Alto completes a discrete trilogy within JOE MCPHEE’s catalog of unaccompanied waxings (Tenor, 1977, and Soprano, 2007). Recorded live at a Lower East Side bar in 2009, McPhee's explorations on alto saxophone and clarinet are alternately fiery and contemplative, imbued with the masterful intelligence that's marked his work for over forty years. This is a limited edition of 525 copies on 180-gram vinyl, with a JUDITH LINDBLOOM silkscreen print on rice paper and liner notes by HANK SHTEAMER. Digital download coupon included

"McPhee brings the same soulful yearning and exacting intelligence to the alto as to his other instruments... [his] inclusiveness and the discipline with which he exercises it, rather than the fact that he's playing alto horns, is the real significance of this record." - Bill Meyer, The Wire

"Alto realizes uncountable details of the lanugage he continues to uncover, whether or not those details plump up muscular abstractions or ornamentally twist the skeletons of old tunes." - Lyn Horton, All About Jazz