Keep putting one foot in front of the other, test the ground to see if it is secure, then keep on keeping on.
- Joe McPhee
Some time ago, I was listening to Joe McPhee’s beautiful four-movement Unquenchable Fire. On this recording, McPhee’s Quartet is joined by Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Band. The score was inspired by Rachel Pollack’s 1988 novel of the same name. The movements include readings by Pollack from her book. As I listened to these strange stories, I was reminded of Richard Brautigan.
As a high school senior, I took a creative writing class. The teacher was Miss Carlson. For the class, I wrote a short story called “Hey Joe”. It was about a homeless harmonica player, whose late-night blues captured the attention and spurred the imagination of a young boy living in a multi-tenant building. After she read it, she gave me Brautigan’s 1967 novella Trout Fishing in America.
Although I didn’t see the relationship between “Hey Joe” and Brautigan’s book, I liked it. It had a surprising impact. In the same way, McPhee’s Unquenchable Fire score had a surprising impact, but I couldn’t put my finger on why.
Joe McPhee has gained recognition since Shakey Jake from his 1971 album Nation Time was played on an episode of Severance, which premiered early last year on Apple TV+. I think it’s recognition that’s long overdue. Here’s the scene:
Last weekend, I met McPhee at the Corbett vs Dempsey Gallery in Chicago. He was in town for a legendary concert at The Constellation that featured along with McPhee, Roscoe Mitchell, Ken Vandermark, Mats Gustafsson, Jason Adasiewicz, and Nate Wooley. Here is McPhee with the legendary Roscoe Mitchell:
We sat down together before the show and he told me about something that has stuck in his mind since he was a three-year-old on his journey from Miami to Poughkeepsie, New York: His house in Miami was hit by lightning and burned to the ground. Luckily, no one was hurt. His father knew a friend in Poughkeepsie, and he decided to move the family up to New York. Shortly after they left Miami, the bus they were on broke down. While they waited in the back of the bus, he remembers music playing somewhere. The song was Daddy by the Andrew Sisters. He still carries that tune in his head and played it for me on his phone.
What is it that makes certain things just stick in your mind and hang around over the years?
During our conversation, we shared stories about the Army. He told me about when he joined the Army, and after basic training in Fort Dix, he had orders to report to Alaska. However, there was a big earthquake and tsunami and the Army cut him new orders for Germany. He served a year and a half with the 3rd Infantry Division in Würzburg, Germany. That was the best thing that happened to him musically, as he was able to commune with many excellent jazz musicians playing in Europe at that time, both American and European. In particular, he mentioned that Clifford Thornton took him under his wing. You can read more about Clifford Thornton here:
Thornton was the first person to give him a piece of written jazz music. He was playing trumpet at the time and he gave him Four by Miles Davis. As it turns out, McPhee made his debut on Thornton’s album Freedom & Unity, which was recorded on July 22, 1967, the day after John Coltrane’s funeral. It was released by Third World Records in 1969:
He told me about how when he heard Albert Ayler and was inspired to play tenor. So he switched. He taught himself how to play in six months and played tenor on his first album Underground Railroad, recorded on April 13, 1969, at Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, New York:
Underground Railroad was released in 1969 by the short-lived CjRecord Productions label. In a similar way that Pi Recordings started with Henry Threadgill, the Swiss record company Hat Hut started with Joe McPhee. According to McPhee, “Well, actually CjRecord Productions made it possible for Hat Hut to exist because the first Hat Hut record was Black Magic Man, which came out of that Nation Time session.” The Nation Time session was a two-day event - the concert and another whole day of recording.
Nation Time, his second album as a leader, was recorded live on December 12 and 13, 1970 at Vassar College and released on the same label.
He told me about the Nation Time session and that the piano player on it, Mike Kull, played in the West Point Band. Established in 1817, the West Point Band is the Army’s oldest with lineage to the field musicians assigned by George Washington when he established the post in 1778. It is the premier musical representative of the U. S. Army. McPhee’s bassist on Nation Time, Tyron Crabb, lived in nearby Newburgh and had heard Kull play. He recommended him to McPhee.
