Kwadratuur review by Koen Van Meel

Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee – Human Encore (CF 269)
Vrolijker wordt een mens niet van de cd’s van het Trespass Trio van de Zweedse saxofonist Martin Küchen. Waar die met zijn stevig bezette Angles een hoopvol en bij momenten haast extatisch geluid laat horen, klinkt het bescheiden opgezette trio soberder, soms zelfs klaaglijk. Dat was vooral duidelijk hoorbaar op ‘Bruder Beda’, het tweede album van de groep. Dat de groep voor opvolger ‘Human Encore’ met gast Joe McPhee even een kwartet wordt, verandert daar weinig aan.   Natuurlijk voegt de Amerikaan een dimensie toe en haast even natuurlijk klinkt zijn tenorsax kernachtiger dan het holle geluid van Küchens altsax. Toch valt in de eerste plaats op hoe goed de band als geheel functioneert. De onderlinge verstandhouding ligt daarbij minder in de expliciete communicatie, dan wel in de subtiele evenwichten en de sonore versmelting van de timbres.   In de eerste plaats wordt dit verkregen door het klankgevoelige spel van de muzikanten individueel. Küchen laat naast zijn licht jammerende geluid soms ook horen hoe mooi hij de wind op zijn altsaxklank kan controleren. Ook McPhee slaagt er in deze heesheid te beheersen. Op trompet komt hij vooral geïnspireerd voor de dag wanneer hij kiest voor kleine effecten die vaak niet meer dan details lijken, maar die samen wel een heel eigen verhaal vertellen. Hier komen zijn kwaliteiten beter tot uiting dan wanneer hij voor een meer melodische benadering kiest, een fenomeen dat bij vrij improviserende muzikanten natuurlijk niet zo uitzonderlijk is.   Dat McPhee meer in het linkse kanaal zit en Küchen in het rechtse is een welgekomen hulp. Meer dan eens loopt het geluid van de ene immers over in de andere, zoals in ‘A Desert on Fire, a Forest’ waar ze knap rond elkaar cirkelen. In ‘Bruder Beda is nicht mehr’ lijken ze dan weer meer het onderlinge contrast uit te spelen. Het gevolg is een een Batman en Robin-achtige verhouding, waarbij de klagende alt van Küchen misschien wat minder power heeft dan de tenor van McPhee, maar minstens evenveel, zoniet meer, karakter laat horen.   Het ritmeduo achter de blazers treedt in verschillende gedaanten aan. Bassist Per Zanussi kan een stevig en roterend geluid bovenhalen, terwijl hij in de intro van de titeltrack net het ijle geluid van een barokke gamba evoceert. Drummer Raymond Strid verstaat dan weer de kunst om het spelen met cimbalen en vellen zo goed in elkaar te laten overlopen, dat zijn geluid doet denken aan dat van Art Blakey, zei het dan in een meer ingehouden gedaante. Dit is vooral goed hoorbaar in ‘Bruder Beda ist nicht mehr’ dat gezegd is met een zwoele groove als in Ellingtons ‘Caravan’.   Ook wat energieker klinkt ‘A Different Koto’ waar Zanussi en Strid voor een overduidelijke, potente jazzritmiek kiezen, een heel verschil met de meer bedachtzame stukken. Die nemen bij momenten een soundscape-achtige gedaante aan waarbij de muzikanten opvallend veel ruimte voor elkaar laten. Zo meandert het viertal in ‘Xe’ minutenlang verder zonder hoogtepunt, maar zonder ook maar ergens in te zakken. Waar dit stuk een open ritmiek en een min of meer vrij tempo krijgt, zorgen bas en drums in het meditatieve ‘Our Midst’ net voor een duidelijke harmonie en vorm. Dat McPhee en Küchen hier dan ook nog eens quasi perfect tonaal blijven spelen, maakt het verschil met de andere stukken nog groter.   Toch klinkt ‘Human Encore’ als een coherente cd, net omdat de muzikanten duidelijk voor het kwartet kiezen en niet hun eigen race rijden. Het gevolg is een live-album dat een mooie balans vindt tussen compositie en improvisatie, groove en vrijheid en dat een bijzonder goed uitgebalanceerd groepsgeluid laat horen. En daar kunnen ongenode gasten als een blaffende hond of een autoalarm niets aan veranderen.
http://www.kwadratuur.be/cdbesprekingen/detail/trespass_trio_joe_mcphee_-_human_encore

Jazznews review by Thierry Lepin

Gapplegate Music review by Grego Edwards

Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee, Human Encore (CF 269)
Not every promising collaboration lives up to its potential. Some disappoint because the chemistry isn’t there or there wasn’t enough preparation before the actual encounter. That isn’t the case with the meeting of Joe McPhee and Trespass Trio, as heard on the very stimulating live disk Human Encore (Clean Feed 269).  The foursome played in a special three-day residence at Jazz Ao Centro at Salao Brazil, Coimbra, Portugal during the summer of 2012. The disk is some highlights of that appearance. McPhee is on tenor and pocket trumpet, Martin Kuchin, alto and baritone, Per Zanussi, double bass, and Raymond Strid, drums.   It features both free blowing and compositional structures. What’s exceptional about it is the sympatico meld they get. McPhee clearly gets inspiration from the trio and vice versa. Joe’s trumpet stands out more dramatically when part of a two-horn front line, and everybody works marvelously together for some bold music-making. The two-plus-two breakdown of McPhee-Kuchen and Zanussi-Strid gives double clout to the outcome, though of course all four mix it up in different ways throughout.   There is intent in the music, nothing slap-dash or thrown together. All play freely, thoughtfully, movingly. It’s a kick, a bit of master-inspiration, a disk you should not miss if you are into what is new in new jazz avantdom.
http://gapplegatemusicreview.blogspot.pt/2013/09/trespass-trio-joe-mcphee-human-encore.html

Jazz.pt review by Nuno Catarino

Joe McPhee – Sonic Elements (CF 278)
*****
Visitante regular do nosso país, Joe McPhee tem-se apresentado com diversas formações. Tocou em Lisboa, Porto e Coimbra e chegou até a colaborar com músicos nacionais (integrou um quarteto liderado por Rodrigo Amado, que actuou no Centro Cultural de Belém).

Contudo, o momento mais especial da ligação de McPhee com Portugal terá sido o concerto que deu no Museu Machado de Castro, em Coimbra. Integrada no festival Jazz ao Centro 2009, essa prestação não só mostrou a versatilidade instrumental do multi-instrumentista americano, como a capacidade emotiva da sua música. Aquele solo absoluto foi uma experiência quase religiosa, quase transcendente.

Ora, é a solo que McPhee surge neste disco, registo de um concerto incluído na edição de 2012 do Festival de Jazz de Ljubliana. A actuação divide-se em duas partes (ou “episódios”), cada uma delas dedicada a um herói pessoal do músico (ele próprio uma lenda viva para as gerações contemporâneas). A primeira metade do disco é um tributo a Don Cherry e nela McPhee utiliza o mesmo instrumento que tinha as preferências de Cherry, o trompete de bolso.

O CD começa com uma toada quase silenciosa, com McPhee a explorar o seu “pocket” de forma quase subliminar, num sopro ténue e contido. Mais à frente passa a explorar efeitos, servindo-se, sobretudo, da voz processada pelo metal. Quase sempre textural e atmosférica, esta música encontra paralelo em alguns trabalhos do próprio homenageado. Esta primeira parte do disco engloba dois elementos, “Wind” e “Water” (a explicação do título).

A segunda metade é dedicada a Ornette Coleman, com uma substituição do trompete para o saxofone alto. Joe McPhee começa com um discurso ondulante, evocativo de Ornette, embora evolua livremente, transformando-se. Há uma rápida mudança de ambiente e ficamos perante uma toada mais lenta e de assumido carácter melódico, que se traduz numa abordagem emotiva – quase que se imagina Albert Ayler.

Menos textural que a primeira metade, esta segunda assenta mais no tonalismo improvisado de McPhee, que aqui disserta sobre outros dois elementos – “Earth” e “Fire” – e ainda repesca um antigo tema. Chega-se a incluir até algum “groove”, encerrando o disco com um regresso à emoção ayleriana, agora de forma mais trémula. Essa melodia sentimental, evocada em dois momentos diferentes, vem desse referido tema, “Old Eyes”.

McPhee continua a exibir a sua profunda vitalidade musical, colaborando com projectos enérgicos de músicos mais jovens, como The Thing e, mais recentemente, o nórdico Trespass Trio (também recomendável). A solo, relembra-nos as suas enormes imaginação e capacidade criativa. Esta gravação serve, assim, para voltarmos a celebrar a sua dimensão e contínua relevância, como figura tutelar do jazz criativo contemporâneo.
http://www.jazz.pt/ponto-escuta/2013/08/29/joe-mcphee-sonic-elements-clean-feed/

The New York City Jazz Record review by Robert Iannapollo

Joe McPhee – Sonic Elements (CF 278)
Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee – Human Encore (CF 269)
At the age of 73, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee shows no signs of slowing down. Since his re-emergence to full-time recording in the mid ‘90s, he has jumped from project to project with little respite.

Even though McPhee began on trumpet, the saxophone is the instrument with which most people associate him. He primarily plays tenor but has increasingly made his mark on alto. Sonic Elements is alive set from the 2012 Ljubljana Festival, half played on pocket trumpet and dedicated to Don Cherry and the other on alto, celebrating Ornette Coleman. McPhee’s trumpet is all about breath and squeezing unheard sounds out of the instrument. He employs subtle valve pops, siren-like squeaks and vocalization within a wide dynamic range. Bill Dixon is a prime influence but the spectre of Cherry can also be heard in his bright and feathery upper register lines. On alto, McPhee employs the rich, full sound he brings to his tenor. Towards the end of the Coleman set McPhee plays his classic tune “Old Eyes”, a song he wrote in the late ‘70s and dedicated to Coleman (who gave McPhee a trumpet when the younger player was coming up).

McPhee is a consummate collaborator. He has always added his individuality to groups from Peter Brötzmann’s Tentet to Other Dimensions In Music. Saxophonist Martin Küchen tapped McPhee as a foil on the Trespass Trio’s third album, Human Encore, recorded in 2012 at a concert in Coimbra, Portugal. Küchen’s rough-hewn sound (on alto and baritone) contrasts nicely with McPhee’s stately tenor. When McPhee switches to pocket trumpet, their intertwining is even more pronounced. On the ballad “Xe” Küchen states the melody as McPhee etches a contrapuntal line, then the situation reverses. Bassist Per Zanussi and drummer Raymond Strid (both veterans of the Swedish improvising scene) give the music a wide rhythmic berth and colorful backdrop. The title track has some exceptional four-way interaction, as if McPhee had always been a member of the group.

Jazzflits review by Herman te Loo

Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee – Human Encore (CF 269)
Ook in de free jazz loont het om wat stukken te hebben om je aan vast te houden als je met een gast speelt. Het Zweedse Trespass Trio stond in mei en juni 2012 drie dagen in het Portugese Coimbra met Joe McPhee als vierde man. Het zijn juist de vrije improvisaties die hier het minst boeien. De klank van de alt- en baritonsax van Martin Küchen mengt goed met de tenorsax en de pocket trumpet van de Amerikaan. Dat is vooral goed te horen in de door Küchen geschreven melodieën van bijvoorbeeld het openingsstuk, ‘A desert on fire, a forest’ (dat aan het eind van de cd nog een keer van een andere opnamedag terugkeert) of ‘In our midst’ met zijn verrassende paso doble-ritmiek.
‘Opmerkelijk is de gretigheid waarmee de destijds 73-jarige Joe McPhee zich af en toe met het muzikale verloop bemoeit’ Op dergelijke momenten verbaast het dat McPhee voor het eerst met de Zweden op het podium stond. Dat laatste verklaart overigens ook de gretigheid waarmee de destijds 73-jarige veteraan
zich af en toe met het muzikale verloop bemoeit. In ‘Bruder Beda’ brengt hij wel heel snel de boeiende drumsolo van Raymond Strid naar een einde toe. Maar als je de heldere ‘pocket trumpet’ hoort mengen met de bariton van Küchen en de gestreken bas van Per Zanussi in het titelnummer, vergeef je hem veel.

Free Jazz review by Janus and Karl

Joe McPhee – Sonic Elements (For Pocket Trumpet and Alto Saxophone) (CF 278)
*****
Being Joe McPhee must be wonderful because with his music he has the ability to touch the most delicate strings of your heart. In 2011 he opened the third day of the Chicago Tentet+1 residence to celebrate Peter Brötzmann’s 70th birthday at Café Ada in his hometown Wuppertal with a dedication to the late Billy Bang. It was a blues meditation on soprano sax which almost drove the audience to tears.

But being Joe McPhee must be hard work as well. When you’ve still been blowing miracles out of your lungs every day for forty years (and being among a fistful of unbreakable free jazz veterans), when you’ve been constantly promoting the logical evolution of your lifetime’s musical paths as much as you’ve been getting involved in a countless number of embodiments in the musical scenario without boundaries, there must have been some kind of strange and strong fluid running through your veins. One day you’re on stage guiding the transcendent guitar feedbacks of some rock outsider, the other day you team up with some polyhydric noise creator, or you are just spending a two-day-residence-gig melting in the glorious “dirty Chicago Tentet” at Café Oto driven by one of your old comrades. No time to mess around!

So what happens when you are alone with your horns and brasses again? When your sound is so unveiled after so much time and so many experiments? Well, see above.

McPhee is in no hurry, he takes all the time he needs to warm up his instrument like a kid getting confident with his new toy (he!). On his new album “Sonic Elements” the dedication of “Episode One” to Don Cherry is rather to be intended as a homage to a trailblazer in the use of the pocket trumpet as improvising instrument than a reference to the grand old trumpeter. McPhee silently inflates the pipes, enjoying every single rasp coming from his breath coalescing in shrieking clusters, slap-tonguing on the mouthpiece, clawing the metal and murmuring. The evolved phrases of his musical speech coming after this long intense prelude seems to come from a sort of second adult self replacing the former embryonic one.

Following this imaginary path of growth doesn’t surprise the use of the voice filtered through the instrument, as a new step of evolution and conscience. If the artist already faced two of the four classical elements (“Air” in the first minutes of this sonic journey and “Earth” through the human voice) the closing minutes are plunged in the “Water”. The musical fluid flows along the piston valves, the “Air” pulls back among the dropping sizzle of the overstuffed pipes. McPhee preserves the clash of “Earth” and “Fire” for his beloved blues and alto sax and dedicates “Episode Two” to Ornette Coleman – and what a majestic and outstanding blues manifesto it is indeed! But not necessarily in the case of Coleman’s Texas blues feeling (or his harmolodics), even if the track starts like it. McPhee triggers off light-footed lines displaying his incredible musicianship on the instrument (but there is definitely no showing off) before he turns to a Steve-Reich-like minimalism, to repetitive phrases, and hoarse croaking. He even produces rock phrases in this wild, yet elegant mix before he intersperses pointed trills, wild runs, and desperate cries only to return to minimalist phrases again. The cement that holds everything together is his down-to-earth Mississippi blues sound, these beautiful dark lines which are so fragile that they seem to be torn apart, in its foot-dragging this music is of the utmost beauty and melancholy.

The album was recorded at Cankarjew Dom, a concert hall in Ljubljana/Slovenia in 2012. It is one of the most fabulous recent solo recordings and we highly recommend it, because being Joe McPhee is most of all being pure joy for all the listeners.
http://www.freejazzblog.org/2013/08/joe-mcphee-sonic-elements-for-pocket.html

Jazzword review by Ken Waxman

Joe McPhee/Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten – Brooklyn DNA Clean Feed (CF 244)
Joe McPhee Trio First Date (CJR-8)
Persistent in his exploration of fresh musical currents in the improvised tradition, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee remains indefatigable 46 years after his first recording and as he settles into his eighth decade. Comfortably conversant in any sized ensemble, from his justly renowned solo discs to his long-time membership in Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, the Poughkeepsie, New York resident usually does his most profound work in smaller configurations. Take these high-quality CDs, recorded at four different years.

First Date is significant because its first three tracks are the primary recording by McPhee’s still extant touring band, Trio X, consisting of himself on saxophones and pocket trumpet, bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen. The final track captures the trio in concert six years later. Recorded in 2011, Brooklyn DNA matches the multi-instrumentalist with resourceful Norwegian bassist Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten, who now resides in Austin. Dedicated to New York’s second most storied borough and its comprehensive Jazz history, this is more of a so-called Jazz record than the more experimental other one, recorded live at New York’s third annual Vision Festival.

First Date is more experimental for the simple reason that McPhee, Duval and Rosen didn’t expect this gig would turn into a long-time arrangement, and throughout you can hear the three trying out assorted strategies and narratives. There’s also a question of balance. While Duval, who has worked with no problem alongside saxophonists as individual as Ivo Perelman and Charles Gayle immediately sets up rapprochement with McPhee similar to Jimmy Garrison with John Coltrane or David Izenzon with Ornette Coleman, initially Rosen seems left out of the equation. This situation is only rectified when the saxophonist’s New Thing-like bites and cries and the bassist’s pumping whorls subside into mid-range so that Rosen’s more restrained percussion patterns are heard. With the subtlety of a recital percussionist, the drummer fastens on textures that can be vibrated, including bell ringing, hi-hat slapping and cymbal shaking. He stays true to this formula even when McPhee digs deeply into his soprano saxophone’s innards, pushing discordant reed tessitura to the limit before settling into unforeseen reed bites and multiphonics. Duval continues his role with a combination of harsh scrubs and rappels up-and-down his strings while Rosen’s contributes infrequent pops and some whistle blowing. Eventually the piece concludes.

Rosen’s percussion is just as restrained but resourceful as well in the Rochester, N.Y. set from 2004. Although his texture of choice appears to be the delicate plink of finger cymbals, he’s more upfront throughout with clanks and clicks from drum top and sides plus cymbal shakes. Duval too is more assertive slapping strings and bowing them in the lowest pitch, while McPhee advances the instant composition with gouts of contrapuntal glossolalia, emotional squeals and staccato freneticism, followed every step of the way by the bassist’s ragged arpeggios and the drummer’s smacks. In tandem with a pulsating bass solo, McPhee signals the ending while exploring every nuance of a secondary spiritual-like variant which combines rhythm and lyricism.

Duval’s brawny interaction is matched by the measured and powerful strokes of Håker-Flaten on the other CD. Håker-Flaten, who regularly interacts with saxophone heavy hitters such as Frode Gjerstad and Mats Gustafsson, demonstrates his inventiveness throughout. He outputs a thick carpet of passing chords to meet McPhee more outré reed excursions; or has spidery string slithers at his finger tips when the themes turn near-romantic.

Tunes such as “Blue Coronet” and “214 Martens”, respectively celebrating the legendary Brooklyn Jazz haunt and the late tenor saxophonist Dewey Redman, indicate the duality. The latter includes the two players challenging one another with contrapuntal altissimo reed cries and slashing string slaps at the top and sharp violent horn vibrations plus continuous string whapping as the finale; with McPhee pushing out a half-imaginary Redman like melody in the middle. A combination of honk and hyperbole McPhee’s alto saxophone solo on “Blue Coronet” appropriately salutes many of the Jazzers who gigged at the club. With matter-of-fact strumming from Håker-Flaten his anchor, he moves from expressive, late-night abstractions to a touch of straight-ahead blowing.

“Enoragt Maeckt Haght” brings out some of the most abstract yet affective playing on the date, with the bassist pinching his strings near the scroll before outputting double and triple stopped notes while the saxophonist moves from deep inside the body tube growls and upwards stretching bugle-like tones to reach strident reed bites and tongue slaps that make perfect sense alongside the bassist’s narrative.

The most telling piece however may be the final one, “Here and Now”. Here the two are transported to the 21st Century with an exposition mixing powerful bass slaps and alto sax note clusters that gradually attains new balance as the composition speeds up. Finally harsh bent notes from both result in a satisfactory tandem ending.

More proof – if any is needed – that at 73 plus McPhee continuous to operate at top form, no matter his partners in sound.
http://www.jazzword.com/review/128211

Time Out Lisboa review Jose Carlos Fernandes

Trespass Trio & Joe McPhee – Human Encore (CF 269)
****
A junção do veterano Joe McPhee (sax e trompete de bolso) ao Trespass Trio, não é inesperada: McPhee tem credenciais de músico engagé (sobretudo na afirmação do Black Power) e o trio de Küchen é dos grupos de jazz com pendor político mais vincado.

O disco foi gravado ao vivo, durante uma residência de três dias no Salão Brazil, em Coimbra – o que explica a presença de uma faixa intitulada “Coimbra Mon Amour”, por sinal uma dos mais inflamadas do CD e cujos bramidos elefantinos de sax barítono levam a suspeitar da existência de fauna por inventariar no Choupal. Mas, apesar das erupções de fúria (como em “A Different Koko”), a toada dominante é, como no anterior Bruder Beda, plangente. Esta gente não olha o mundo com óculos cor-de-rosa.

All About Jazz review by Glenn Astarita

Trespass Trio + Joe McPhee – Human Encore (CF 269)
Sweden-based Trespass Trio aligns with American improvising legend Joe McPhee for a live set, recorded 2012 at Salao Brazil. The artists’ camaraderie, gamesmanship, and intuitive synergy become quite evident from the onset. From a holistic perspective, the band’s rugged approach balances a prevalent degree of experimentation with familiar modern jazz terrain. Indeed, an audience-pleaser; even by free jazz conventions, the players render a cornucopia of disparate angles and propositions.

“A Different Kodo” is immersed in a free-bop modality. Drummer Raymond Strid kicks it off with a bristling groove, followed by Martin Kuchen’s serrated alto saxophone lines within a sparse framework. McPhee chimes in with his pocket trumpet and tears apart the upper-registers with brazen choruses, as the band tightens the loop and steps inward. Edgy, yet executed with heartfelt enthusiasm, bassist Per Zanussi proceeds to open up the spatial characteristics with a fast-paced and nimbly articulated solo spot. He creates a sense of loneliness, but the ensemble sneaks back in and closes out on a temperate note. Essentially, the musicians bequeath a highly artistic set of values to exploration and adventurism, shrewdly countered by some lighter moments. No doubt, it’s the complete package.
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=44823