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!

JOE McPHEE and SURVIVAL UNIT II – At WBAI's Free Music Store, 1971 (CD / hat ART-1996)

Label: hat ART – hat ART CD 6197

Format: CD, Album, Limited Edition; Country: Switzerland - Released: 1996

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded At WBAI's Free Music Store, N.Y. N.Y., October 30, 1971.

Design Concept [Graphic Concept] – fuhrer vienna

Liner Notes – Chris Albertson, Joe McPhee

Liner Notes [Producers Note] – Werner X. Uehlinger

Mixed By [Mix], Mastered By [CD Master] – Peter Pfister

Photography By [Photo] – Ken Brunton

Producer – Pia And Werner X. Uehlinger

Recorded By – Chris Albertson

The Hat Art label (Werner X. Uehlinger) was formed in the mid-'70s partly to document the music of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. The tapes of this live concert, which was broadcast by the small New York radio station WBAI, were released for the first time on this 1996 CD. Doubling on tenor and trumpet, McPhee is joined by Clifford Thornton (heard on baritone horn and cornet), Byron Morris (on soprano and alto), pianist Mike Kull, and percussionist Harold E. Smith. Due to the passionate nature of much of this fairly free music and the use of Thornton's baritone horn, one does not really notice the absence of a string bass. The six lengthy pieces (which are sandwiched by somewhat stilted announcing) are full of fire but also have their quiet and lyrical moments. A strong all-around performance that should not have taken 25 years to release.

McPhee – the Poughkeepsie-based saxophonist/trumpeter/composer – came on the scene in the late 1960s and appeared on a now-reissued recording by his mentor Clifford Thornton (whose Gardens of Harlem is in desperate need of reissue, by the way). After a few releases on CJR (all now available on Atavistic’s Unheard Music Series), Uehlinger released McPhee’s Black Magic Man and the relationship has existed ever since, resulting in some of the finest improvised music of the period. The music – by McPhee on tenor and trumpet, Thornton on baritone horn, Byron Morris on soprano and alto, Mike Kull on piano, and Harold E. Smith on percussion – is hot and intense, coming straight from McPhee’s most fiery period. It features the core of McPhee’s repertory at the time, including the acetylene torch intensity of “Black Magic Man,” the declamatory “Nation Time” (where the horns blend with wonderful color), and the gorgeous ballad “Song for Lauren,” where McPhee really begins to establish his powerful lyric strain that would become so recognizable on later recordings. McPhee already sounds in full command of his horns – listen to his lovely trumpet intro to “Message from Denmark” – and the band sounds great too (the underrated Kull just crushes on “The Looking Glass I”). They’re at their most powerful on the intensely dark rise-and-fall of “Harriet,” an exceptional document of free improvisation from one of the music’s true masters.

_ By JASON BIVINS, 1996

hat Hut catalog:  http://www.hathut.com/home.html

If you find it, buy this album!

CLIFFORD THORNTON NEW ART ENSEMBLE – Freedom & Unity (Goody LP-1969)

Label: Goody – GY 30001, Goody – GY 30.001

Goody Series Vol. 1

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, Unofficial Release

Country: France - Released: 1969

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on July 22, 1967 at Sound City Studios in New York City.

(Track 2 - ''Babe's Dilemma'', bonus track, is not on the original release)

Engineer – Orville O'Brien

Liner Notes – Archie Shepp

Photography By – Philippe Gras

Producer [Serie Directed By] – Claude Delcloo, Jean Luc Young

For those who don't know better, the free jazz movement is considered a sharp break with the past heritage of the music. That really wasn't the case. As Albert Ayler and Archie Shepp hearkened back to field hollers and very basic folk forms, musicians like Clifford Thornton went in the opposite direction, building on the music of the sophisticates and expanding the possibilities for jazz. Listening to music with this much space in it, it might be hard for some listeners to hear the Mingus. But it's there. And because that's there, Ellington is here in heaping handfuls as well. Sure this stuff is rough in spots. But the myriad of tones this man uses to express himself keeps things interesting and alive — the bright clarion of cornet and trumpet, the somber, thoughtful vibes, and a rhythm section that embraces two bass players to keep things rooted. The leader plays valve trombone, an enormously flexible instrument that allows him to meld with a variety of moods and produce music at once heartachingly simple and brain-twistingly complex.