In 2003, finally, McPhee’s Unquenchable Fire score was released by Pauline Oliveros’ Deep Listening Institute. We’ll explore the backwaters of Pauline Oliveros a little further down the river…. This is highly underrated music and worthy of much more recognition. In the 1980s, McPhee was heavily influenced by Oliveros’ surrealistic music and Deep Listening philosophy. I find McPhee’s music after his association with Oliveros his most compelling.
In January 1998, McPhee made his first trip to Houston, three years before the founding of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation Houston, which would eventually become Nameless Sound. He was invited by David Dove, Founding Director of Nameless Sound, which began in 2001 as a branch of the Deep Listening Institute. He was in Texas to play with Arthur Doyle:
This concert comprised two solos and ended with a first-time duo between McPhee and Doyle. McPhee recalls this important event:
So, it’s 1998 and I received an invitation to come to Houston for a concert and I was caught completely off guard. Although I’ve been traveling to Europe for concerts since 1975, I had only been invited to the West Coast a few times, and not often to New York, only 75 miles away from where I live. It was there and then that I met the inimitable Double D, the man without fear (David Dove) and the equally inimitable musician Arthur Doyle. I gave David that moniker because he is indeed fearless, like the Marvel superhero Daredevil. It was my first encounter with Mr. Doyle and I liked him immediately, he was full of fun, with a most infectious manner and unforgettable laugh, which came easily. Arthur played tenor sax, flute, and sang. I played tenor, pocket trumpet, and what I called vocal infusion. We played solo and finally we shared what was for me, a most unforgettable duo experience. If I remember correctly, Pauline Oliveros’ remarkable mother Edith Gutierrez was in the house. This was the beginning of many wonderful visits to Houston and Nameless Sound.
Here’s a low-fi recording of that session:
The next night they played in Austin. This was the only other time they played together. Doyle passed away in 2014. The two had never met before that Texas trip and would never meet again.
Here’s one more for the road. I don’t have any recordings from McPhee’s 2005 duo session with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn at the Deep Listening Institute Houston.
McPhee had this to say about the session:
Meeting Susan Alcorn was a dream given form. Having the opportunity to make music with her was discovery akin to the discovery of Star Trek in 1967, it wicked my world. She was not only kind and extremely generous but as soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy would say, “She lifted the band stand.” We have played several times since then and the meetings have gotten better and better. Most recently we released a recording with Chicago reed player Ken Vandermark called Invitation to a Dream….
Invitation to a Dream was recorded on September 13th, 2017 in Austin, Texas. It was released by the Astral Spirits label in 2019:
Oliveros’ influence on this session is clear. You can listen to the title track from that album here:
At the end of our conversation, McPhee told me about how he acknowledges his time is passing quickly and thinks about the trajectory of Jazz music. He wonders what the younger musicians will be doing in these tough times for jazz music, which continues to operate outside the mainstream media. As I listened, I thought that although he may appear weaker with age, strength overflows from him with a youthful smile and a gleam in his eye. Dressed all in black, I thought he was the superhero the Black Panther.
To anyone wondering about the trajectory of jazz. The possibilities are endless if you just keep putting one foot in front of the other - just follow McPhee’s lead. The Black Panther is pointing you the way….
Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we’ll dig our paddles in and explore the world of percussionist Milford Graves.
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Until then, keep on walking….
Thanks, Brother. I can't wait to hear you play. It's been a while since I picked up my banjo, but maybe it's time to revisit that. Keep on walking....
Mr. King - I found it cool where you share that Joe McPhee switched from trumpet to tenor sax, and was self-taught. As fate would have it, I got a message from my MIL a couple of weeks ago & she was looking at a used Yamaha tenor (& a nice banjo too, but that’s for another story...) She grabbed both of them for me for a couple hundred $. Since then I have been on a journey of discovery myself, trying to decipher this instrument. While I can’t imagine I’ll ever get close to McPhee’s excellence it is still a blast to mess around with it! Keep on Truckin’, brother!