Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, playing only tenor saxophone, joins the aptly named Flow Trio for a vigorous and roof-raising session of free jazz on Winter Garden. As producer and ESP-Disk general manager Steve Holtje notes, however you date the appearance of free improvisation (Lennie Tristano in 1949, Ornette Coleman in 1960, or Albert Ayler around the same time), free jazz “has existed for over half of jazz’s recorded history.” Playing trumpet, Joe McPhee made his recording debut in 1968, on Clifford Thornton’s Freedom And Unity album, so he’s been a participant in much of that history. Here he is, hundreds of sessions later, still on the scene and working with like-minded musicians around the globe. As ever, his distinctive fiery approach fits in perfectly, broadening the Flow Trio’s already formidable attack. Saxophonist Louie Belogenis, bassist Joe Morris, and Charles Downs (a/k/a Rashid Bakr) on drums have been together on and off since their 2004 debut CD, The Flow, a live set on Ayler Records, with a second Ayler release in 2009 from another performance. Winter Garden is a glorious collection of instant compositions by the quartet, accommodating full-bore blowouts like the opening Rabble-Rouser and the squawky and relentless Incandescence along with pieces that tend to be quieter and more conversational, like Recombinant, with its 3-note riff passed around the band from sax to bass and back, the gently meandering and quite lovely Glistening, and the elegiac closer, Winter Garden, which bathes the listener in beauty for the last minute or so. An early ESP slogan was “You never heard such sounds in your life.” That wasn’t just hype, it was the truth, and it remains the truth as long as there are committed and adventurous musicians like McPhee and the Flow Trio who create their music totally in the moment. Definitely recommended.
ESP-Disk' ESP5040; Joe McPhee (ts) Louie Belogenis (ts, ss) Joe Morris (b) Charles Downs (d); Brooklyn, NY, January 11, 2020; Rabble-Rouser/ Recombinant/ Harbinger/ Incandescence/ Glistening/ Accretion/ Winter Garden; 57:42. www.espdisk.com
No comments:
Post a Comment