For those with open ears — and minds.

Trombonist/trumpeter Clifford Thornton, is a natural extension of the music of Ornette Coleman.

Recorded one day after John Coltrane’s funeral, this session features Trane sideman Jimmy Garrison on two tracks and Joe McPhee (playing trumpet) on three. Thornton, who rehearsed across the hall from Ornette’s trio, certainly was listening. His piano-less quintet and extended New Art Ensemble pursue Coleman’s breakthroughs in melody and rhythm with different instrumentation. They certainly prove that free principals can be applied to the vibes, as Karl Berger does here and on later recordings with Don Cherry. Alto saxophonist Sonny King (we should find out more about this guy) tears through songs bridging bebop and freedom principles.

Thornton’s valve trombone is the payday here. He floats lines, setting moods or barking replies to the cornet. Thornton’s trombone later recorded with Sunny Murray, Sun Ra and Archie Shepp. The liner notes point out he was denied a visa to enter France because they suspected him of belonging to the Black Panthers. His revolutionary music and self-produced LP’s received little attention in the mainstream press, as he had no access to distribute his music, and in the late 1960s and 1970s, American record companies were withdrawing their support of creative music. The Cecil Taylors, Anthony Braxtons and Joe McPhees of this world either became exiles or recorded for small foreign labels. Clifford Thornton moved to Europe and died in relative obscurity in the mid-80s. This document of significant music calls for further exploration of the ever-neglected free jazz past.

 _ By MARK CORROTO,

Published: November 1, 2001 (AAJ)

Originally issued on Third World Records in 1969 as Third World LP 9636.

http://www.restructures.net/Thornton/thornton_disco_home.htm

http://www.jazzdisco.org/clifford-thornton/discography/

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/JAZZ-LP-CLIFFORD-THORNTON-NEW-ART-ENSEMBLE-FREEDOM-UNITY-THIRD-WORLD-/181410145726

If you find it, buy this album!

MAT MANERI featuring JOE McPHEE – Sustain (2002)

Label: Thirsty Ear – THI57122.2
Series: The Blue Series
Format: CD, Album;  Country: US - Released: 2002

THIRSTY EAR STUDIO RECORDINGS/ THE BLUE SERIES, 2002
Executive Producer: Peter Gordon
Engineered by Jamie Saft; Recorded at Frank Booth
Mastered by FLAM at Mindswerve Studio, NYC
Artistic Director for Blue Series: Matthew Shipp
Design and Photography: Cynthia Fetty, www.dahliadigital.com
Re-design (inside) by ART & JAZZ Studio SALVARICA; Designer: VITKO

Review:

In the last couple of years, Mat Maneri has been incredibly prolific. His versatility and range, especially on the viola, have facilitated work within widely different musical contexts. On Sustain he joins a quartet of active NYC musicians, plus special guest Joe McPhee on soprano saxophone. These players have built strong intuitive relationships over time in various collaborations, enabling them to make musical statements in an unforced, natural way. Sustain offers deliberate, open individual and collective improvisation.

The tracks on Sustain alternate between the "Alone" series (solo performances by each musician) and group improvisations. The contrast afforded through this arrangement allows the listener to appreciate each individual voice both on its own and in combination with the other players, making for a nice overall sound because everyone has something different to say. Maneri opens the disc with round, resonant notes rich with harmonics, hinting more than he actually states. (That leads quite nicely into the group tune "In Peace," a sort of psychedelic trip through outer sound.) William Parker's take on "Alone (Unravel)" strays from his usual intensity to a more open, spacious aura. And when he goes out on his own, drummer Gerald Cleaver coaxes texture and color from his kit, suggesting rub more than hit, stroke more than punch.

