We’re back for year five 🖐️ and settling into what we do best: records played front to back, in good company, with time and space to actually listen.

Each night begins with a short, relaxing guided meditation to bring the room together. Then we drink tea, snack a little, listen to a full album uninterrupted, and hang afterward to talk about what we just heard—no pressure, no right answers.

Week 2: Archie Shepp “Attica Blues”

Archie Shepp — Attica Blues is a landmark jazz record-as-protest that channels the fury, sorrow, and resilience of its era into a vivid musical statement. Recorded and released in 1972 in the wake of the deadly Attica Prison uprising, the album blends soul, funk, blues, big-band jazz, gospel, and avant-garde impulses into a powerful and deeply human soundscape. Its title track opens with gritty grooves and impassioned vocals that speak directly to social injustice, while other pieces—like Shepp’s elegiac horn lines and haunting vocal moments—ripple with tenderness, defiance, and reflection. Attica Blues stands as one of Shepp’s most ambitious and accessible works, a record that fuses political urgency with rich, expansive musical textures that still resonate today