I thought I'd shared what I felt was
a particularly wonderful anecdote offered by Lester Bowie on February, 1999 when
he was interviewed at Sistas' Place. I had the pleasure of watching the video
again, on Sunday, as we honored one of the great trumpeters of our generation.
In speaking about the Sun Ra All-Star group of the mid-eighties, that he toured
with, Lester related this tale: Archie Shepp and Sun Ra had been going at it,
egos clashing, Archie not wanting to make rehearsals and generally being
uncooperative. Lester became the self-appointed peacemaker. On the occasion of
one concert, during a great Sun Ra arrangement of Poinciana, put together
for this ensemble, Sunny became vexed at Archie when the tenor saxophonist
decided to stand up to take a solo without being asked.
Sun Ra went over to Archie and took the microphone away from his sax during the
solo. Undaunted, Mr. Shepp went to another microphone and continued to blow.
The ever resourceful Sun Ra pulled directorial rank and conducted the band in a
space chord that swelled to volcanic level. The sounds drowned Archie out.
According to Lester, Archie was mad as hell, threatening and swearing what he
was going to do to Sunny. Lester says he saw John Gilmore physically transform
himself into a snake. Marshall Allen made similar defensive and protective
moves. Totally amazed, but understanding what was happening, even though Lester
had never seen anything like it in his life, he took Archie to the side to cool
him out.
"Man, you hip to Jim Jones and Jonestown, Archie," Lester said.
"This is motherfuckin cult, man. You better be cool. Cause these cats
will kill your ass." With these words, Lester in his inimitable way
said that Mr. Shepp came to his senses.
Not necessarily poltically correct, but certainly a reality in the world of
music.