Alongside David S Ware’s quartet and Charles Gayle’s Parker/Ali trio, Joe McPhee’s Trio X are one of the great contemporary small groups in free jazz. This beautifully presented set – with both discs cut to play at 45rpm for maximum fidelity – documents McPhee, bassist Dominic Duval and drummer Jay Rosen at an intuitive peak, recorded live in Vilnius in 2006. The set is divided between originals, inspired re-settings (“My Funny Valentine” into Edwin Star’s “War”) and readings of material by Ornette Coleman (an exquisite “Lonely Woman”, “Law Years”), Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and Dvorak (a starkly beautiful reading of the first movement from Symphony #9 that connects Ayler-ised jazz to European folk/orchestral traditions). McPhee’s playing is gorgeous, with bold, fluid lines bisecting Duval’s uncanny, vocalized bass work and Rosen’s precise feel for time and space. This is a great free jazz record, one with a huge umbilical to the post-Coltrane tradition but with two fists pointing towards the future. Another excellent release from this new label. Highly recommended.

Third in a great run of solo recordings, following on from Tenor and Soprano, from saxophonist Joe McPhee. It’s easy to forget that McPhee comes from the same generation as Archie Shepp and Albert Ayler, an original fire musician, even if he didn’t fully come to prominence till the 1990s. Alto was recorded live on May 4^th 2009 in NYC and further emphasises McPhee’s connection to the source, with a series of solo alto saxophone and alto clarinet performances that are perfectly poised between post-tongue ecstasy and soft, bruising blues, from boppy Ornette-ish tone-poems through Alyerised heavy metal gospel. Hand-numbered edition of 524 copies on 180g vinyl with silkscreen print on rice paper covers. 

Stellar live recording from one of the greatest living free jazz saxophonists, Joe McPhee, and percussionist Michael Zerang. The range of McPhee’s thought at this point is fairly staggering, exposing himself to playing situations that range from the Chicago underground through Chris Corsano, Peter Brotzmann’s big band and LAFMS fugitives Smegma. But then McPhee has always been a radical thinker, incorporating tapes and electronics early on as part of his Survival Unit. Indeed, I would say that he has never sounded better, bucking the trend for fire musicians to tame the flames as they age and pushing himself headlong into new situations that keep his thinking and playing sharp. Which brings us to this gorgeous new LP from a label that has established itself as one of the premier free jazz imprints, Lithuania’s NoBusiness Records. Recorded live in New Orleans, with titles and themes that reference the city, McPhee’s playing here is so lucid, so beautifully ‘out’, that at points it feels like a compendium of alla the aspects of the saxophonist’s personality that have illuminated his back catalogue reduced to the space of a single set. Zerang gives him plenty of room to spread out, whether playing spare rhythmic tattoos beneath his beautiful pocket trumpet work or chasing the trails of his obsessively raging saxophone. It’s a fucking doozer, is what I’m trying to say. Highly recommended.

Stellar live recording from one of the greatest living free jazz saxophonists, Joe McPhee, and percussionist Michael Zerang. The range of McPhee’s thought at this point is fairly staggering, exposing himself to playing situations that range from the Chicago underground through Chris Corsano, Peter Brotzmann’s big band and LAFMS fugitives Smegma. But then McPhee has always been a radical thinker, incorporating tapes and electronics early on as part of his Survival Unit. Indeed, I would say that he has never sounded better, bucking the trend for fire musicians to tame the flames as they age and pushing himself headlong into new situations that keep his thinking and playing sharp. Which brings us to this gorgeous new LP from a label that has established itself as one of the premier free jazz imprints, Lithuania’s NoBusiness Records. Recorded live in New Orleans, with titles and themes that reference the city, McPhee’s playing here is so lucid, so beautifully ‘out’, that at points it feels like a compendium of alla the aspects of the saxophonist’s personality that have illuminated his back catalogue reduced to the space of a single set. Zerang gives him plenty of room to spread out, whether playing spare rhythmic tattoos beneath his beautiful pocket trumpet work or chasing the trails of his obsessively raging saxophone. It’s a fucking doozer, is what I’m trying to say. Edition of 300 copies. Highly recommended. 

Edition of only 250 copies LP that unites legendary fire music saxophonist/trumpeter Joe McPhee with new generation avant percussionist Eli Keszler: recorded live at Cornell University in 2010 this is a fantastic, thunderous set of out jazz and abstruse sonic architectures. Keszler brings his uniquely spatial dynamic into play and McPhee responds instantly, with the players generating long feedback/drone works and tiny skittering tonal tattoos, working the kind of constantly-moving-to-the-point-of-stasis style constructions that are normally the preserve of sound art. But it’s not all sculptural: Ithaca also features some of Keszler’s most furiously aggressive free jazz drumming, from skittering turn-on-a-pube dynamics through fast straight-ahead skin pummel to McPhee’s obvious glee, with the saxophonist just roaring over the top. Some of the best recent form from both players, pressed on 140g vinyl. Recommended.