Oleo & a Future Retrospective

chronology
Oleo & a Future Retrospective
Studio album by Joe McPhee Po Music
Publication ; (s)	1983 , 2004
Label (s)	HatOLOGY
Format (s)	CD
Genre (s)	Creative jazz , new improvisation music
Title (number)	7 (LP) / 11 (CD)
running time	77:05 (CD)
occupation	Pocket cornet , tenor saxophone : Joe McPhee ; Clarinet , bass clarinet , alto saxophone : André Jaume ; Double bass : François Méchali (1–7); Electric guitar : Raymond Boni ;
production	Werner X. Uehlinger
Studio (s)	Boswil artist house

Oleo & a Future Retrospective is a jazz album by Joe McPhee that was created on August 2, 1982. It contains studio recordings that were made in the Künstlerhaus Boswil ( Switzerland ). The first edition of the album was released as an LP on HatHut Records . It was released in CD form in 2004 in an expanded form under the title Po-Music - Oleo with previously unpublished live recordings from the same evening.

The album

In the liner notes of the album, band leader Joe McPhee described the concept of the album:

"Ideas (themes) from the jazz tradition , ballads and original compositions presents as 'a provocation rather than an accurate description of what they are', serve as the structure (vessels) which shape the improvisations."

McPhee derived the term Po Music in the early 1980s from Edward de Bono's concept of lateral thinking , who derived po from terms such as positive, possible, poetry and hypothesis and understood his playing stance as a “positive, possible poetic hypothesis”.

In an interview, McPhee later clarified his "method of leaving my own clichés behind (...)".

“I use it as an indication that a provocation is taking place. I usually use po music to show that what you are hearing is not necessarily what it is. For example, I could play some music from the bebop tradition. So I recorded a piece called 'Oleo'. We played a Sonny Rollins piece, but I'm not a bebop musician (...) When I play this Rollins' composition, we do it in our own style, try to move it on and fill it with life, as we see fit ”.

As direct sources for his version of Sonny Rollins ' jazz standard " Oleo " McPhee names the experimental performance of the Rollins Quartet with Don Cherry , which McPhee experienced in New York's Birdland in 1964, as well as the one with Miles Davis in 1954 for his prestige album Bags' Groove recorded version. With the playing stance of improvising “to attempt to discover new ones based on fixed ideas”, “a new work of distinguishable identity is created.” Therefore, McPhee starts the familiar Sonny Rollins theme quite conventionally, and guitarist Raymond a few moments later Bonuses to have strange electronic loop effects put over the melody.

Joe McPhee at the concert with Tribute to Albert Ayler the day after Barack Obama's election at club W71

“Pablo” is a suite that McPhee dedicated to both the three basic colors and the three Pablos Picasso , Casals and Neruda ; it highlights the double bass player François Méchali, who plays in a Spanish-influenced style and forms the lead voice for the ensemble with a lovely Arco style of playing . McPhee originally wrote the piece as a duo version (1975) for himself and the synthesizer player John Snyder. Like “Astral Spirits”, it results from his preoccupation with European chamber music . In “Pablo” McPhee plays the tenor saxophone with an emotional vibrato reminiscent of Albert Ayler .

McPhee dedicated “Future Retrospective” to the author and artist Klaus Baumgartner , who designed the early covers of the HatHut label. The source of inspiration for the fanfare-like riffs , which are answered by a bass pulse, was the literary figure of King Tom B from a Baumgartner children's story.

"Astral Spirits" is dedicated to the brothers Don and Albert Ayler ; the "funeral song" spans the arc from "grieving spirituality to ecstatic overblowing technique ". The second take of “Oleo” ends after a few bars in which McPhee / Jaume introduce the theme in unison , in a collective improvisation . McPhee honors his friend Clifford Thornton with the following, comparatively conventional straight-ahead presented version of Benny Golson's standard " I Remember Clifford " . McPhee called the sound portrait of a beautiful woman “Ann Kahlé”, constructed to awaken the association with “a flower that opens in the morning light”: solo, duo, trio, finally leading to a collective improvisation of the quartet before McPhee finds his way back to the topic .