The four quintet pieces span a wide range of moods without sounding contrived or scattered. "Nerve" has a frantic, bubbly energy that hurries ahead, rarely pausing to gather steam. Both Craig Taborn and Maneri use effects to alter their sound, bringing it perilously close to a primal scream; meanwhile, the rhythm section stops and starts, eventually heading toward a insistent groove and then off into the wild beyond. On the other hand, the title track showcases Maneri's ability to say more with less. Gentle, undulating viola lines intertwine with McPhee's floating voice on the soprano sax, lending an ethereal atmosphere through generous use of space and time.

As might be expected from a group of this caliber, Sustain is a fine disc. Its inventiveness and range most emphatically reflect Maneri's own approach to improvisation.

_ By NILS JACOBSON, Published: October 10, 2002 (AAJ)



Links in Comments!

TRIO-X (McPhee / Duval / Rosen) – Journey (2003)

Label: CIMP – CIMP 283
Series: Spirit Room Series – 163
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: 2003
Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Recorded at The Spirit Room, Rossie, NY, Feb. 6 & 7, 2003
Produced by Robert D. Rusch
Recording Engineer: Marc D. Rusch; Liner Note Author: Robert D. Rusch
Arrangers: Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen, Joe McPhee

Review:

In the music industry, politics and economics continue to share uncomfortable commonalities with the racial disparities that gained the national stage during the Civil Rights Movement. These days ’ inequities aren’t so much based on complexion as they are on artistic choice. Choose creative improvised music and you ’ ll likely be playing the fringes without a record contract.

In the Sixties, the dismissal of Anglican surnames in favor of the letter ‘ X ” became a means of symbolizing African American disenfranchisement. The trio of Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen adopted the signifier for analogous reasons. Their collective X is meant as a comment on the ambivalence of most press to their music and an expression of the resulting anonymity it occasioned. The name stuck and four recordings later certain segments of the media and public are now the wiser, as plaudits continue to greet the three players who now comprise a fully seasoned unit.

For their latest excursion Journey, the trio adheres to extemporaneous pieces with the evergreen spiritual “ Amazing Grace ” being the sole standard, so to speak. After a brief prelude of bass and drums, the calm before a rising storm, McPhee’s tenor saxophone takes wing with a leathery flap of coarse-grained phrases. Bassist Duval and drummer Rosen stir up a swirling backdrop, prodding and pulling in eddying rhythmic currents that put their respective instruments through a grueling set of paces. The title track unfolds at a less feverish clip, radiating out on Duval’s dour arco ribbons and McPhee’s somber legato lines. Rosen adds subdued gong and cymbal embellishments, leaving the bulk of his massive kit to the jurisdiction of silence. Midway, the sounds congeal into a forward-marching tempo and McPhee’s breath hardens, splitting in places into emotion-heavy overtones.

A funky backbeat fuels “ Jaywalkin ” and Rosen has a chance to mix things up with Duval in faux hip hop style. McPhee honks and shakes his tail feathers on top, favoring a meaty tenor tone caked with highly flammable vibrato that eventually explodes in a burst of flanging notes. “ Blue Moves ” resides at the other stylistic pole, a contemplative poem built from the quiet patter of Rosen’s mallets and McPhee’s lyrical alto soliloquies. Duval’s improvised bass reverie opens “ Autograph ” and Rosen follows on scuttling brushes. But McPhee bides his time waiting until the median to voice his thoughts at length via stoop-shouldered tenor. It ’ s an approach that contrasts sharply with the caustic blowout that hits with crater-causing impact on the aptly named “ Everything in Nothing Flat. ”

Rosen takes a swift, but precisely measured solo turn on “ For Charles Moffett ” in honor of the departed drummer before the trio reconvenes on the good-natured, heavily syncopated “ Rossie 2 Step, ” so named in homage to the town which CIMP HQ calls home. The anthemic “ Albert’s Alto, ” which finds McPhee reveling in Alyeresque vibrato above a porous rhythmic pattern, rounds the program out along with the aforementioned gracious spiritual movingly interpreted in memory of Duval’s deceased wife.

