The Squid's Ear Magazine


Flow Trio w/ Joe Mcphee: Winter Garden (ESP)

Joining the exemplary New York City Flow Trio of Louie Belogenis on tenor & soprano saxophones, Joe Morris on bass, and Charles Downs on drums is NY legendary saxophonist & trumpeter Joe McPhee, performing on tenor saxophone in an album of collective free jazz that reminds its listeners of the power of passionately unfettered yet superbly controlled free playing.
 

Price: $14.49


Quantity:

Out of Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Joe McPhee-tenor saxophone

Louie Belogenis-tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone

Joe Morris-bass

Charles Downs-drums


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 825481504027

Label: ESP
Catalog ID: ESPDISK 5040CD
Squidco Product Code: 29934

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Recorded on January 11, 2020 by Jim Clouse at Park West Studios, Brooklyn NY.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"It is an interesting question how old 'free jazz' is. At some point, even a theme and a plan became optional. In the ESP-Disk' catalog, 'Taneou' on the Giuseppi Logan Quartet's eponymous album sounds like this approach of complete freedom starting from scratch; it was recorded on November 11, 1964. Joe McPhee, in 1967, appeared on Clifford Thornton's album Freedom and Unity, so his recording career covers 53 of those 56 years, 95% of the approach's history. Each succeeding decade found another player on this album joining the confraternity: Downs in 1976, Morris in 1983, and Belogenis in 1993. By that method of counting, there are 159 years of collective experience being heard on this album."-ESP-DISK'



"Flow Trio comprises intrepid, like-minded explorers of sound and texture with proven merit in this peculiar musical art known as free jazz.

Influenced by Ayler, Coltrane and S.Ware, the saxophonist Louis Belogenis was an intermittent collaborator of the late drummers Rashied Ali and Sunny Murray; for his part, bassist Joe Morris is a rhythm machine who's been faithful to his own vision alongside many musical partners (multi-reedist Ken Vandermark, tenorist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp); Chicago-born drummer Charles Downs (aka Rashid Bakr) joined the pianist Cecil Taylor in the early 1980's for a more-than-a-decade collaboration, and was a member of Billy Bang's Survival Ensemble. Winter Garden marks their third outing as a group, the second on the ESP-Disk label, and features another prolific pathfinder and timbral digger on the tenor, Joe McPhee.

The trio grapples with violent agitation on the opener, "Rabble Rouser", where the saxophonists clash against each other, pulling out raucous and raspy timbres as their phrases swell with volume and speed. The robust foundation of bass and drums never vacillates in the support of horn growls whether in complete ecstasy or severe distress. There's still time for Morris' arco dissertation. He starts alone, but somewhere down the line, is joined by antsy drumming and juxtaposed saxophone ostinatos.

"Recombinant" adopts a more pattern-based approach. McPhee's repetitive tenor figure is later matched and kept by Morris, while Belogenis keeps chanting loose, longer lines on the soprano with perseverance and plasticity. A stream of cymbal attacks accompanies this process until the flow gets interrupted by a bass solo.

Whereas "Incandescence" is a blistering discharge of tension that becomes more melodic in its final phase, "Glistening" is the calmest track on the album. Although amorphous in form and free in pulse, the latter is less vehement in the expression and more discernible in the direction.

The title track alternates intensities and concludes the session with the saxophones on the same side. It features a double intervention by Morris, first bowing across the bass strings and then opting for pizzicato.

Unpacked with multiple levels of abstraction, Winter Garden is a raw and ferocious album that lives from intensive communication and unrestricted reciprocity."-Filipe Freitas, Jazz Trail


Get additional information at Jazz Trail

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.

