JOE McPHEE – Old Eyes (LP-1980)

Label: hat Hut Records – hat Hut ONE (1R01)

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Switzerland / Released: 1980

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded by Jef Gilson in Paris on May 30, 1979.

Photo by – Ken Brunton

Cover art by – Klaus Baumgärtner

Engineer – Jef Gilson

Mixed By – Peter Pfister

A1  -  Eroc Tinu .............................................................. 4:00

          Land Dance ..... (12:45)

A2a - P / G / G ................................................................ 3:02

A2b - BCL / Cello ............................................................ 3:16

A2c - B / DM .................................................................... 3:11

A2d - TS / TS .................................................................. 3:22

A3  -  Old Eyes ................................................................ 8:50

B1  -  Django ................................................................. 14:25

B2  -  No Line .................................................................. 3:05

B3  -  Strings ................................................................... 7:10

Joe McPhee – alto / tenor saxophone

André Jaume – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet

Raymond Boni – acoustic and electric guitars

Steve Gnitka – electric guitars

Jean-Charles Capon – cello

Pierre-Yves Sorin – bass

Milo Fine – piano and drums

Old Eyes is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joe McPhee, recorded in 1979 and first released on the Swedish HatHut label in 1980.

 "I've always intentionally kept a low profile. I think the music goes where it has to go anyway, so I'm not going to run around in circles and scream. In America, everybody's looking for the latest revelation on the scene : who'll be the new Bird ? Who's going to replace Trane? As for me, anyway, I'm not new."

(~ Joe McPhee, from Down Beat, 1991)

END AT THE BEGINNING - BEGINNING AT THE END

PO MUSIC HAS NO CANVAS OR MODEL OR PALLET

NO PENCIL PAPER OR STORY

NO KNOWLEDGE MEMORY OR WISDOM

PO MUSIC LISTENS TO SILENCE

EXPANDING IN UNISON

CONTRACTING IN COLORS

PO MUSIC HAS HARMONY IN THE MUSICIANS

TASTES GOOD

AND FLOATS UPSIDE DOWN IN AFTER-GLOW

PO MUSIC HAS INSTRUMENTALITY

AND USES IT

LEADING AND FOLLOWING AT THE SAME TIME

(~ Joe McPhee, 1981, from the Liner Notes to: Joe McPhee Po Music - Linear B, hat ART CD 6057, 1991)

 André Jaume / Joe McPhee

The decade 1981 - 1991 marked the most productive and satisfying period in my music career. Yet mysteriously it remains the least documented in terms of recordings. The Cycle began with the recording of TOPOLOGY March 24, 1981 and ended with a multi-media performance of a work entitled HAZEL'S DINER on March 23, 1991. Many performances were given in each of the inclusive years, but to this date only three recordings, exclusively on hat Hut Records, document this period: TOPOLOGY (1981), OLEO (1982), and MYSTERIES/LINEAR B (1990).

Beginning at the beginning is to introduce two important musicians who have most directly influenced my work since our meeting in 1979, saxophonist André Jaume and guitarist Raymond Boni. The ocassion was the Paris session OLD EYES. From that moment a bond of friendship support and collaboration was formed which has shaped the entire body of my work to this day. Although not literally in the PO MUSIC series the roots of the concept can be traced to OLD EYES and is reflected in the final 1990 Zurich sessions which produced MYSTERIES/LINEAR B. Coincidentally OLD EYES, TOPOLOGY, and MYSTERIES/LINEAR B are further linked by the fact that all are studio dates, all feature large ensembles, and all include the rare use of percussionists (Mile Fine, Pierre Favre, Fritz Hauser). Each also includes the trio Boni-Jaume-McPhee at the core of its unifying structure. The trio continues today as a separate entity building on the strength of our relationship.

Beginning at the end, many important personal lessons were learned from the various experiences associated with the PO MUSIC loop/cycle. PO is after all only a language indicator, and the use of provocation to discover new ideas has always been the point. Also, it was always my intention that one day the concept would be clear enough that the word MUSIC in association with my work would make language indicators unnecessary.