Trio X will no doubt continue to engender quizzical responses and an absence of recognition in the public at large. But listeners familiar with what lies beneath the alias in the names of McPhee, Duval and Rosen know what to expect when it comes to the music. This outing does not disappoint and advances the exceptional track record established by their earlier releases. With their growing popularity, the impetus of their chosen sobriquet may no longer hold immediate sway, but the reasons behind it still speak to the obscurity faced by so many of their peers.

_ By Derek Taylor
(Dusted Reviews, date: Jun. 23, 2003)



Links in Comments!

McPHEE, BRÖTZMANN, KESSLER, ZERANG – Guts - at Empty Bottle (2006)

Label: Okka Disk – OD12062
Format: CD, Album; Country: US - Released: Sep 2006
Style: Free Improvisation
Recorded live by Malachi Ritscher at Empty Bottle, Chicago on 3 August 2005
Orig. Design: Brötzm. / K.Uniet; Executive Design: Louise Molnar
Photographs: Cesar Merino
New Re-Design (pages 2,3,4) by ART&JAZZ Studio - 2012
Artwork and Design by Vitko Salvarica
Mastered: Lou Malozzi at Experimental Sound Studio Chicago
Produced: Bruno Johnson & Brötzm.

Review:

When people die for what they believe in, their actions speak louder than words. At least for a moment. Repeat performances of their deaths are impossible. So it is up to those who survive them to revitalize the symbolism of their deaths. Creative people do this well in the form of a tribute, for they are lending their lives to the realm where they have invested their own spirits already.
The quartet of reedmen Joe McPhee and Peter Brotzmann, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Michael Zerang have come together in a recording called Guts (Okka, 2007) to honor Malachai Ritscher, who died of self-immolation on November 3, 2006, in protest of the war in Iraq. Ritscher was a musician, photographer, painter, philosopher and recording engineer. He recorded many of the gigs at the Empty Bottle in Chicago, including this session, in 2005.
Nearly an hour worth of music exists on only two cuts, "Guts" and "Rising Spirits". The first begins with a clear, open drum introduction replete with rapidly spun snare and bass drum interplay. An alto intercedes in long screaming arpeggiated lines to overlap the drums underpinnings. A tenor pumps accents throughout the alto stringency and eventually paints a series of raw abstractions. Bass pizzicati enter to round out the sharpness of the horns. The fervently agitated sounds of the tenor and the ceaselessly energetic and ofttimes piercing pressings of the alto stop and go and wind around each other. About halfway through, drums and bass drop out as the sax torrents subside into slow melodic phrasings. The fully shaped melody gradually picks up pace; the drums and the bass re-enter. The improvisation progresses into a full tilt, resolving into stretched out multiple choruses of the theme from both horns eventually to form a conclusive harmony.
A bowed bass and extra-terrestrial percussive sound start "Rising Spirits". The clarinet initiates a sprinkling of the atmosphere with an amoebic contouring of sonic emergence. A tight-lipped embouchure to a quickly fingered trumpet marks the arrival to full-blown instrumental involvement. The sporadic phrasings of the tarogato and the trumpet sparkle on top of the heaviness of the plucked bass and the lightness of touch to the cymbals and drums. An isolated bird-like litany from the tarogato complements repetitions of a sober melody from the trumpet. The bass and drums transform the music with a rhythmically driven surge. A tenor takes the lead and reconstructs abstractions with a series of sour and squeezed chords yielding to the alto, which continues to enhance the texture. The tenor and alto seesaw between high and low notes, melodic counterpoints and discordant and harmonic absorption to unite in a thematically strong coda.
Half the liner notes are comprised of a poem by McPhee. The poetry directs the reader to ponder the contents of the recording in the context of hope—a hope perhaps that the light will shine upon us as long as we remain committed to the contents of our lives.

