Joe McPhee - The Willisau Concert LP

My first Xmas rush working in the store I was obsessed with Pharaoh Sanders’ Jewels of Thought and would play it every day until I learnt that maybe you shouldn’t play that good old skronk during the Xmas rush when someone yelled at me over the counter and said it sounded like a cat dying. (Their loss!)

So anyway, I’m saving this Joe McPhee reissue for before opening!

This live set from 1975 in Willsau sees McPhee’s evocative skronk alongside the blistering drumming of Makaya Ntshoko and the synth playing of John Snyder. In a way it feels like a precursor to a lot of McPhee’s later work outside of the genre/institutional bounds of ‘jazz’ and into the ‘free improv’ territory.

For those that think that sounds like a bunch of jargon, think, Albert Ayler jamming with Tangerine Dream!

-Mitch