"A bien des égards le découvreur et le novateur que fut Jef Gilson dans les années 60/70 reste un des pivots de la créativité de la scène musicale française : à redécouvrir pour tous ceux qui ne connaiassent pas".
Rec. live at the 8th Moers Jazz Festival, Moers, Germany,
on June 2, 1979 (mics recording)
Jef Gilson,conductor
Roger Guérin,trumpet
François Jeanneau/Philippe Maté/Joe McPhee/André Jaume/
Marc Richard/Jean-Louis Chautemps/Jacques Di Donato,reeds
Francois Couturier,piano
Jean-Charles Capon,cello
Pierre-Yves Sorin,bass
Jacques Thollot,drums
1. B.Hennen Intro (02:11)
2. Chromatisme (08:33)
3. Variation Sur Six Notes (10:27)
4. Fast Family (07:25)
5. Shreveport Stomp (06:10)
6. Unknown (10:03)
7. Unknown (09:26)
8. 145,154 (09:42)
Total Time 1:04:00
All compositions by J.Gilson except 5 by J.R.Morton.
+
Jacques Di Donato,baritone sax
François Jeanneau,tenor & soprano saxes
Philippe Maté,alto sax
Jean-Louis Chautemps,tenor sax
1. Bram Van Velde (06:24)
2. La Lynx (09:08)
3. Lassitude (04:09)
4. Unknown (06:19)
5. Unknown (05:13)
6. Unknown (06:27)
Total Time 37:44
All compositions by F.Jeanneau.
Shreveport Stomp
Lassitude
This is Joe McPhee's third recording - never reissued.
Enjoy!
JOE MCPHEE "BLACK MAGIC MAN"
Joe McPhee, tenor & soprano saxophone
Mike Kull, piano
Tyrone Crabb, double & electric bass
Ernest Bostic, percussion
Bruce Thompson, percussion
1. Black Magic Man 09:31
2. Song For Laureen 09:33
3. Hymn Of The Dragon Kings 17:18
Recorded:
Concert at Vassar College, Poughkeepie, N.Y. on December 12, 1970.
HAT HUT Records A
To complement Dale & Wallofsound recent McPhee posts, here is the second Hat Hut release. Standing between "Black Magic Man" and "Tenor" is not an easy place for a record in a discography but this one fits quite well. The formation is a trio, with McPhee playing tenor and soprano, John Snyder on synthesizer and processed voice, and South African Makaya Ntshoko on drums. For those who don't like synthesizers, be warned that it is not used here as a gimmick or as decoration. It has a very big, uncompressed sound typical of the experiments of the 70's and at times it feels like it is the center point of the music, at least in terms of sound mass.
It has been a long time since I posted on Inconstant Sol so expect a lot of nice material in the near future. In the meantime, hope you enjoy this one.
Pierre
Note : I wanted to post K. Curtis Lyle & Julius Hemphill until now very rare "Collected Poems for Blind Lemon Jefferson" M'Bari LP as a complement to "Dogon A.D." but I found out that it has been reissued by Ikef records. The label does not seem to have a web site but is widely distributed.
Joe McPhee: Tenor
1. Knox 8:29
2. Good-Bye Tom B 6:33
3. Sweet Dragon 5:31
4. Tenor 23:26
Recorded 1st and 2nd September 1976 at Michael Overhage's farmhouse in Switzerland (!)
Three HatHut records in, and McPhee is still their only artist on release, so what better way to celebrate than with a solo recording. The tracks were made available on CD later with an additional solo performance, but this is a rip of the original vinyl LP passed on to me by Dale.
These are the sleeve notes written by Allain-Rene Hardy, Jazz Magazine, Paris, in October 1976:
"This year is going to be the McPhee year...
McPhee vibrates let those that do not hear him clear their ears or throw away their blinkers that do not allow them to be moved...
There is no difficult music - there are only listeners that have been conditioned by the media:
pass it on!"
So I have!
Joe McPhee Black Magic Man 1975
1. Black Magic Man 9:22 (McPhee)
2. Song For Lauren 9:25 (McPhee)
3. Hymn of the Dragon Kings 17:01 (McPhee)
This is an intriguing album for many reasons. If I understand it correctly this was the first release on Hat Hut records, and it has even been claimed that hearing this recording encouraged Werner Uehlinger to set up the Swiss label in the first place. Secondly, it was actually recorded five years earlier in 1970 at Vasser College in New York. It's hard to imagine now that something like this could remain unheard for so long. Of course given how small the original circulation of the record was, very few people have heard it at all. A real shame. Finally, it catches a group of musicians trying to consolidate the radical innovations of the previous few years into a very individual performance. McPhee seemed to keep to tenor and soprano saxophone on this recording, although he later mastered most of the instruments you can blow into, and some that need electricity.
I have to say, I absolutely loved this record, and can't quite see how I have got by without it! I'm again indebted to Dale for the privilege he bestowed on me to first hear, and then share, this quite marvelous record.
The opener, 'Black Magic Man' is intense, emotional music with forceful percussion, strident piano and some exhilarating playing from McPhee. I don't know much about pianist Mike Kull, although someone of the same name played with Roswell Rudd in the 1990s. His role is most significant on the second track, with its wider emotional range; clearly a personal tender ballad for Lauren (who I am told is McPhee's son). The two percussionists Ernest Bostic and Bruce Thomson are most apparent on the final track where Kull and bassist Tyrone Crabb come in well after five minutes. Listening to the first third it will be no surprise that McPhee was enamored of Jimmy Guiffre's work, with which he has much in common to this non-musicians ear. McPhee recorded an album of Giuffre's music, and dedicated it to him. You may well know how much I adore Guiffre's work. Later parts of this last track also feature some strange bass guitar playing (it's an acoustic bass we here most of the rest of the time, I think). I can't quite work out what Crabb is doing here, but it all seems to fit! The soprano and double percussion bring to my mind an influence from Coltrane, although this isn't apparent in McPhee's sound which is all his own.
The concert audience are enthusiastic, as they should be; but it's the musicians who seem to be having the real ball. I wish I'd been there.
This recording comes by way of a torrent (thanks to "jazzrita" for seeding). It is an audience recording. The sound quality is reasonable, I'd say typical of a modern audience boot. I've enclosed a small 1 min mp3 sample (see Links) so you can judge for yourself.
Concert details:
Joe McPhee - Survival Unit III
2007-June-20 NYC, USA,Angel Orensanz Center, 12. Vision Festival 2007
Joe McPhee,fh,as
Fred Lonberg-Holm,cello
Michael Zerang,dr
1 Title (JMcP,as) 8:34
2 Title (JMcP,as) 7:52
3 Title (JMcP,as) 14:53
4 Title (JMcP,fh) / Announcement JMcPh 14:38
Total Time: 45:58
I'd be interested to know where McPhee got the name "Survival Unit" (was it a personal statement about his life?), why there wasn't a SU I, but III came 30 years or so after II.
Sample, flac and mp3 links in comments.