(~ Joe McPhee, Pooughkeepsie, NY, July 6, 1991)

The "Old Eyes" sessions in May 1979 in Paris by the way were taken up by Jef Gilson. The big highlight for me is "Django", by far the longest piece. "Old Eyes" himself (the second longest and next to "Strings", the third, which lasts longer than three to four minutes) is actually dedicated to Ornette Coleman, "with much respect and gratitude. The title comes from a term I once heard a psychic use to describe someone who Carried the look of past ages of tradition in his eyes. "

(~ McPhee, liner notes to hat ART 6057 or 6047 hat ART)

Enjoy !

If you find it, buy this album!

CONFLUENCE – 4 Voyages (LP-1976)

Label: RCA Victor – FPL1 0132

Series: Balance

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1976

Style: Avantgarde, Fusion, Free Improvisation

A1 + B - Recorded live on January 25, 1976 at the Festival de Villejuif

A2 - Recorded live on 20 December, 1975 at the Nouveau Carré à Paris

Photo: Richard Bonin and Thierry Trombert

Production by – Confluence

Sound recording by – Alain François

A1 - Dakka .............................................................................. 5:25

         (Written-By – Armand Lemal)

A2 - Convergences ................................................................ 11:50

         (Written-By – Jean-Charles Capon)

B  -  4 Voyages ...................................................................... 19:00

         (Written-By – Didier Levallet)

Jean-Charles Capon - cello (violoncello)

Didier Levallet - contrabass

Jean Querlier - oboe (hautbois), cor Anglais, flute, alto / soprano saxophone

Christian Escoudé - guitar

Armand Lemal - percussion

Merzak Mouthana – drums, percussion

Quietly gorgeous French jazzy prog vinyl made up of three long (dark, anxious, yet rhythmic and beautiful) tracks, often focused around the wistful cello work of Jean-Francois Capon (cello), whose devastating outfit Baroque Jazz Trio recently had their one eponymous album reissued, and his colleagues Didier Levallet (contrabass) and Armand Lemal (percussion). There are also Christian Escoudé (guitar), Jean Querlier (oboe, flute, saxophones) and Merzak Mouthana (drums).

One of France's great undiscovered treasures. 

The band recorded three albums (one of the few groups of French Jazz at this time to record for a major label, RCA), and this LP, live recording on January 25, 1976 at the Festival de Villejuif and 20 December 1975 at the Nouveau Carré à Paris, it is their debut.

I would say that it is actually chamber jazz, with a very well worked melding of chamber orchestra (a lot of violin, flute, cello, double bass) and jazz.

These progressive musicians wrote a kind of music that has no rules, they use rock, jazz, and european classical in equal measure to create a whole that is perfectly harmonious and has no borders or styles...

NOTE:

Didier Levallet, born 19 July 1944, Arcy sur Cure, France. Levallet is largely a self-taught bass player who studied journalism at L’Ecole Superieure de Journalisme de Lille (1963-66) and went on for a short time to study bass at Lille Conservatory. He moved to Paris in 1969 and played with a wide range of local and visiting musicians including Ted Curson, Hank Mobley, Mal Waldron and Johnny Griffin. He worked with the free-jazz quartet Perception through the 70s and worked in the USA with tenor saxophonist Byard Lancaster (1974-76). He also led "Confluence" (with: Jean-Charles Capon and Christian Escoudé), a group based on strings and percussion only. In the early 80s he played with Frank Lowe, Archie Shepp, Mike Westbrook’s Concert Band and Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood Of Breath as well as the Double Quartet with Tony Oxley. Levallet is a prolific composer who can combine free-improvisation and structure coherently. He works within four bands - the Quintet, a 12-piece band, Swing Strings System (which utilises seven string players plus drums) and a trio with Dominique Pifarely (violin) and Gérard Marais (guitar). In 1976, he founded ADMI (Association pour la Developement de la Musique Improvise), which acts as a pressure group and concert organizer. He teaches jazz at L’Ecole National de Musique in Angouleme.

If you find it, buy this album!