AS OCTOGENARIAN  Archie Shepp plays Wise One by his old Philadelphia confrere John Coltrane, the decades melt away.

His moving horn eulogy, with drummer Steve McCraven’s flashing silver brushes and Darryl Hall’s plunging bass, deepen the sense of the long-time loss of a genius.

He begins the set with Elmo Hope’s Hope Two and that surly, gruff-noted yet astonishingly fluid tone suddenly lightens with an allusion to Softly, as a Morning Sunrise, as if every conceivable melody is stored in his horn and could be let loose at any moment.

He stays with the tradition on Ellington’s Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, with some bluesy reflections from pianist Carl-Henri Morisset and Hall’s deep notes throbbing like a bouncing sorbo ball.

But it's when he takes to his rasping soprano saxophone to play Mama Rose that his insurrectionary sensibility suddenly takes wings.

He sings of the people of Harlem, Philly, Chicago, Alabama, New Orleans and San Francisco: “They want a change!” he declares. “Take this ex-cannibal’s kiss and turn it into a rev-rev-rev-rev-revolution!”

None of the passion and relevance has diminished in such messages from this gripping performer.