Recorded
005
Mr. Peabody Goes to Baltimore
Joe McPhee and friends
at the High Zero Festival, 2000
Multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee (reeds, pocket
trumpet, PVC pipe) is one of the great treasures of American improvised
music and an player of both stellar range and inspiration. His "PO"
music is a highly personal synthesis of jazz, free improvsation, pure
sound research, and a subtle and provocative sense of humor. Working
since the sixties from his base in his native town of Poughkeepsie,
NY, McPhee has collaborated intensely across North America and Europe
on a huge range of projects. His music was the initial inspiration
for the founding of HAT HUT records and he currently collaborates
intensely with the likes of Hammid Drake, Peter Brotzman, Pauline
Oliveros, and Joe Giardullo.
On "Mr.
Peabody," McPhee is heard at his "OUT" best, catalyzed
to higher states of fluid musical strangeness by the likes of monstrously
good experimental saxophonist Jack Wright, James Coleman (Theremin),
Michael Johnsen (self-built electronics, musical saw, soprano sax),
Jerry Lim (electric guitar), Sean Meehan (percussion), and Ian Nagoski
(soundfields). This is easily one of the strangest and most rewarding
disks of free improvisation from 2001, and stands up to repeated listenings.
$12 (plus add $3.00 for postage in the US). 100% of the profits from
this disk go to benefit the yearly HIGH ZERO FESTIVAL in Baltimore
(see http://www.highzero.org)