The Squid's Ear Magazine

McPhee, Joe

Black Is The Color: Live in Poughkeepsie and New Windsor, 1969-70 [2CDS]

McPhee, Joe : Black Is The Color: Live in Poughkeepsie and New Windsor, 1969-70 [2CDS] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

Unreleased material from Joe McPhee's archives, three live settings of the saxophonist and pocket trumpeter in upstate NY: a quartet with vibraphonist Ernie Bostic and the rhythm section of Tyrone Crabb and Bruce Thompson live at Vassar College; live in New Windsor with saxophonist Reggie Marks; and an outdoor concert at Poughkeepsie's Lincoln Centre.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Tyrone Crabb-bass

Bruce Thompson-drums

Chico Hawkins-drums

Tyrone Crabb-electric bass

Contemporary Improvisational Ensemble-ensemble

Mike Kull-piano

Joe McPhee-soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone, trumpet

Reggie Marks-tenor saxophone, flute

Ernest Bostic-vibraphone

Octavius Graham-vocals


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UPC: B08DBYMW5Q

Label: Corbett vs. Dempsey
Catalog ID: CvsDCD069
Squidco Product Code: 29475

Format: 2 CDs
Condition: New
Released: 2020
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Tracks 1-1 to 1-4: recorded at Vassar College, in Poughkeepsie, New York, on October 23rd, 1969, by Craig Johnson.

Tracks 2-1 to 2-3 recorded at St. Helena Convent, in New Windsor, New York, on January 12th, 1969, by Craig Johnson.

Tracks 2-4 to 2-6 recorded at Lincoln Center, in Poughkeepsie, New York, on May 24th, 1970, by Sandy Margolin.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Never-before-issued music from three very different settings in upstate New York, all recorded in the period running up to Poughkeepsie multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's Nation Time. From a year before that landmark LP, in the same hall at Vassar College, McPhee led a band with soulful vibraphonist Ernie Bostic and voluble rhythm section of Tyrone Crabb and Bruce Thompson, both of Nation Time fame, performing a John Coltrane-oriented set that included versions of Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" and Coltrane's "Naima," as well as McPhee-fave "God Bless The Child." Deeply emotional and fiery playing with this unusual instrumentation - rare to find McPhee playing with a harmonically based instrument like vibes. McPhee had organized a larger group also meant to feature Bostic and a French horn for a concert at a monastery in nearby New Windsor, but the band was pared down to a quartet with saxophonist Reggie Marks, playing a powerful combination of originals and the Patty Waters-associated traditional tune "Black Is The Color." (The concert also featured a cameo by David Nelson of the Last Poets, but technical issues in the recording scuttled that and several other tracks.) Finally, three cuts document a more rough-and-tumble gig taped outdoors in the park at Poughkeepsie's Lincoln Centre - the only surviving recordings of this funky, bluesy, lowdown, explosive configuration, they feature vocals by one Octavius Graham, great drumming by Chico Hawkins, and Tyrone Crabb on electric bass. This two-CD set has been lovingly transferred from the original tapes out of from McPhee's personal archives, and is augmented by newly discovered photographs of the concerts. A spectacular deep dive into the pure magic of Mr. McPhee."-Corbett Vs. Dempsey



This album has been reviewed on our magazine:

The Squid
The Squid's Ear!

Artist Biographies

"Joe McPhee, born November 3,1939 in Miami, Florida, USA, is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, conceptualist and theoretician. He began playing the trumpet at age eight, taught by his father, himself a trumpet player. He continued on that instrument through his formative school years and later in a U.S. Army band stationed in Germany, at which time he was introduced to performing traditional jazz. Clifford Thornton's Freedom and Unity, released in 1969 on the Third World label, is the first recording on which he appears as a side man. In 1968, inspired by the music of Albert Ayler, he took up the saxophone and began an active involvement in both acoustic and electronic music.

His first recordings as leader appeared on the CJ Records label, founded in 1969 by painter Craig Johnson. These include Underground Railroad by the Joe McPhee Quartet (1969), Nation Time (1970), Trinity (1971) and Pieces of Light (1974). In 1975, Swiss entrepreneur Werner X. Uehlinger release Black Magic Man by McPhee, on what was to become Hat Hut Records.

In 1981, he met composer, accordionist, performer, and educator Pauline Oliveros, whose theories of "deep listening" strengthened his interests in extended instrumental and electronic techniques. he also discovered Edward de Bono's book Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of Creativity, which presents concepts for solving problems by "disrupting an apparent sequence and arriving at the solution from another angle." de Bono's theories inspired McPhee to apply this "sideways thinking" to his own work in creative improvisation, resulting in the concept of "Po Music." McPhee describes "Po Music" as a "process of provocation" (Po is a language indicator to show that provocation is being used) to "move from one fixed set of ideas in an attempt to discover new ones." He concludes, "It is a Positive, Possible, Poetic Hypothesis." The results of this application of Po principles to creative improvisation can be heard on several Hat Art recordings, including Topology, Linear B, and Oleo & a Future Retrospective.

In 1997, McPhee discovered two like-minded improvisers in bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The trio premiered at the Vision Jazz Festival in 1998 but the concert went unnoticed by the press. McPhee, Duval, and Rosen therefore decided that an apt title for the group would be Trio X. In 2004 he created Survival Unit III with Fred Lonberg-Holm and Michael Zerang to expand his musical horizons and with a career spanning nearly 50 years and over 100 recordings, he continues to tour internationally, forge new connections while reaching for music's outer limits."

-Joe McPhee Website (http://joemcphee.com/bio.html)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



CD1



1. God Bless The Childs 11:43

2. Improvisation 14:18

3. Afro Blue 8:55

4. Naima 13:27

CD2



1. Improvisation 11:30

2. Black Is Color 13:55

3. Juju For John Coltrane 15:27

4. I Want Know Nobody 6:24

5. Funky Broadway 6:53

6. Blues For Th People 9:06

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Song Based Music
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quartet Recordings
Quintet Recordings
Joe McPhee
Top Sellers for 2020 by Customer Sales

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