— Lyn Horton (AAJ)



Links in Comments!
  

JUMALA QUINTET ‎– Turtle Crossing (2000) [Repost]

Label: Clean Feed – CF038CD
Format: CD, Album; Country: Portugal; Released: 2005; Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Composed By [All Spontaneous Compositions] – Joe McPhee, John Voigt, Laurence Cook, Paul Flaherty, Steve Swell
Recorded October 19, 2000 at PBS Studios, Westwood, MA. Mixed and mastered November 21, 2000 at PBS Studios.
Executive-producer – Trem Azul
Illustration [Inside Illustrations] – Paul Flaherty; Illustration, Design – Rui Garrido
Liner Notes – Paul Flaherty, Steven Loewy
Producer – Paul Flaherty
Recorded By, Mixed By, Mastered By – Peter Kontrimas


Liner Notes:

"Few players have forged the free jazz genre with the unmitigated intensity and purity of Paul Flaherty, the organizer of The Jumala Quintet. Among diehard aficionados, Flaherty ’ s albums are the stuff of legend: They are difficult to find, uncompromising in concept, cathartic in intensity, and impressive in the level of performance.

For this extraordinary session, the saxophonist invited two experienced players to join him on the “ front line. ” The versatile Joe McPhee, who performs on tenor and soprano saxes and pocket trumpet, adds a breadth of experience and level of musicianship that have catapulted him to the higher echelons of jazz improvisation. Steve Swell, the other horn, has emerged as one of the most exciting trombonists on the New York scene, and if you listen closely you can hear in his solos the whole history of the trombone from Kid Ory to Roswell Rudd and beyond, all delivered with a suave irreverent swagger. Rounding out the group are bassist John Voigt and drummer Laurence Cook, each of whom has recorded before with Flaherty as well as with a host of other players in the now-decades old tradition of Free Jazz.

It seems inconceivable that this is the first time the group ever played together, without even a single rehearsal. But it is true: Not only had these players never performed in concert or recorded together as a group, but there were no discussions in advance as to what was to be played. The quintet simply went into the studio and blew.

It is a tribute to the quality of the players that the results are as special as they are, and undoubtedly this is one of, if not the, best albums put together by Paul Flaherty. (He prefers not be called the “ leader ” as he insists the music came strictly from a group effort.) Considering that Paul Flaherty has been pursuing his path of purity for many years, and recognizing his reputation as a flame-thrower, it is more than likely that not a few will do a double take after hearing his sensitive, highly integrated performance on this album. Who is this purveyor of simple pleasures, this consummate executant of the phantasmagorical who leads the unwary down undiscovered paths? Who is this explorer, this Christopher Columbus of the twenty-first century, a seeker of the unknown?
Open the doors and be prepared for something new."

_Taken from the original Steven Loewy liner notes.


Paul Flaherty — Sax (Alto)< Sax (Tenor) 
Joe McPhee — Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Trumpet (Pocket)
Steve Swell — Trombone
John Voigt — Double Bass
Laurence Cook — Percussion, Drums

Tracks :
1. The Gift of Nowhere  11:37
2. Turtle Crossing  19:23
3. Unspoken Oath  8:47
4. Weighing of the Heart  11:27
5. Borrowed Light   9:02
6. All Is Always Now  12:47


Review:

His is a great date featuring a first time unit lead by Paul Flaherty on alto & tenor saxes, Joe McPhee on tenor & soprano saxes & pocket trumpet, Steve Swell on trombone, John Voigt on double bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Over the past few years a number of my favorite players like Flaherty, McPhee and Swell, have been getting recorded on a more regular basis and getting some of that well deserved recognition. No doubt that Paul Flaherty and Joe McPhee are not spring chickens as both must be pushing sixty. The Boston-area based rhythm team are also older cats who have played with Thurston Moore and Flaherty on occasion. This is quite a fine free-jazz session with inspired playing from all five of these veteran musicians. They take to time to work through more spacious areas and there is strong interaction between all participants. The turtle mentioned in the title is a creature that moves very slowly but does eventually get to where it is going and that is a good metaphor for these great, determined explorers.

