Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Trio X: Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen: Moods: Pla...
Trio X: Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Jay Rosen: Moods: Playing with the Elements
McPhee is best known as a pocket trumpeter and he employs that powerful, diminutive instrument here, along with flugelhorn and tenor sax, the latter played with sometimes squonky, sometimes velvety authority. The session opens with a soulfully blown, slightly melancholy blues improvisation, then shifts into higher gear before an intermezzo of inspired treatments of familiar material. Trio X gives the standard "Stella, Monk's "Evidence, and Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman just the right mix of realism and abstraction.
Dominic Duval's bass work is warm and unobtrusive, supporting and propelling without fighting for attention. Jay Rosen contrasts this with a brash, clamoring handful of a performance, on many of the pieces almost overpowering Duval's decorous presence. McPhee, a somewhat self-effacing personality, nevertheless manages to hang onto the spotlight for most of the record and he does not disappoint. Musically the trio explores well-travelled territory, and nothing stylistically new has been attempted or achieved here, but for all that, it's as fine an artistic statement as you'll find in recent issue.
Track Listing
Sienna Sun; Wegatchie Run; Burning Wood; Dedicated to You, Joe; Stella By Starlight; In Evidence; Lonely Woman; Short Eyes; Legacy (Celebrating Bill Dixon
Personnel
Joe McPhee
woodwindsJoe McPhee: tenor saxophone, flugelhorn, pocket trumpet; Dominic Duval: bass; Jay Rosen: drums.
Album information
Title: Moods: Playing with the Elements | Year Released: 2005 | Record Label: CIMP Records
About Joe McPhee
Tags
PREVIOUS / NEXT
Joe McPhee Concerts
Become a Sustaining Member
Since 1995, All About Jazz has championed jazz as an art form and supported the musicians who create it. Over three decades, it has grown into one of the world's leading jazz resources, serving hundreds of thousands of readers, musicians, presenters and industry professionals each month.
Help Build the Future of All About Jazz
Your support helps us continue building All About Jazz for the next generation—expanding our editorial coverage, preserving jazz history, developing new community features and creating better ways to discover the music and the people behind it.
Become a sustaining member for as little as $20 per year and you'll immediately enjoy an ad-free experience along with access to subscriber features and future articles for a full year.
Together, we're not simply sustaining All About Jazz—we're building its future. Thank you for being part of the journey.
