Huuuuuge Tip! "Who was that masked man?" This question is on many lips having seen and heard the Defiant Jazz episode of the hit TV show Severance, the one in which the show's protagonists are allowed a company dance party, accompanied by a light show and increasingly wild, funky, saxophone-driven music. The masked man? None other than Joe McPhee, Poughkeepsie, New York's best kept secret, one of the great figures of contemporary improvised music. A living legend looming large, you might say. And now a presence in households around the globe. This taster is more than a 'best of' record. The best of Joe McPhee would be no smaller than a 20-record set! Defiant Jazz includes "Shakey Jake," the dance party track, a funky upsetter from 1970 that shimmies and rolls at the same time it builds and explodes. Recorded in December 1970 in Poughkeepsie with an ensemble featuring Otis Greene on alto saxophone, Mike Kull on electric piano, Dave Jones on guitar, Tyrone Crabb on bass, and Bruce Thompson and Ernest Bostic on drums, the track originally appeared on the legendary Nation Time LP. It's a monster groove that refuses to quit.
The vinyl-only compilation then moves across time, touching on another early track, the spiritual jazz classic "Astral Spirits," from the 1972 CJR LP Trinity, where McPhee switches between soprano saxophone and trumpet, accompanied by Mike Kull on electric piano and Harold E. Smith on percussion. This is deep, transcendent music that reaches for the cosmos. Next up is a 1983 version of the Sonny Rollins tune "Oleo" from the hat Hut LP of the same name, recorded in August 1982 in Boswil, Switzerland. Here McPhee plays pocket cornet alongside André Jaume on alto saxophone, with psychedelic guitar outbursts courtesy of Raymond Boni and François Mechali on bass. It's a wild, electrified take on a bebop standard that turns the original inside out.
The second side opens with "I See You Baby Shakin' That Ass," a self-proclaimed throwdown with McPhee as emcee and flamethrowing saxophonist, fronting two bands, Cato Salsa Experience and The Thing. Recorded in March 2005 in Oslo, this explosive track features Cato Thomassen on guitar and vocals, Mats Gustafsson on baritone saxophone, Christian Engfelt on bass and vocals, Bard Enerstad on guitar and organ, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten on double bass, and Jon Magne Riise alongside Paal Nilssen-Love on drums. It's a dance floor jack-in-the-box for anyone unlucky enough not to have heard it yet, originally released on Two Bands and A Legend by Smalltown Superjazz in 2007.
The program concludes with "Body Sound," a sensitive tenor/drum duet between McPhee and Paal Nilssen-Love, recorded in August 2007 in Oslo and originally released on Tomorrow Came Today. It's an intimate conversation between two masters, full of breath, attack, and soul. The cover features previously unpublished vintage photos of McPhee from PBS TV, New Jersey, 1972, with rear photo by Ken Brunton. If you already know Mr. McPhee's music, this compilation is designed to fulfill, and if you're new to him, it will thrill and chill. Win-win.
LP mastered by Alex Inglizian at Experimental Sound Studio. Compilation produced by John Corbett.
