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CD
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CVSD 081CD
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Joe McPhee's response to the challenge of making a new CD of solo music during COVID was to go at it head on, to address the present in its starkest aspects, to reach for comfort in the music of great composers, and to speak directly to the virus in no uncertain terms. The result is unlike any other of McPhee's many records, a variety show of improvisations, favorite compositions, field recording, multi-tracking, incantation and recitation. After searching for the right studio-like setting with an ideal sound, but hampered by the restrictions of quarantine, he abandoned such hope and dug out a clothes closet in his Poughkeepsie house, where he could approach the task with an unconventional intimacy. In the dead of night, McPhee played luscious versions of compositions by Carla Bley and Charles Mingus, extrapolating on their melodies, even singing a Joni Mitchell lyric to Mingus's "Goodbye Porkpie Hat". Elsewhere he plays harrowing tenor saxophone improvisations, a plaintive tone entering his melancholic melodic sensibility. On the title track, McPhee layers a dozen aching blues lines atop a field recording of the namesake highway, and in another piece he discovers an entire drum choir in the noise of dripping water on a tin plate in his sink, something he dedicates to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose death was announced moments before he noticed the environmental sound. On one of several very short, intense tracks, McPhee literally attempts to reverse the virus by intoning a spell-like chant: "Out, damned bug/Out, damned bug!" The package includes extensive track-by-track liner notes and a poem by McPhee, with artwork and design by Christopher Wool.
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2CD
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CVSD 069CD
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Never-before-issued music from three very different settings in upstate New York, all recorded in the period running up to Poughkeepsie multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's Nation Time (CVSD 054CD). From a year before that landmark LP, in the same hall at Vassar College, McPhee led a band with soulful vibraphonist Ernie Bostic and voluble rhythm section of Tyrone Crabb and Bruce Thompson, both of Nation Time fame, performing a John Coltrane-oriented set that included versions of Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" and Coltrane's "Naima," as well as McPhee-fave "God Bless The Child." Deeply emotional and fiery playing with this unusual instrumentation -- rare to find McPhee playing with a harmonically based instrument like vibes. McPhee had organized a larger group also meant to feature Bostic and a French horn for a concert at a monastery in nearby New Windsor, but the band was pared down to a quartet with saxophonist Reggie Marks, playing a powerful combination of originals and the Patty Waters-associated traditional tune "Black Is The Color." (The concert also featured a cameo by David Nelson of the Last Poets, but technical issues in the recording scuttled that and several other tracks.) Finally, three cuts document a more rough-and-tumble gig taped outdoors in the park at Poughkeepsie's Lincoln Centre -- the only surviving recordings of this funky, bluesy, lowdown, explosive configuration, they feature vocals by one Octavius Graham, great drumming by Chico Hawkins, and Tyrone Crabb on electric bass. This two-CD set has been lovingly transferred from the original tapes out of from McPhee's personal archives, and is augmented by newly discovered photographs of the concerts. A spectacular deep dive into the pure magic of Mr. McPhee.
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LP
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SV 164LP
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2023 repress. "'It's been nearly five decades since Joe McPhee assembled a group of musicians to perform the weekend concerts that would become Nation Time, his second LP. It was December 1970, thirty-one-year-old McPhee was inspired by Amiri Baraka's poem 'It's Nation Time,' and the students at Vassar College didn't know what hit them. 'What time is it?' shouted the bandleader. 'C'mon, you can do better than that. What time is it?!' The music on Nation Time came out of the fertile, but little-known creative jazz scene in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee's home base. Two bands were deployed, one with a funky free foundation featuring guitar and organ, the other consisting of a more standard jazz formation with two drummers and the brilliant Mike Kull at the piano. Across the concert and the next afternoon's audience-less recording session, the band was ignited by McPhee's passion and his gorgeous post-Coltrane / post-Pharoah tenor. On 'Shakey Jake,' they hit a James Brown groove filtered through Archie Shepp, while the sidelong title track is as searching and poignant today as it was during its heyday. Originally released in 1971 on CjR, an imprint started expressly to document McPhee's music, Nation Time has a sense of urgency and inspiration. Additional material from those December days would later appear on Black Magic Man, Hat Hut's first release. In fact, the first four records on this seminal Swiss label all featured McPhee. Nation Time was largely unknown a quarter century or so later, when it was first issued on CD through Atavistic's Unheard Music Series. On Corbett vs. Dempsey, we reissued the album along with all known tapes leading up to and around it as a deluxe box set, but the standalone LP has long remained incredibly rare. Now is the time for a new generation of freaks to lose their shit when settling into the cushy beat of 'Shakey Jake' and answer McPhee's call with the only appropriate response: It's NATION TIME.' --John Corbett."
