Touareg

Archie Shepp (tenor sax), Malachi Favors (bass) and Philly Joe Jones (drums). From the album Blasé (1969).

The Touaregs are a Berber nomadic people who has populated the deserts of the Sahara and Sagel since the 11th century and take refuge to live in mobile tents. They lack political unity and their population of more than one million inhabitants is distributed by Niger, Mali, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Libya and Senegal. Their main economic activity was the pasturing of camels, goats and sheep with large herds on their journeys, the control of the trans-Saharan caravans routes that crossed the desert, charging for the goods they helped transport, and the robbery of neighboring villages. They have their own writing and language.

At the end of the 19th century they resisted the first French colonial invasions, but were finally defeated by the French army’s modern weapons and their territories became ruled by France. With the independence of African countries during the 1960s, the Tuareg territory was divided between the new states, and trains and trucks, in addition to drought, have wiped out their nomadic economy. In 2012 they proclaimed an independent state called Azawad that has not been recognized by any country or international organization.

After some druming by Jones, Shepp enters playing freely and later Favors joins in. Jones and Favors create an unrestrained atmosphere on which Shepp rides without limits. He plays his solo at a medium tempo, but introducing wild and dizzying passages with sounds that are not proper to the saxophone, like squeals and moans. Then he leaves Jones and Favors alone for a while to express themselves together, but then comes back with an even more aggressive improvisation breaking all sound conventions. To conclude, the trio calm down little by little until they stop playing.