The album closes with a four-part improvisational suite by the trio McPhee, Jaume and Boni dedicated to Eric Dolphy ; McPhee used the words for the title, which Dolphy said on June 2, 1964 in Hilversum and which were added to the end of the track "Miss Ann" (contained on his Fontana album Last Date ):

" When you hear music,

After it's over,

it's gone in the air,

You can never capture it again! "

Rating of the album

Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave the album the highest rating and described it as a "very important work". Oleo shows McPhee's profound knowledge of the saxophone literature and a deep understanding of the tonality of classical jazz and bop. Raymond Boni is an “excellent partner for McPhee” and Jaume adds “the rather dry voice of the band leader in a perfect way”.

Brian Olewnick wrote in Allmusic that Joe McPhee caused a surprise in the opening track, Sonny Rollins' Oleo , when, after introducing the subject, Raymond Boni's wah-wah guitar suddenly expanded over the rest of the track. Pablo is a work "of restrained beauty". Olwenick particularly highlights the role of the wind player André Jaume in the great Astral Spirits ; it is "a deeply moving hymn of praise to the Ayler brothers".

"Nothing abstract or theoretical in these pieces," points out Jeff Stockton in his review; he particularly emphasizes the rhythm part of the bassist François Méchali in the drumless quartet, who play "consistently admirable", especially in Future Retrospective , where his "wonderful keynote" creates a groove reminiscent of Miles Davis' album Agharta (1974) be; the woodwind player André Jaume, on the other hand, offers " tongue slaps and bangs on the bass clarinet and Boni repeatedly sends out echo effects, as if he were bouncing sounds against the walls of a cave". Finally, the additionally published live recordings conveyed an idea of McPhee's "ethereal, elusive idea of Po Music ."

Raymond Bonuses

Pieces of the album

Joe McPhee Trio / Quartet: Po Music - Oleo (Hat ART 6097; hatOLOGY 579)

Oleo ( Sonny Rollins ) - 5:26
Pablo - 8:57
Future Retrospective - 7:03
Astral Spirits - 7:13
Oleo (take 2) (Rollins) - 4:40
I Remember Clifford ( Benny Golson ) - 3:27
Ann Kahlé - 5:49
When You Hear Music - 8:13
After It's Over - 7:40
It's Gone in the Air - 11:51 am
You Can Never Capture It Again - 7:43

The compositions are by Joe McPhee unless otherwise noted.

literature

Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette . 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994, ISBN 0-14-017949-6 .
Joe McPhee: Liner Notes of the 2004 album (hatOLOGY)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McPhee, Liner Notes

↑ ^a ^b A Fireside Chat with Joe McPhee

↑ Original: I use it as an indicator that provocation is taking place. I used to use Po Music, to show that what you're hearing is not necessarily what it is. For example, I would play some music out of the bebop tradition. I did on a recording called Oleo. We played a Sonny Rollins piece, but I am not a bebop player. That's a life and a tradition I highly respect, but I don't consider myself a bebop player. If we play this Sonny Rollins composition, we play it in our own style and try to move it to another place and find life in it as we see it.

↑ Interview with Joe McPhee in Point of Departure

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Review of Jeff Stockton's album in All About Jazz

↑ ^a ^b Review of Brian Olewnick's album in Allmusic

↑ Feature by Derek Taylor in bagatellen (2004) ( Memento of the original from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, LP and Cassette. 2nd Edition. Penguin, London 1994.
↑ Cover image and track list at efi.group

[McPhee-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f McPhee, Liner Notes

[fireside-2] A Fireside Chat with Joe McPhee

[3] Original: I use it as an indicator that provocation is taking place. I used to use Po Music, to show that what you're hearing is not necessarily what it is. For example, I would play some music out of the bebop tradition. I did on a recording called Oleo. We played a Sonny Rollins piece, but I am not a bebop player. That's a life and a tradition I highly respect, but I don't consider myself a bebop player. If we play this Sonny Rollins composition, we play it in our own style and try to move it to another place and find life in it as we see it.

[4] Interview with Joe McPhee in Point of Departure

[stockton-5] Review of Jeff Stockton's album in All About Jazz

[allmusic-6] Review of Brian Olewnick's album in Allmusic