Search - Joe McPhee :: Trinity (1971)

Undiscovered Music

Christopher Forbes | Brooklyn,, NY | 10/19/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Joe McPhee is one of the best avant-garde artists you've never heard. Part of this has to do with geography. McPhee's home base was Poughkeepsie NY, and though it didn't preclude him from going to the City, he never seemed to make the inroads there that other musicians in residence did. And until recently his activity was rather limited. But new interest in McPhee is building. His work has been championed by many young improvisers, particularly in Chicago. And the Chicago based label Atavistic is re-releasing many of his seminal albums from his early years. Trinity is one such album. Trinity, like other early McPhee albums, was recorded in Poughkeepsie, in a church social hall. McPhee had recently lost his regular bassist, so the album was recorded with horn, piano and drums. The combination works beautifully. The CD also marks McPhee's first outing on tenor sax. His primary instrument up to that time had been trumpet, though tenor was soon to become his instrument of greatest originality. On the CD McPhee is backed up by two obscure musicians who deserve greater recognition, at least based on the work on this album, Harold Smith on drums and Mike Kull on piano and electric piano. The album mixes free improvisation and beautiful dirge-like ballads. McPhee is terrific...fierce and uncompromising on tenor, and movingly elegiac on the ballads. He shows himself to be one of the best post-Ayler sax players...reaching for new sounds, but still retaining a distinctive tone all his own. The original release on CJR was pressed at only 1000 copies. It sold out quickly and has never been repressed. Thanks to Atavistic for making this amazing work available again to a modern audience. McPhee certainly deserves the recognition. (And for all you avant-garde nuts out there, check out some of the other Unheard Music releases, such as two wonderful sessions by St. Louis' Human Arts Ensemble. This stuff is a treasure trove!)"