Louis Belogenis is a New York City jazz saxophonist, a member of the groups Blue Buddha, Exuberance, Flow Trio, God Is My Co-Pilot, Kevin Norton's Living Language, Prima Materia, The Louie Belogenis Trio, and William Hooker Sextet. He has had a long associations with many of the most significant free jazz players in the NY/Downtown NY scence, including William Parker, Rashied Ali, Joe Morris, Hamid Drake, Roy Campbell, Jr., &c. &c.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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

"Joe Morris was born in New Haven, Connecticut on September 13, 1955. At the age of 12 he took lessons on the trumpet for one year. He started on guitar in 1969 at the age of 14. He played his first professional gig later that year. With the exception of a few lessons he is self-taught. The influence of Jimi Hendrix and other guitarists of that period led him to concentrate on learning to play the blues. Soon thereafter his sister gave him a copy of John Coltrane's OM, which inspired him to learn about Jazz and New Music. From age 15 to 17 he attended The Unschool, a student-run alternative high school near the campus of Yale University in downtown New Haven. Taking advantage of the open learning style of the school he spent most of his time day and night playing music with other students, listening to ethnic folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on record at the public library and attending the various concerts and recitals on the Yale campus. He worked to establish his own voice on guitar in a free jazz context from the age of 17. Drawing on the influence of Coltrane, Miles Davis, Cecil Taylor,Thelonius Monk, Ornette Coleman as well as the AACM, BAG, and the many European improvisers of the '70s. Later he would draw influence from traditional West African string music, Messian, Ives, Eric Dolphy, Jimmy Lyons, Steve McCall and Fred Hopkins. After high school he performed in rock bands, rehearsed in jazz bands and played totally improvised music with friends until 1975 when he moved to Boston.

Between 1975 and 1978 he was active on the Boston creative music scene as a soloist as well as in various groups from duos to large ensembles. He composed music for his first trio in 1977. In 1980 he traveled to Europe where he performed in Belgium and Holland. When he returned to Boston he helped to organize the Boston Improvisers Group (BIG) with other musicians. Over the next few years through various configurations BIG produced two festivals and many concerts. In 1981 he formed his own record company, Riti, and recorded his first LpWraparound with a trio featuring Sebastian Steinberg on bass and Laurence Cook on drums. Riti records released four more LPs and CDs before 1991. Also in 1981 he began what would be a six year collaboration with the multi-instrumentalist Lowell Davidson, performing with him in a trio and a duo. During the next few years in Boston he performed in groups which featured among others; Billy Bang, Andrew Cyrille, Peter Kowald, Joe McPhee, Malcolm Goldstein, Samm Bennett, Lawrence "Butch" Morris and Thurman Barker. Between 1987 and 1989 he lived in New York City where he performed at the Shuttle Theater, Club Chandelier, Visiones, Inroads, Greenwich House, etc. as well as performing with his trio at the first festival Tea and Comprovisation held at the Knitting Factory.

In 1989 he returned to Boston. Between 1989 and 1993 he performed and recorded with his electric trio Sweatshop and electric quartet Racket Club. In 1994 he became the first guitarist to lead his own session in the twenty year history of Black Saint/Soulnote Records with the trio recording Symbolic Gesture. Since 1994 he has recorded for the labels ECM, Hat Hut, Leo, Incus, Okka Disc, Homestead, About Time, Knitting Factory Works, No More Records, AUM Fidelity and OmniTone and Avant. He has toured throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe as a solo and as a leader of a trio and a quartet. Since 1993 he has recorded and/or performed with among others; Matthew Shipp, William Parker, Joe and Mat Maneri, Rob Brown, Raphe Malik, Ivo Pearlman, Borah Bergman, Andrea Parkins, Whit Dickey, Ken Vandermark, DKV Trio, Karen Borca, Eugene Chadborne, Susie Ibarra, Hession/Wilkinson/Fell, Roy Campbell Jr., John Butcher, Aaly Trio, Hamid Drake, Fully Celebrated Orchestra and others.

He began playing acoustic bass in 2000 and has since performed with cellist Daniel Levin, Whit Dickey and recorded with pianist Steve Lantner.

He has lectured and conducted workshops trroughout the US and Europe. He is a former member of the faculty of Tufts University Extension College and is currently on the faculty at New England Conservatory in the jazz and improvisation department. He was nominated as Best Guitarist of the year 1998 and 2002 at the New York Jazz Awards."