"Turtle crossing" is the testimony of the one and only occasion when Paul Flaherty, Joe McPhee, Steve Swell, John Voigt and Lawrence Cook met and spontaneously played together, five years ago. A quintet armed with two saxophones, trombone, double bass and drums, Jumala spins its wheels right from the start, moving away from jurisdictional phraseologies and adding a few ounces of haywire poorhouse energy as a product of intense interactions during some challenging propositions. Swell's trombone in "Weighing of the heart" is something to be clinching to in the context of what's maybe the best track in the disc; the smart arco elucubrations by Voigt often help avoiding the fall into the feared (at least by me) "swingy/jazzy" vibe. The real best comes when the group travels near to well behaved - if never rehearsed - organic counterpoints, thus liberating the music from any aura of "domestic freedom" that could have ruined even the best intentions. Ever the perfect players, Flaherty and McPhee exchange educated opinions, bitter darts and incendiary omens, finding reciprocal comprehension in Cook's rhythmic discrepancies even during the most abundant blowing tides.

_ TheJAZZLOFT



Welcome to new prog-blog "Different Perspectives In My Room...!".
Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Link in Comments!

BRÖTZMANN, McPHEE, KESSLER, ZERANG - The Damage Is Done (Live At Alchemia 2008)

Label: Not Two Records – MW 823-2
Format: 2 × CD, Album; Country: Poland/USA; Released: 2009
Style: Free Improvisation
Design – Brötzm; Mixed By, Mastered By – Lou Malozzi; Music By – McPhee/Brötzmann/Kessler/Zerang Producer – Marek Winiarski
Packaging: Cardstock Gatefold Sleeve
Recorded at 'Alchemia', Krakow, March 16th, 2008, Mixed and mastered June 2009.


Reviews:

This live date features legendary free jazz pioneers Peter Brötzmann and Joe McPhee, and Chicago's leading rhythm section, bassist Kent Kessler and drummer Michael Zerang. The four also make up 4/10 of Brötzmann's Chicago Tentet, maybe the most successful large new music jazz ensemble ever assembled.

As they have in the past while touring with the Tentet, they step away and perform in this more intimate lineup. This quartet has released two previous recordings, Tales Out Of Time (hatOLOGY, 2004) and Guts (Okka, 2007), with The Damage Is Done's two discs recorded live at Alchemia in Krakow, Poland in March of 2008.

While the players can (and do) perform volatile energy jazz here, their preference is for music that's dissectible enough for the players to be distinguished in parts and direction.

The obvious reference point here is the legend of Albert Ayler and his brother Donald. Brötzmann has never shied away from his admiration for free jazz's holy ghost. With Brötzmann on tenor and McPhee sporting the trumpet role, the attention to Ayler can be heard on "With Charon" and the title track (all 30-plus minutes). Brötzmann and McPhee's stamina, both nearing 70, is impressive. The pair delivers an onslaught of energy with a relentless attack, the only pause being for Zerang and Kessler's solos. With that, the pace slows, allowing Brötzmann to paint from a different palette. This gentler approach acts as a collection point before the music again spreads its energy patterns outward.

Kessler and Zerang open "Alchemia Souls," with itchy bowed bass and sound effect brushes on drums. Brötzmann enters, playing a persistent tarogato before McPhee's twitchy alto joins. The rhythm section maintains the energy through constant motion. The more affable music making here comes at the urging of the rhythm section. Slowing down the pulse or playing with mallets coaxes the horn players to decelerate and clarify the sound.

The breadth and power of these four players comes through with an exhaustive clarity in this crisp and vigorous live recording.