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CD
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CVSD 054CD
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2021 restock. Corbett Vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Joe McPhee's Nation Time, originally issued in 1971. It's been nearly five decades since McPhee assembled a group of musicians to perform the weekend concerts that would become Nation Time, his second LP. It was December 1970; thirty-one-year-old McPhee was inspired by Amiri Baraka's poem It's Nation Time, and the students at Vassar College didn't know what hit them. "What time is it?", shouted McPhee. "Come on, you can do better than that. What time is it?!!" The music on Nation Time came out of a fertile, but little-known creative jazz scene in Poughkeepsie, New York, McPhee's home base. Two bands were deployed, one with a funky free foundation featuring guitar and organ, the other consisting of a more standard jazz formation, with two drummers and the brilliant Mike Kull at the piano. Across the concert and the next afternoon's audience-less recording session, the band was ignited by McPhee's passion and his gorgeous post-Coltrane/post-Pharoah tenor. On "Shakey Jake," they hit a James Brown groove filtered through Archie Shepp, while the sidelong title track is as searching and poignant today as it was during its heyday. Originally released in 1971 on CjR, an imprint started expressly to document McPhee's work, Nation Time has a sense of urgency and inspiration. Additional material from those December days would later appear on Black Magic Man (1975), Hat Hut's first release. In fact, the first four records on the seminal Swiss label all featured McPhee. Nation Time was largely unknown a quarter century or so later, when it was first issued on CD through the Unheard Music Series. On Corbett vs. Dempsey, the album was reissued along with all known tapes leading up to and around it as a CD box set (CVSD 011CD, 2017), but the standalone album has remained incredibly rare. In preparing to reissue the CD on its own, a new, previously unknown tape was discovered with three tracks recorded at the original concert in 1970. These include an intense version of Coltrane's "Naima"; all of them feature pianist Kull, and none have been issued before this. Personnel: Joe Mcphee - Tenor/soprano saxophones, trumpet; Mike Kull - piano, electric piano; Tyrone Crabb -, bass, electric bass, trumpet; Bruce Thompson - drums, percussion; Ernest Bostic - drums, percussion; Otis Greene - alto saxophone; Herbie Lehman - organ; Dave Jones - electric guitar.
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CD
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CVSD 006CD
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2012 release. A reissue of Joe McPhee's Glasses, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1979. Glasses was recorded in October, 1977, during a highly significant period in McPhee's work, as he was pioneering the transatlantic, collaborative spirit that has helped to define the last three decades of his career. Documented in Tavannes, Switzerland, the set contains sensational tenor work, including the title piece, which finds McPhee ringing out a rhythm on a half-full wine glass, from which he extrapolates a melody on the saxophone, as well as a stunning version of John Coltrane's "Naima". The final 15 minutes are spent in duet with the Swiss percussionist Reto Weber, who was so inspired by McPhee he asked to sit in and did so with his quite extensive battery of drums. This record come from a year-long run during which McPhee recorded and released four very different, extremely wonderful solo records, of which only Tenor has ever been reissued on CD. Along with the 1979 album Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight (CVSD 007CD), this reissue was produced in collaboration with the seminal Swiss label Hat Hut Records and their chief, Werner X. Uehlinger. Recorded live by Werner X. Uehlinger on October 13, 1977 at Cafe Calvado, Switzerland. Personnel: Joe McPhee - tenor saxophone, flugelhorn, percussion; Reto Weber - percussion.
