Joe McPhee performing recently at the Lace Mill in Kingston. Like so many other innovations in modern jazz, the idea of pairing a lone saxophone with a string section can be traced to the pioneering genius Charlie Parker: The great Bird had dreamed of recording in such a setting long before the sessions for his two 1950 landmark Charlie Parker with Strings albums. On November 18, another influential jazz giant, Joe McPhee, will bring his take on the "with Strings" concept to the Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center for a special concert that finds him accompanied by an ensemble comprised of a Who's Who of the region's leading creative string players.
Multi-instrumentalist McPhee's approach to working with strings on the date, however, owes little to Parker's records, which consist of arranged with standards sax solos. Instead, his tack is drawn loosely from a later album: 1967's The Music of Ornette Coleman, which found that master collaborating with the Chamber Symphony of Philadelphia's Quartet. "Ornette plays trumpet on some of that record, although I'm not really playing a lot of trumpet at the moment," explains the Dutchess County resident and composer. "I'm going to play sax for the gig, and I think I'll also read some of the poetry that I've been writing, which is something I've been doing lately [at concerts] that's been going pretty well."
Joining the McPhee for the performance will be a large improvising group that includes bassists Michael Bisio and Hilliard Greene, cellists Fred Lonberg-Holm and Lester St. Louis, violists Melanie Dyer and Mat Maneri, violinists Rosi Hertlein and Gwen Laster, and guitarists Billy Stein and James Keepnews; the latter musician, a frequent Chronogram contributor, is also the brains behind the promotion company Elysium Furnace Works, which is presenting the show.
"James organized the night and put the band together for it, and it was actually his suggestion to have all strings," says McPhee. "I know all the musicians involved and I've played with them in other things before; they're all great players and wonderful people. It's exciting to be playing with them all together."
Born in Florida and raised in Poughkeepsie, McPhee, 83, is widely revered as one of the most important avant-jazz musicians to take the 1960s "new thing" ideas of icons like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp, and Pharoah Sanders to the next level. His discography swells with hundreds of recordings as a leader, on solo dates, with his bands Survival Unit and Trio X, and as a collaborator with Donald Cherry, William Parker, Rashied Ali, Matthew Shipp, DJ Spooky, Peter Brötzman, and other luminous names. He's a genuine free jazz god in Europe, where he has frequently toured and headlined music festivals and large venues. These days, he's touring less and is happy for such curated opportunities to perform right up the block, so to speak.
"It's untold, what will happen with the direction of the music," offers the maestro about what audiences should anticipate. "[The musicians] don't exactly know how it will unfold—we'll figure that out when we're in the process of making it."
