„I’ve always intentionally kept a low profile. I think the music goes where it has to go anyway, so I’m not going to run around in circles and scream. In America, everybody’s looking for the latest revelation on the scene : who’ll be the new Bird ? Who’s going to replace Trane ? As for me, anyway, I’m not new.“
~ Joe McPhee, aus Down Beat (Nr. unbekannt, zit. nach: Hervé Quenson, Liner Notes zu „Daunik Lazro & Joe McPhee: élan. impulse.“, in situ 590037 [CD], 1991)
END AT THE BEGINNING – BEGINNING AT THE END
PO MUSIC HAS NO CANVAS OR MODEL OR PALLET
NO PENCIL PAPER OR STORY
NO KNOWLEDGE MEMORY OR WISDOM
PO MUSIC LISTENS TO SILENCE
EXPANDING IN UNISON
CONTRACTING IN COLORS
PO MUSIC HAS HARMONY IN THE MUSICIANS
TASTES GOOD
AND FLOATS UPSIDE DOWN IN AFTER-GLOW
PO MUSIC HAS INSTRUMENTALITY
AND USES IT
LEADING AND FOLLOWING AT THE SAME TIME
~ Joe McPhee, 1981
(aus den Liner Notes zu: Joe McPhee Po Music – Linear B, hat ART CD 6057, 1991)
(photo: Ken Brunton, von hat ART CD 6047)
LOOPS-CYCLES-CIRCLES
The word PO, as used in PO MUSIC, comes from Dr. Edward de Bono’s concept of LATERAL THINKING. Derived from words like possible, positive, poetry and hypothesis, PO is a language indicator to show that the process of provocation is being used to move from a fixed set of ideas in an attempt to discover new ones.
PO MUSIC represents ideas as provocation rather than as accurate description of what things are; a positive, possible, poetic hypothesis.
~ Joe McPhee, April 29, 1983
The decade 1981 – 1991 marked the most productive and satisfying period in my music career . Yet mysteriously it remains the least documented in terms of recordings. The Cycle began with the recording of TOPOLOGY March 24, 1981 and ended with a multi-media performance of a work entitled HAZEL’S DINER on March 23, 1991. Many performances were given in each of the inclusive years, but to this date only three recordings, exclusively on hat Hut Records, document this period: TOPOLOGY (1981), OLEO (1982), and MYSTERIES/LINEAR B (1990).
Beginning at the beginning is to introduce two important musicians who have most directly influenced my work since our meeting in 1979, saxophonist André Jaume and guitarist Raymond Boni. The ocassion was the Paris session OLD EYES. From that moment a bond of friendship support and collaboration was formed which has shaped the entire body of my work to this day. Although not literally in the PO MUSIC series the roots of the concept can be traced to OLD EYES and is reflected in the final 1990 Zurich sessions which produced MYSTERIES/LINEAR B. Coincidentally OLD EYES, TOPOLOGY, and MYSTERIES/LINEAR B are further linked by the fact that all are studio dates, all feature large ensembles, and all include the rare use of percussionists (Mile Fine, Pierre Favre, Fritz Hauser). Each also includes the trio Boni-Jaume-McPhee at the core of its unifying structure. The trio continues today as a separate entity building on the strength of our relationship.
Beginning at the end, many important personal lessons were learned from the various experiences associated with the PO MUSIC loop/cycle. PO is after all only a language indicator, and the use of provocation to discover new ideas has always been the point. Also, it was always my intention that one day the concept would be clear enough that the word MUSIC in association with my work would make language indicators unnecessary.
~ Joe McPhee, Pooughkeepsie, NY, July 6, 1991
Beide obigen Zitate aus den Liner Notes zu: Joe McPhee Po Music – Linear B, hat ART CD 6057, 1991 – die meisten Schreibfehler, „ocassion“ und das fehlende Komma zwischen „friendship support“ zumal, stehen so in den Notes. Die selben Notes sind auch in hat ART CD 6047 zu finden, „Old Eyes & Mysteries“, 1991
Die „Old Eyes“ Sessions im Mai 1979 in Paris wurden übrigens von Jef Gilson aufgenommen. Das grosse Highlight für mich ist „Django“, das mit Abstand längste Stück. „Old Eyes“ selber (das zweitlängste und neben „Strings“ das dritte, das länger als drei bis vier Minuten dauert) ist übrigens Ornette Coleman gewidmet, „with much respect and gratitude. The title comes from a term I once heard a psychic use to describe someone who carried the look of ages of past tradition in his eyes.“ (McPhee, Liner Notes zu hat ART 6057 bzw. hat ART 6047).
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #158 – Piano Jazz 2024 (Teil 1) - 19.12.2024 – 20:00; #159: Martial Solal (1927–2024) – 21.1., 22:00; #160: 11.2., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba