Rodrigo Amado, This is Our Language

When the Portuguese avant jazz titan tenorist Rodrigo Amado fields a quartet of edgy all-stars, what do you get? You get This is Our Language (Not Two MW 922-2). And that translates to some great music. It's Rodrigo with the extraordinarily capable vets Joe McPhee on pocket trumpet and alto sax, Kent Kessler on double bass and Chris Corsano on drums.

This is a moderated free-for-all, a series of solos, duets, trios and full-band performances, with an emphasis on the latter. All four most certainly know what they are about. And they generate some exceptional kinetics. Rodrigo is inspired to create blazing mottos and sonic-expressive outburst that show him fully together, a mature artists in full bloom. Joe McPhee with both trumpet and alto brings his "A" game of ideas and lets loose with a space clearing vibrancy perfectly attuned to Amado's outbursts. Kent Kessler is a dynamo of bass energy and a very cohesive voice in the ensemble. And Chris Corsano has that raw-but-schooled explosiveness and timbral breath that spurs all forward.

It's all you could hope for in a spontaneous meeting of these four. The chemistry is all very much there. So much so that this is some of the best work of all four...and as a quartet, look out! This is one heavy quartet and Rodrigo should be proud to have brought this together so excitingly.

I recommend this album to anybody and everybody. Newcomers to Amado, newcomers to free avant, or those who know these four very well. The pump is primed and the musical riches flow abundantly and creatively. Oh, yes, it does!

Jean-Marc Foussat, Sylvain Guerineau & Joe McPhee, QUOD

Avant electronician Jean-Marc Foussat has formed a trio of three and set them loose on the dynamically engaging QUOD (Fou CD 05). Open-form freedom improvisation is the order of the day as Jean-Marc mans the synths, the great Joe McPhee has his say on soprano sax and Sylvain Guerineau complements the both on tenor sax.

Out music is the goal and they get there from the beginning. Foussat provides a masterful mix of timbral projections that sets up the horn soloists and furnishes an inventive orchestral electronic backdrop for Guerineau and McPhee to give us their best.

This is full-blown modernism at work. Guerineau keeps up with McPhee in an impressive way, McPhee lets his improvisational instincts take him far afield, and Foussat shows a keen ear for what electronic sounds will work best for the three-way dialog.

Now I could rattle on almost indefinitely about the spontaneous generation of excitement and soul here, but I don't think it would be necessary. All three interlock and do some of their best work.

If you go for the free, the out, and the electronic, this will ring your chimes for sure. It may be a sleeper, but listen a few times and you surely won't be one!

Highly recommended.

Trespass Trio & Joe McPhee, Human Encore

Not every promising collaboration lives up to its potential. Some disappoint because the chemistry isn't there or there wasn't enough preparation before the actual encounter. That isn't the case with the meeting of Joe McPhee and Trespass Trio, as heard on the very stimulating live disk Human Encore (Clean Feed 369).

The foursome played in a special three-day residence at Jazz Ao Centro at Salao Brazil, Coimbra, Portugal during the summer of 2012. The disk is some highlights of that appearance. McPhee is on tenor and pocket trumpet, Martin Kuchin, alto and baritone, Per Zanussi, double bass, and Raymond Strid, drums.

It features both free blowing and compositional structures. What's exceptional about it is the sympatico meld they get. McPhee clearly gets inspiration from the trio and vice versa. Joe's trumpet stands out more dramatically when part of a two-horn front line, and everybody works marvelously together for some bold music-making. The two-plus-two breakdown of McPhee-Kuchen and Zanussi-Strid gives double clout to the outcome, though of course all four mix it up in different ways throughout.

There is intent in the music, nothing slap-dash or thrown together. All play freely, thoughtfully, movingly. It's a kick, a bit of master-inspiration, a disk you should not miss if you are into what is new in new jazz avantdom.

Joe McPhee's Bluette, Let Paul Robeson Sing, 2001

Joe McPhee has been coming into his own for so long, one might say that his outlook borders on continual transformation, continual variation. Good improvisation after all flourishes when players with great talent see fit to mix it up whenever they play.

Joe McPhee's Bluette serves as a good example. It did away with drums and conventional harmonic underpinning instruments in favor of a four-way double duo, so to speak. The Bluette has two dual centers if you ike, one around the "horn section" of McPhee on tenor, fluegel and alto clarinet, and Joe Giardullo on flute and bass clarinet. The second dual center brings in the two-member contrabass section of Michael Bisio and Dominic Duval. The 2001 date Let Paul Robeson Sing (CIMP 257) turns the players loose on spiritual and folk themes associated with the great singer's career, original themes and motifs as well as free-form interactions that do not reference themes per se.

What's remarkable about this session and the group in general is the great wealth of possibilities it realizes: solos, duos of horns, duos of basses, trios of various combinations and of course the full quartet. In Michael Bisio and Dominic Duval one finds an ideal combination of pizz and bowed inspiration. These are two of the very best bassists playing today (and then) in an imaginative zone and they come through. Joe Giardullo has bass clarinet presence here and great flute color; Mr. McPhee of course has no shortage of ideas whatever instrument he may chose to play. His tenor work may identify him in many ways but his work on fluegel and trumpet gives him an alternate persona, and the alto clarinet provides yet another timbre to work out of. The great variety of sound combinations and permutations this ensemble comes up with in the course of the album gives one pause on occasion. It's more than a double duo or a bifurcated quartet. It's an improv kaleidoscope of color, thrust, repose and regrouping.

It is music that one should turn up a little louder than would be the case with commercially ultra-compressed recordings one finds out there. CIMP records sound best when the quietest parts are clearly audible to you in your listening space. Do that and you get the group's tremendous dynamic range, the deep resonance of the basses, the tumultuous power of the horns and the whispers of thoughtful contemplation.

This is an album that plays tribute to the powerful Robeson, his courage in the face of systemized oppression and his ultimate transcendence. The Bluette does not so much tell the story in some musical-literal sense as it uses melodic and expressive elements that capture the man and his times.

It is a marvelously invigorating musical statement. It demands long-term concentration without distraction. Listen several times in such conditions and you will begin to feel the totality of the music as it evolves and develops.

It's a set one must hear. It is a testiment to the generative creative openess and responsiveness of Joe McPhee, Joe Giardullo, Michael Bisio and Dominic Duval. Four exceptional musical minds caught in time, timelessly.

CIMPhonia 1998 Part 2, Lest We Forget

I reviewed CIMPhonia Part One just about a year ago on these pages. Today we look at the second volume. It has the same lineup, essentially what is known today as Trio X (Joe McPhee, soprano sax and trumpet, Dominic Duval, acoustic bass, and Jay Rosen, drums) plus some well-chosen bright lights of avant jazz: Mark Whitecage, reeds, Paul Smoker, trumpet, David Prentice, violin, and the late Peter Kowald, acoustic bass.

As before the churning virtuoso two-bass tandem is one of the first things that catches your ear. But of course there's more than that. It's a free-avant set of exploratory excellence. The three horn (or really four when you include Prentice's violin) configuration of McPhee, Whitecage and Smoker (and Prentice) gives collective girth to the improvisations, and each understandably has much in the way of ideas and invention. They occupy the top spectrum of the music, the basses the bottom, and Jay Rosen's always thoughtful drumming rests somewhere squarely in the middle.

Solo moments emerge from the collectivity and then submerge. This is all about the power of seven improv gigantics interacting without reference to anything but their own imaginations. Like the first part, it is state-of-the-art free improv, a rather unsung gem of 1998. Click on the CIMP link in the right-hand column on this page for more information or to grab a copy.

McPhee, Whitecage, Smoker, Prentice, Kowald, Duval, Rosen, 1998

Time flies whether you are having fun or not. So as I listen to CIMPhonia 1998, Part One (CIMP 173) and revel in its improvisatory glow it comes as a shock to me to realize that this recording was made 12 years ago. It transcends time, so that's not the point. It hits me, though, that '98 is now part of the somewhat distant past.

For the music contained on this CD it only underscores how great improvisation has and will outlast the time zone in which it was created. And with Trio X currently touring, it also underscores that the three members (Joe McPhee, soprano, tenor, trumpet; Dominic Duval, acoustic bass; Jay Rosen, drums) have been interacting together for a long time.

CIMPhonia 1998, Part One is a more all-encompassing collective improv date though, so the three are intermingled with some very potent cats: Mark Whitecage on reeds, Paul Smoker, trumpet, David Prentice, violin, and the late Peter Kowald on bass.

The group goes through a goodly contrast of moods and modes, from the "sunrise on the Delta" sort of undulations of "Estrus" to all the sorts of permutations and trajectories artists of this caliber can conjure.

Everybody sounds great and they mesh together quite well. To me though it's the horns as a unit and the two basses interlocking that make for especially remarkable listening.

Perhaps you've missed this one. Don't. In its own sweet way it is a milestone for improv, circa 1998.

Click on the CIMP link on this page to get details.

Joe McPhee and His Quartet, 1996

New improvisational music, also known sometimes as free jazz, avant garde jazz, new thing, and perhaps a few more labels, has given us a body of recorded works that now spans a period of around 50 years. In the realm of public perception, even by those who follow the music, there can be recordings that don't get as much attention as they should. The CD by the Joe McPhee Quartet, Legend Street One (CIMP), certainly qualifies.

Joe McPhee today is a key member of Trio X, which you may have heard. He has been playing at a high level for many years, and this 1996 session is a very good example. It has an interesting lineup of Joe on alto, tenor, trumpet and fluegelhorn, the late Frank Lowe on tenor, David Prentice, violin, and the late Charles Moffett on drums. The session yielded two releases, of which this one is the first.

What strikes one for starters is the lack of a bass player. McPhee, Lowe and Prentice constitute three front-line solo voices and Moffett subsequently takes on the free rhythmic and coloristic role for which he was so well-suited. The lack of a bass is made up for by the additional front-line voice and the increased autonomy of the drums.

The session yields eight originals, all having a good deal of improvisational space for all concerned. The two-horn tandem of McPhee and Lowe are especially interesting on these sides, with the versatility of trumpet-tenor or double sax combinations. Both McPhee and Lowe turn in some stellar performances and David Prentice gives the team a needed contrast in his own creative solo work. Prentice's improvisation style owes something to both Ornette Coleman's and Leroy Jenkins' concepts of the instrument, which form a kind of foundation for the playing on this date. Of course Moffett could be expected to provide a classic time-in, time-out underpinning, and he does so here. Some of the most exhilarating moments occur when all four artists collectively solo. There is an exciting intensity and yet each player knows what he is about.

CIMP has amassed an impressive catalog of both well-known and lesser known improvising artists and their music over the years. Legend Street One was one of the first releases and it captures some of the very best free music of its time.

You can still get a copy of this one if you go to www.cadencebuilding.com and look for the CIMP click-link.