5. “Cousin Mary,” Archie Shepp, from Four for Trane (1964)

​Producer Bob Thiele really, really, really did not want tenor sax player Archie Shepp on Impulse Records—but Impulse superstar John Coltrane insisted that he deserved a shot. Thus did Thiele eventually arrive at a compromise: Shepp could record an album for his label, but all of the tunes would have to be Coltrane’s, and the marketing would emphasize the star connection.
 
The resulting album, Four for Trane, effectively linked the old guard to the new—and offered unusual takes on three Coltrane compositions from Giant Steps (1960) and one from Coltrane Plays the Blues (1962). Part of the credit for the album’s excellence goes to trombonist and arranger Roswell Rudd; part to a rhythm section featuring former Coltrane and Ornette Coleman collaborators. But the star, of course, is Shepp, whose playing here feels fluid and unforced—despite his angular lines, growling tone, and frequent squealing forays past the upper reaches of his instrument’s natural range.
 
The following year, Shepp would share a live album with his mentor and label-mate: New Thing at Newport, which documented Shepp and Coltrane playing separate sets at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 2, 1965. That same summer, he also appeared on Ascension (1965), Coltrane’s roaring big band free jazz experiment, featuring two bassists, seven horn players, and one single extended track, split across two album sides. “The ensemble passages were based on chords,” Shepp later recalled, “but the chords were optional…there is a definite tonal center, like a B-flat minor. But there are different roads to that center.”
 
Ascension divided jazz critics and made clear that Coltrane was allying himself with a new generation of players like Shepp; the session would mark the beginning of the end for Coltrane’s classic quartet.