By MARK CORROTO, Published: December 24, 2009 (AAJ)

                    Marek Winiarski and Peter Brötzmann, Alchemia 2008

The reason why Joe McPhee and Peter Brötzmann form a great horn section is because their styles are linked and still quite different. McPhee can be violent and fierce, but he has that touch of sentimentality - in the good sense of the word - and spirituality that is entirely lacking with Brötzmann. The latter is a force of nature, all power and energy, but he has his poetic side too. Besides the violence, they share technical skills, musical vision and first and foremost instruments that are a direct conduit to their feelings, unaltered, without embellishment, without unnecessary ornaments or fake feelings. They deliver directly : raw, authentic, true to themselves. Ken Kessler on bass and Michael Zerang on drums feed the hurricane that is blowing in front of them, relentlessly.

But the hurricane can become a light breeze too. And that is to a certain extent largely to be ascribed to both McPhee and Kessler, who add more nuance and subtlety, melodic elaboration and lyricism, but don't get mistaken about Brötzmann either: the slow and very beautiful melody that he develops in the quiet middle part of the thirty-minute title song is entirely his, almost sounding like McPhee. It is a real pleasure how the German manages to find the common ground, but don't worry either, it doesn't take long before he blows his lungs out again, so much so, that it almost becomes an entertainment by itself. The second track, "Alchemia Souls", is more free improv, a sound dialogue between the four musicians, and the title refers to the Alchemia Club, in Krakow, Poland were the performance took place on March 16, 2008.

The second disc is even better, with titles referring to the descent into the Greek underworld. Soft and poetic flowing passages alternate with gut-wrenching sound blasts and the most excruciating emotional explorations - after all: you are in hell, yet it all fits, it has coherence and purpose, indeed like Acheron, the river of pain, that flows through Hades. Anger, human misery, dissatisfaction with the world, yes. But also musical beauty and great artistic delivery, very balanced in a very varied performance.The only downside of the performance is that Brötzmann's sax comes across much louder than McPhee's, but whether that's a question of sound mixing or because of sheer decibels produced, remains unsolved.

By Stef (FreeJazz, December 14, 2009)




Welcome to new prog-blog "Different Perspectives In My Room...!".
Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Link in Comments!

JOE McPHEE and PAUL HESSION – A Parallax View (2006)

Label: Slam Productions – SLAMCD 268
Format: CD, Album
Country: UK; Released:2006
Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on 20th January 2003 at Bluecoat, Liverpool (Frakture) (tracks 2, 4, 5) and 21st January 2003 at The Adelphi, Leeds (Termite Club) (tracks 1, 3, 6)

Drums – Paul Hession (tracks: 1, 3 to 6)
Soprano Saxophone – Joe McPhee (tracks: 4, 6)
Tenor Saxophone – Joe McPhee (tracks: 1 to 5)
Voice – Paul Hession (tracks: 2)


Review:

After playing a handful of performances with saxophonist Joe McPhee in the United States, British drummer Paul Hession brought his new friend to England for four appearances in 2003, highlights from two of which were captured for A Parallax View. The duo apparently struck up an immediate rapport because this disc personifies the firepower, depth and dynamic sense found in the strongest free improvisation.

In “ Tipping Point, ” McPhee begins in a gruff mood, taking flying leaps from the top to bottom of his tenor, spurned by Hession ’ s press rolls. But after pushing things to the extreme, the saxophonist pulls back around the four-minute mark and glides into a slow, probing melody. The combination of moods serves to make the final product all the more powerful. In “ From Eremite to Termite, ” he takes an alternate approach, twisting a spiritual melody with each repetition, bending and squeezing the notes for a dramatic, soulful effect. After a brief spoken word introduction, “ Blue Coat Blue Collar ” features a solo tenor that finds McPhee vocalizing and blowing simultaneously. Hession gets his own wide-open space during the 14- minute “ Evocation ” and displays a spastic Tony Oxley-style approach to his kit in “ Love is (Like Walking Naked on a Razor Blade), ” a title which presumably plays into the fun these two had while creating this music.

By Mike Shanley, JazzTimes



Welcome to new prog-blog "Different Perspectives In My Room...!".
Enjoy the music, and please leave a comment. Thanks in advance.

Link in Comments!