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CD
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CVSD 007CD
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2012 release. A reissue of Joe McPhee's Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1979. Variations On A Blue Line / 'Round Midnight was recorded in October, 1977, during a highly significant period in Poughkeespie, New York, multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee's work, as he was pioneering the transatlantic, collaborative spirit that has helped to define the last three decades of his career. Blue Line comes from a concert in Rouen, France, when McPhee played on a double bill with the Peter Brötzmann/Han Bennink duo. It features the side-length tenor excursion "Beanstalk" (dedicated to Coleman Hawkins), an alternate version of "Knox" (known from his beloved 1977 LP Tenor), and two soprano pieces, "Motian Studies" and Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight". This record come from a year-long run during which McPhee recorded and released four very different, extremely wonderful solo records, of which only Tenor has ever been reissued on CD. Along with the album Glasses (CVSD 006CD), this reissue was produced in collaboration with the seminal Swiss label Hat Hut Records and their chief, Werner X. Uehlinger. Recorded live by Claude Robert on October 11, 1977 at Salle Ste Croix des Pelletiers in Rouen, France. Personnel: Joe McPhee - tenor and soprano saxophone.
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CD
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CVSD 021CD
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2015 release. In his upstate New York secret laboratory, home-based in Poughkeepsie, Joe McPhee diligently documented his activities throughout the '70s, with the help of Craig Johnson, the producer who started CjRecord Productions as an outlet for McPhee's music. Among the unreleased tapes waxed in that span, Alone Together is unique and especially beautiful. Like Sound On Sound (CVSD 005CD, 2010), these recordings make use of multitrack recording, overdubbing McPhee upon McPhee, however where those earlier recordings had an experimental tendency, the Alone Together tracks were more compositional in nature, allowing the multi-instrumentalist to build and sculpt each piece, creating complete wind ensembles one track at a time. In 1974 and then again in a longer session in 1979, McPhee recorded in concise solo, duo, and trio contexts, and in more extensive brass and reed quartets -- all McPhee, all the time. Going head-to-head with the best of the saxophone foursomes of the era, McPhee is a one-man-World Saxophone Quartet, his probing investigations and lyrical statements as incisive and insightful as those of his best-known recordings. McPhee's own enthusiasm for these never-before-heard recordings betrays their significance in his large and ever-mounting discography. Corbett Vs. finally make them available. Recorded by Craig Johnson in Poughkeepsie, New York, from 1974-1979. Cover photograph by Christina Ramberg, Remastered at Experimental Sound Studio, Chicago, in 2014. c. 1974, courtesy of the Estate of Christina Ramberg and Corbett vs. Dempsey; Produced by John Corbett.
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7"
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CVSD 001EP
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2014 release. Joe McPhee on seven inches of pure loving vinyl. Features two versions of the 1970 classic "Cosmic Love". McPhee rocking the cosmic wavelength on space organ and tenor sax. Recorded in Poughkeepsie, NY, 1970; Produced by John Corbett; Vinyl project coordinated by Marc Bonadies. Cover artwork by Dick Higgins. 33 1/3 rpm.
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CD
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ALP 201CD
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2020 restock, originally reissued in 2000. Atavistic reissue line: The Unheard Music Series, curated by John Corbett. "Joe McPhee's solo album, Tenor literally changed my life. The recording (one of his first for Hat Hut, in September 1976) displayed his unique ability to integrate unconventional sounds and extended techniques with pure melodicism, and it permanently altered my perspective on what the saxophone could do and what music could be. Nation Time was recorded six years earlier, but ideas regarding the integration of means and methods were already at the forefront of McPhee's approach to improvisation. For this concert on December 12, 1970 (the other half of which was released in 1975 as the first Hat Hut LP, Black Magic Man), Joe McPhee mapped out a stylistically expansive set list, one that embraced methods as diverse as those developed by New Thing-era Archie Shepp, late 60s Sun Ra and Art Ensemble of Chicago, Grant Green, Cecil Taylor (Candid period), & Sonny Rollins. He and his band, through vision and work, made these various approaches their own. This set represents real 'free jazz' -- the freedom to pursue the sounds and rhythms that inspire players to improvise with individual vitality and passion, no matter what different kinds of music are represented." -- Ken Vandermark.
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