-Joe Morris Website (http://www.joe-morris.com/biography.html)
3/13/2024

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

Charles Downs is a New York City drummer known for band Centipede, influenced by Miles Davis, Coltrane, Pharaoh Sanders, samba, Afro Cuban, and Caribbean feelings, and points in between. He was a member of Jameel Moondoc's Muntu. He worked with Bobby Zankel, and performed with Cecil Taylor, including being a member of Cecil Taylor's big band. He is a member of Flow Trio with Louie Belogenis and Joe Morris, and Other Dimensions in Music.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1. Rabble-Rouser 12:33

2. Recombinant 07:28

3. Harbinger 10:10

4. Incandescence 05:20

5. Glistening 07:02

6. Accretion 05:49

7. Winter Garden 09:17

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Trio Recordings
Collective Free Improvsation
Quartet Recordings
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Joe McPhee
Staff Picks & Recommended Items

Search for other titles on the label:
ESP.


Recommended & Related Releases:
Other Recommended Releases:
McPhee, Joe Quartet +1 Kirk Knuffke
Keep The Dream Up
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Long a fan of his music, NY trumpeter Kirk Knuffke joined with saxophonist Joe McPhee and his quartet of Christof Knoche (bass clarinet), Michael Bisio (bass) and Jay Rosen (drums), following Knuffke's wife's advice to "keep the dream up" as the quintet recorded a series of exceptional collective improvisations, one Knuffke compositions and at Knuffke's request, a poem/"Invocation" from McPhee.
Perelman, Ivo / Ray Anderson / Joe Morris / Reggie Nicholson
Molten Gold [2 CDs]
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Recording with legendary jazz musicians, trombonist Ray Anderson, drummer Reggie Nicholson and double bassist Joe Morris, tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman's quartet album brings the depth of experience and Ivo Perelman's unstoppable creative drive to these four extended and masterful improvisations, impeccably captured at Brooklyn's ParkWest Studio by Jim Clouse.
Morris, Joe / Agusti Fernandez / Brad Barrett / DoYeon Kim
Other Galaxies
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
Arranged by Joe Morris while Agusti Fernandez was in the NY Metropolitan area, this concert at Firehouse 12 in New Haven, brings together four distinctive string players with Morris on guitar, Fernandez on piano, Brad Barrett on bass and Do Yeon Kim on guyageum, seemingly taking their listeners to rapid galaxies through intensive, pointillistic and imaginative improvisation.
Morris, Joe / Jeremy Brown
Magnitude
(Listen! Foundation (Fundacja Sluchaj!))
While in Calgary as a Killam Visiting Scholar, guitarist Joe Morris worked with multi-wind player and professor Jeremy Brown, whose solo work impressed Morris so much that they began performing regularly as a duo, deciding to rehearse and record this remarkable series of improvised duos that Morris describes as unique to his catalog, something conversationally precise and organic.
Tragic Assembly
Blood Drains And Memories
(Soul City Sounds)
The Durham, NC free improvising trio of Crowmeat Bob on alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet & guitar, Phil Venable on double bass and Charles Chance on drums notch up their playing, with Crowmeat Bob performing on both reeds and electric guitar as the band explores breaking down the barrier between subconsciousness and expression through collective improv.
McPhee / Edwards / Kugel
Existential Moments
(Not Two)
The 3rd album from the touring trio of Joe McPhee on trumpet & tenor sax, John Edwards on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums, following their previous NotTwo releases A Night In Alchemia and Journey To Parazzar, here captured live at FreeJazzSaar 2019, in Saarbrucken, Germany for a boisterously exciting set of three collective improvisations, including a tip of the hat to Charles Gayle.
McPhee, Joe / Michael Marcus / Jay Rosen / Warren Smith
Blue Reality Quartet!
(Mahakala Music)
Woodwind player Michael Marcus' duo with drummer Jay Rosen performed with fellow reedsman Joe McPhee and a 2nd drummer at the Jazzgalerie Nickelsdorf in 2018, the concept so appealing that he took it to the studio in New York, with Warren Smith handling the 2nd drum part and cementing this unusually orchestrated and elegantly passionate band as "The Blue Reality Quartet".
McPhee, Joe / Jen Clare Paulson / Brian Labycz
The Mystery J [VINYL]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Taking its title from the rum-running yacht on which McPhee's father sailed from Nassau to Miami, this free electroaoustic improvised concert with Joe McPhee on pocket cornet & alto saxophone, Jen Clare Paulson on viola and Brian Labycz on electronics was captured live in 2014 at the Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during Okka Fest 6, released as CvsD's first vinyl LP.
Exuberance
Live at Vision Festival
(Ayler Records)



Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought:
Golia, Vinny / Max Johnson / Weasel Walter
No Refunds
(Unbroken Sounds)
Recording in Brooklyn's Seaside Lounge in 2014, these five previously unreleased collective improvisations bring together West Coast reedist Vinny Golia, performing on clarinet, saxello, sopranino, baritone saxophones with double bassist Max Johnson and drummer Weasel Walter, an absolutely impressive example of free playing intent and well-balanced conversation.
Perelman / Shipp / Cosgrove
Live in Carrboro
(Soul City Sounds)
The second album release from the trio of New York improvisers Ivo Perelman on tenor saxophone and Matthew Shipp on piano with DC drummer Jeff Cosgrove, captured live in North Carolina at the Carborro ArtsCenter for an extended, nearly hour-long journey of concentrative interplay, articulate soloing and diverse and authoritative dynamics of fervent and reflective moods.
Brotzmann, Peter / Heather Leigh / Fred Lonberg-Holm
Naked Nudes
(Trost Records)
Part of Peter Brötzmann's 80th birthday concerts in his hometown of Wuppertal, the saxophonist assembled a trio from his typically duo partner, pedal steel guitarist Heather Leigh (Charalambides, Dream/Aktion Unit) and Chicago cellist and electronic improviser Fred Lonberg-Holm, performing the extended title track at INSEL | Kultur im ADA, along with two succinct improvisations.
Big Bad Brotzmann Quintet
Bambule!
(Euphorium)
An intense concert of collective European Free Jazz in two extended improvisations recorded at naTo in Leipzig, German in 2019 from the quintet of Peter Brotzmann on tenor saxophone, clarinet & tarogato, Oliver Schwerdt on grand piano, percussion & little instruments, John Edwards and John Eckhardt on double bass, and Christian Lillinger on drums & percussion.
Big Bad Brotzmann Trio (feat John Edwards / John Eckhardt)
Hot Ass / Sexy Legs [3'' MINI CD]
(Euphorium)
Two recordings from naTo in Leipzig, Germany, the first an energetic free jazz romp from the Big Bad Brötzmann Trio of Peter Brötzmann on tenor sax & taragato, Oliver Schwerdt on piano & percussion and Christian Lillinger on drums & percussion; then a furtively powerful double bass duo between John Edwards and John Eckhardt, a tour de force of extended technique and deep sound.
McPhee, Joe
Route 84 Quarantine Blues (Black Cross Solo Sessions 2)
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
One of Corbett vs. Dempsey's Black Cross Solo Sessions, Joe McPhees approaches his album recorded during pandemic lockdown in his home through tenor sax, voice, water, objects and field recordings, the center of the album a cycle of compositions by Charles Mingus, alongside works by Carla Bley and influences by Joni Mitchell, and a virtual symphony of saxes on the title track.
Parker, Evan / John Edwards / Tony Marsh
Medway Blues
(FMR)
A superb 2009 concert at Command House, in Chatham, UK from the trio of saxophonist Evan Parker, double bassist John Edwards, and late drummer/percussionist Tony Marsh, a single 36 minute improvisation of cohesive and energetic free jazz where all three pull together as a nearly telepathic unit, plus two extended duo sections between Edwards and Marsh and a Marsh solo.
Carl, Rudiger / Joel Grip / Sven-Ake Johansson
In Early November
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Two European Free Improvisation legends--Prussian clarinetist Rudiger Carl and Swedish drummer Sven-Ake Johansson--join with younger double bassist Joel Grip (Umlaut Records) for three improvised "Inflections" performed live at Au Topsi Pohl in Berlin, superb examples of the historical depth of free jazz across Europe and the continuing energy each new generation brings.
Taylor, Cecil / Sunny Murray
Corona
