Jazz Articles about Joe McPhee

like 864

Magic: Joe McPhee with Trio X and Mikolaj Trzaska at Firehouse 12 in New Haven

by Lyn Horton
November 29, 2008

MagicFirehouse 12New Haven, ConnecticutOctober 31, 2008

The wonder of magic is captured in transformation: witnessing how seemingly disparate elements merge and evolve into something greater than its parts with an impact that is unexpected and glistens with beauty. That Joe McPhee so aptly named the combination of Trio X and Mikolaj Trzaska, “Magic," is evidence of his understanding that out of two separate entities something wonderful could happen, and so it did, at ...

like 449

Joe McPhee / Lisle Ellis / Paul Plimley: Sweet Freedom - Now What?

by Chris May
October 5, 2008

The older you grow, the more conservative you get and the safer the parameters you set yourself; or so conventional wisdom has it. Now within a whisker of his 70th birthday, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee doesn't so much defy the cliche as explode it; still stretching his music, still protesting against injustice.

like 1

Joe McPhee - Dominic Duval: The Open Door

by AAJ Italy Staff
June 18, 2008

Dopo l’omaggio al padre del free jazz - The Dream Book era dedicato alla musica di Ornette Coleman - arriva il tributo a Jackie McLean, contraltista che pur senza le stimmate del genio, ha dato un contributo importante agli sviluppi della musica afroamericana. E sia allora, era il 1998, sia in questo The Open Door esattamente dieci anni dopo, i protagonisti dell’incisione rispondono ai nomi di Joe McPhee e Dominic Duval. Compagni di avventura in una quantità enorme di registrazioni ...

like 615

Joe McPhee and Friends: Directed Improvisation at RUCMA, New York City

by Lyn Horton
June 7, 2008

Joe McPhee and Musicians RUCMA at the Living Theater New York City May 11, 2008

Although conducting and improvisation seem to be unlikely partners, nothing is more compelling than witnessing improvisation unfold during the process of conducting. To see a musician direct the music without necessarily playing an instrument can provide a concrete and vivid representation of how the mind of a musician works. This was the case during a May 11, ...

like 213

Joe McPhee: Voices: 10 Improvisations

by Lyn Horton
May 18, 2008

Being able to speak a language well implies a command of its syntactical dimensions. A fearless approach to maximizing the expression of ideas within language signifies creativity. Common to both a command of language and creativity is the principle of voice, which distinguishes itself from all similar practice. In music, voice simply, unquestionably, identifies how the musician and instrument mix.

Voices: 10 Improvisations, featuring brass and reedman, Joe McPhee, and percussionist John Heward, opens with the ...

like 188

Joe McPhee: A Legend In Heavy Company

by Clifford Allen
March 16, 2008

Forty-one years after beginning his recording career on the day after John Coltrane's funeral in sessions led by trombonist Clifford Thornton (Freedom & Unity, Third World, 1967), saxophonist and trumpeter Joe McPhee is indeed the yeoman legend of the modern jazz-world. For many years a factory worker and sometime professor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, his approach as a true heir to the spirituality of Ayler, coupled with a sense of spatial organization all his own, brought him ...

like 357

Joe McPhee: Intimate Conversations

by Lyn Horton
February 4, 2008

Intimacy permeates many kinds of relationships. It is rare that in one context, several can be examined simultaneously. But the language of music coupled with the poetry of viewpoint can cover descriptive territory without too much hardship to demonstrate that intimacy requires depth of connection and can stretch the parameters for gaining insight and paying attention.

On Intimate Conversations a trio of musicians, convened by saxophonist Joe McPhee in a Krakow, Poland studio in 2006, have seized twelve opportunities to ...