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Joe McPhee: Artistic Sacrifice from a Musical Prophet
by Lloyd N. Peterson Jr.
He could have easily chosen a different path: a more successful one or, perhaps we should say, a more commercial one. But that has never been the style or the character of multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee. His saint-like humility reflects a gentle and wise creative spirit; his music and poetry are a mirror into the human condition. He has never catered to the shortsighted vision of industry trends, and he expresses himself with a language that is in tune within his ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee / Ingebrigt Haker Flaten: Brooklyn DNA
by Glenn Astarita
Veteran multi-reedman, trumpeter and consummate improviser Joe McPhee--along with Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten--serenades Brooklyn, NY, with allusions to tenor sax titan Sonny Rollins' historic practice sessions under the Brooklyn Bridge and other inferences from the days of yore, on Brooklyn DNA. In recent years, the borough has enjoyed a bit of momentum with its chic restaurants and music venues, while serving as the residential area of choice for many artists. This duo's intimacy and like-minded communion of musical spirits ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee's Survival Unit III with Evan Parker: London, England, March 23, 2012
by John Sharpe
Joe McPhee's Survival Unit III with Evan ParkerCafé OtoLondonMarch 23, 2012Over the past three years north London's Cafe Oto has built a solid, predominantly young audience for adventurous music. Part of the secret has been programming world class talent over multiple nights and pairing them with the cream of the capital's improvisers, many of whom deserve the world-class epithet in their own right. That was certainly the case this Friday evening, on the cusp of ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee - Michael Zerang: Creole Gardens (A New Orleans Suite)
by AAJ Italy Staff
Joe McPhee fa parte degli improvvisatori più prolifici su disco, ma anche di quelli più ignorati. Piuttosto schivo, concentrato soltanto sulla musica, è invece tra i musicisti più riflessivi e in relazione con ciò che lo circonda. Questo bel duetto con il percussionista Michael Zerang è legato a memorie di New Orleans e di tutta la storia che questa città rappresenta. Non che c'entri nulla lo stile di jazz omonimo - McPhee guarda al passato soltanto in funzione di un ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee and Decoy: Cafe Oto, London, October 29, 2011
by John Sharpe
Although at an age when many might be happier looking to past glories, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee still seeks new answers to the questions posed by music-making on the fly. Given the success of the solutions proffered in the concert which produced the acclaimed Oto (Bo Weavil, 2009), it was only a matter of time before the older man reconvened with British group Decoy to see if there were yet more resolutions to be found. Stopping off in London en route ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee / Michael Zerang: Creole Gardens (A New Orleans Suite)
by John Sharpe
In these recessionary times, the duet offers the optimum solution: the opportunity for dialogue and interaction, but with logistics and expense kept to a minimum. Of course, such strictures are nothing new for the avant-garde, those flowers which bloom between the cracks in the marginal wastelands. Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's résumé includes more than its fair share of twosomes, with drummers forming a prominent strand. Recent partners include Hamid Drake, Paul Hession, Paal NIlssen-Love and Chris Corsano, but this encounter with ...
Continue ReadingJoe McPhee: A Band Apart
by Clifford Allen
You might expect a musician who has been a steady figure on the creative improvising scene for nearly 45 years to have some variance in their discography and a diverse range of projects and band concepts. Reedman (and sometime pocket trumpeter) Joe McPhee's vast number of recordings and ensembles speak to that impulse, but the curious thing is that there doesn't seem to be a preferred instrumental context for his playing--not really. McPhee's cultish free-funk sides of ...
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