Goin' Home (album) - Background

Background

After surging to the forefront of the avant-garde jazz movement during the 1960s, both Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan faced career challenges during the 1970s after their style lost popularity in the jazz scene, which had split between artists who played either a tamer or a more experimental sound. Like Parlan, Shepp became a more mainstream performer, mostly playing hard bop, although he occasionally return to his free jazz sound. To support himself financially, he spent most of his time playing in Europe. In 1972, Parlan also left the United States and eventually made his residence in Denmark. where Shepp had signed to SteepleChase Records.

Shepp became interested in recording gospel and, at the request of his producer at SteepleChase, recorded Goin' Home with Parlan. They recorded the album on April 25, 1977, at Sweet Silence Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. Shepp played tenor saxophone on six pieces and soprano saxophone on three others.

Goin' Home was released in 1977 by Danish record label SteepleChase Records. Both Shepp and Parlan were artistically satisfied with the album and recorded another album together, the blues-inspired Trouble in Mind, in 1980. On May 3, 1994, Goin' Home was reissued on CD by SteepleChase.