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Beginning with an 8-member vocal incantation led by Taylor himself, this incredible reunion concert between pianist Cecil Taylor and drummer Sunny Murray was recorded by the FMP label in 1996 at the Total Music Meeting in Podewil, Berlin, an incredible display of pyrotechnical playing with an exultant excitement through three "sector" improvisations; extraordinary!
Avenaim, Robbie / Chris Abrahams / Jim Denley
Weft
(Relative Pitch)
The Australian trio of percussionist Robbie Avenaim, keyboard player Chris Abrahams performing on a Waldorf Q+ Synthesiser and bass flutist Jim Denley, all compatriots in a variety of groupings, in an extended studio improvisation of spacious textures and rapidly understated percussive elements, aptly titled for the weaving and cris-crossing threads on a loom.
Doneda, Michel / Frederic Blondy / Tetsu Saitoh
Spring Road 16
(Relative Pitch)
After 30 years of collaboration between French saxophonist Michel Doneda and Japanese double bassist Tetsu Saitoh, this 2016 recording was to be their last due to the premature passing of Saitoh, the two heard here in a trio with pianist Frederic Blondy recorded for Radio France in a remarkable and consuming performances of fully free and often darkly savage improvisation.
Big Bad Brotzmann Trio
Biturbo!, Capt'n [3'' CD]
(Euphorium)
A companion 3" CD to the Karacho! album, with an additional dynamic improvisation from the same concert, the Big Bad Brotzmann Trio bringing together master multi-reedist Peter Brötzmann, here on tenor saxophone & clarinet, with pianist Oliver Schwerdt, also playing percussion & little instruments, and drummer/percussionist Christian Lillinger.
Killing Popes, The (Steidle / Mobus / Nicholls / Downes / Donkin)
Ego Kills
(Shhpuma)
An incredibly inventive album of 21st century jazz incorporating a twisted wealth of rock and electronic elements, in the 2nd album from Killing Popes led by drummer Oli Steidle and keyboardist Dan Nicholls, with Frank Mobus (guitar) and Phil Donkin (bass), Philipp Gropper (saxophone), Jelena Kuljic (voice & sampler) plus Natalie Sandtorv & Liv Nicholls on voice.
Lopes, Luis Lisbon Berlin Quartet
Sinister Hypnotization
(Clean Feed)
Living true to its album title, electric guitarist Luis Lopes' collective Lisbon Berlin Quartet with Rodrigo Pinheiro on Fender Rhodes, Robert Landfermann on double bass & effects and Christian Lillinger on drums, creates an hypnotic brew of interactive, weaving and layered improvised expression, rapid-paced yet hypnotically sinister in its controlled kinetic flow.
Gjerstad, Frode / Isach Skeidsvoll
Twenty Fingers
(Relative Pitch)
A sparkling and energetic encounter between Norwegian saxophone legend Frode Gjerstad and fellow Norwegian and relative newcomer, pianist Isach Skeidsvoll of groups Bear Brother and Garrubo Band, the two spurring each other to intense levels of interaction, stepping back at times for introspective moments only to plunge forward in a wonderfully enthusiastic dialog.
Muller, Matthias / Ricardo Tejero / Vasco Trilla
Implositions
(Orbit577)
The first release from the Barcelona-based trio of Matthias Muller (trombone), Ricardo Tejero (saxophone), and Vasco Trilla (percussion), the band examining "physics, metaphysics, and the root causes of tension that hold our world together" through fully improvised improvisation using unusual voicing, textures, modes of expression and techniques.
TtD (Nasuno Mitsuru / Tatsuya Yoshida)
Teneleven the Duo
(Fourth Hand Record)
Concentrating the Teneleven quintet to a duo in the core of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, Korekyojinn) and bassist & electronic device guru Mitsuru Nasuno (Altered States, Fushitsusha, Ground Zero), for eleven tracks of energetic interactive rock improvisations, alternating between "TdD" pieces of burning improvisations and introspective "Afterglows".



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC