The Squid's Ear Magazine

McPhee, Joe

Straight Up, Without Wings [BOOK]

McPhee, Joe: Straight Up, Without Wings [BOOK] (Corbett vs. Dempsey)

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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Joe McPhee


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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

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"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

"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)
11/20/2024

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


Track Listing:



By Joe McPhee as told to Mike Faloon

Foreword by Fred Moten

Afterword by Moor Mother

Related Categories of Interest:


Book
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Joe McPhee
New in Improvised Music
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Corbett vs. Dempsey.


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Mcphee, Joe / Ken Vandermark
Musings of a Bahamian Son: Poems and Other Words
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27 concise poems written and read by saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee, punctuated by 9 musical interludes between McPhee on soprano sax and Chicago reedist Ken Vandermark on clarinet and bass, fortifying McPhee's captivating words that mix life observations among jazz references to Dolphy, Monk, Brötzmann, Coleman, &c.; a truly embraceable "book" of poetry.
McPhee, Joe / Evan Parker
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A confluence of masterful playing through two soprano & two tenor saxophones plus one pocket cornet, as Evan Parker and Joe McPhee perform live in 2003 at the Chicago Cultural Center as part of the Empty Bottle Festival of Jazz & Improvised Music, weaving lines with intricately relaxed confidence and coming together for beautiful moments of lyrical connection.
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Recorded during the 2002 studio sessions that yielded the albums A Short Visit to Nowhere and Broken English, this unreleased recording of a Mars Williams composition is issued as a 1-sided LP with the stellar lineup of Brötzmann with Williams, Ken Vandermark, Jeb Bishop, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Kent Kessler, Michael Zerang, Hamid Drake, Mats Gustafsson and Joe McPhee.
McPhee, Joe
Route 84 Quarantine Blues (Black Cross Solo Sessions 2)
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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.
McPhee, Joe / Michael Marcus / Jay Rosen / Warren Smith
Blue Reality Quartet!
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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".
Thing, The (Gustafsson / McPhee / Haker Flaten / Nilssen-Love)
She Knows...
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Named for a Don Cherry composition included on this album, the core trio of The Thing--Mats Gustafsson on reeds, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten on bass, and Paal Nilssen-Love on drums--is joined by saxophonist and pocket trumpter Joe McPhee, recording classic free jazz and harmolodic pieces by Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, James Blood Ulmer, Frank Lowe, & Joe McPhee.
Lonberg-Holm, Fred / Joe McPhee
No Time Left for Sadness
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
"This Time", "That Time" and "Next Time", the three titles from the first duo meeting of Joe McPhee on tenor saxophone and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, also bringing electronics, the distillation of their playing outside of Survival Unit III a revelation in intensity and unconventional creativity, fueled by magnificent playing and an empathetic rapport.
Lindsay, Arto / Joe McPhee / Ken Vandermark / Phil Sudderberg
Largest Afternoon
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Bringing together Chicago's long partnership of saxophonists Joe McPhee and Ken Vandermark with frequent Vandermark collaborator, drummer Phil Sudderberg, and New York guitarist Arto Lindsay, meeting on a winter afternoon in a Chicago studio to record these fifteen collective, freely improvised conversations of intense energy, unexpected twists and turns, and brilliant playing.
McPhee, Joe / Mats Gustafsson
Brace For Impact
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
Drawing on many collaborations, from Peter Brotzmann's large groups to Gustafsson's The Thing, this duo album recorded in 2008 is finally issued to unleash 1 blistering album of saxophone duos, Joe McPhee on altos sax, alto clarinet, pocket trumpet and voice, with Gustafsson on baritone and slide saxophone, alto fluteophone and live electronics; brace yourself!
McPhee, Joe / Hamid Drake
Keep Going
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
The second duo album between saxophonist & pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee and drummer/frame drummer Hamid Drake begins with McPhee reciting words by Harriett Tubman (Keep Going), as the two inform and astound through masterful playing, together and solo, shaking the listener through intense and unambiguously clear playing, with pieces reflecting our world situation.
McPhee, Joe / Andre Jaume
Nuclear Family
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
In 1979 saxophonist/cornetist Joe McPhee met French reedist Andre Jaume in Paris to record this exceptional album of standards, drawing on works from Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Duke and Ellington, and Ornette Coleman; melodic, poignant, emotional and insightful jazz.
McPhee, Joe
Alone Together: The Solo Ensemble Recordings 1974 & 1979
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
In 1979 Joe McPhee, working with CJR produced Craig Johnson, recorded this set of overdubbed recordings of himself performing on saxes, trumpet and flugelhorn over original compositions showcasing solo, duo, trio and quartet contexts, an album of virtual McPhee ensembles!
McPhee, Joe
The Loneliest Woman [CD EP]
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A rich and unusual interpretation of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman" recorded in Boswil, Switzerland in 1981 with McPhee, Pierre Favre, Irene Schweizer, Radu Malfatti, Daniel Bourquin, &c., in its first-ever release.
McPhee, Joe
Variations on a Blue Line / 'Round Midnight
(Corbett vs. Dempsey)
A much-needed reissue of McPhee's 1979 Hat Hut LP documenting his 1977 concert at Salle Ste Croix des Pelletiers, performing 3 original compositions and Monk's "Round Midnight" with incredible skill and inventiveness.
Morris, Joe
Perpetual Frontier The Properties of Free Music [BOOK]
(Riti Publishing)
Joe Morris wrote this book to discuss aspects of free music, including responses to his questionnaire written by Joe McPhee, William Parker, Jamie Saft, Ken Vandermark, Marilyn Crispell, Nate Wooley, Jack Wright, Matthew Shipp, &c.



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