Joe McPhee recounts his journey from his formative years and time in the army to his evolution as a creative free jazz saxophonist and trumpeter, sharing experiences and encounters with artists such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Peter Brötzmann, and Pauline Oliveros; featuring a foreword by Fred Moten and an afterword by Moor Mother.
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First printing, edition of 1000. Paper: Magno Natural 240 gsm, Arena Bulk Natural 90 gsm. 15.5 cm x 21.5 cm.
UPC: 9781737847045
Label: Corbett vs. Dempsey
Catalog ID: CvsD0126
Squidco Product Code: 35454
Format: BOOK
Condition: New
Released: 2024
Country: USA
Packaging: Book
"In Straight Up, Without Wings, Joe McPhee surveys sixty years in creative music. Starting with his trumpeter-father's influence and formative years in the U.S. Army, McPhee recounts experiences as a Black-hippy-cum-budding-musician based in upstate New York, perched at an ideal distance from Manhattan's free jazz demimonde of the 1960s and its loft scene of the 1970s.
A natural storyteller, revealing never-told tales and reveling in the joys of noise, McPhee puts the influence of - and encounters with - Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane and Albert Ayler into the context of an independently-minded young player, ravenous for experience, dealing with the crucible of racism, seeking to break out beyond the bounds of a regional Hudson Valley scene that he knows like the back of his hand.
The memoir draws forward through thrilling passages in Europe and across the United States, as McPhee gains momentum, as his music becomes the impetus for multiple record labels, as he collaborates with figures from Peter Brötzmann to Pauline Oliveros, and as he eventually goes on to inspire musicians far and wide. Written as an oral history, deftly conducted by Mike Faloon to preserve McPhee's unique narrative voice, Straight Up, Without Wings includes "reflections" by eight musicians from across the protagonist's rich history."-Corbett Vs Dempsey
"Joe McPhee is a multi-instrumentalist, improvisor, composer, and poet based in Poughkeepsie, New York. His acclaimed LP Nation Time was recorded in 1970; fifty years later, its track "Shakey Jake" was featured in the "Defiant Jazz" episode of the television series Severance. McPhee has recorded for numerous record labels, including CjR and Hat Hut, both of which were founded expressly to release his music. His most recent production is Musings of a Bahamian Son, which features McPhee reciting his own poetry.
Mike Faloon is a teacher and writer based in New York's Hudson Valley. He is the author of The Other Night at Quinn's: New Adventures in the Sonic Underground.
Fred Moten is a poet, scholar, editor, educator, and performer based in New York. Among his many books are In the Break, The Feel Trio, Black and Blur, and perennial presence fashion falling.
Moor Mother is a poet, professor, musician, and interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She is half of Black Quantum Futurism. Her discography includes Black Encylopedia, Jazz Codes, and The Great Bailout, and her most recent book is American Equations in Black Classical Music."
First printing, edition of 1000. Paper: Magno Natural 240 gsm, Arena Bulk Natural 90 gsm. 15.5 cm x 21.5 cm.
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Joe McPhee "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." ^ Hide Bio for Joe McPhee
12/3/2024
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Track Listing:
By Joe McPhee as told to Mike Faloon
Foreword by Fred Moten
Afterword by Moor Mother
Book
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Joe McPhee
New in Improvised Music
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