive lyricism, a heady mix of musical styles, and quaint use of dramatic effects (screamed choruses in the opening track, naively pure child singing on the closer, snippets of poetry and yearning lyrics). This album is fascinating in that it succeeds (imho) at capturing the emotional openness and purity of the free jazz idiom, by totally different means. Appraised on it's own terms, this is a classic.
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