Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, Jamie Saft and Charles Downs.- Ticonderoga (2015)

Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, Jamie Saft and Charles Downs.- Ticonderoga (2015)

“Life is a lot like jazz... its best when you improvise.”

George Gershwin

By: Ghost Writer

A couple of years ago, when I still played music, I was madly in live with free jazz, although a totally underground thing it seemed that free jazz was coming to the surface one way or another, it didn't happen, but it doesn't means it disappeared at all, in fact it even permeated other genres.

Key free jazz players are still out there doing out there music, in the end free jazz and grindcore are still pure and undisturbed by the mainstream, black metal on the other side lost that raw edge and it went either mainstream or even deeper in the underground.

Two of my favorite free jazz players, although I believe that they are smart enough not to be even pigeonholed as free jazz players, guitarist and bassist Joe Morris and Saxophonist Joe McPhee joined together in a project, Morris a superb guitarist, performs here as bassist and this pair is joined by the intriguing character of Jamie Saft, a veteran of John Zorn experimental circles and veteran drummer Charles Downs, together this foursome characters embark on a trip to re define Coltrane's legacy, What a hard job trying to define the indefinable legacy of Coltrane? But the band doesn't stop there, because they also immerses in the turbulent waters of other key free jazz players like the great Albert Ayler and his hardcore musical spirituality, and even the daring intellectual wanderings of the amazing Ornette Coleman, recently deceased.

These four guys present us four musical pieces of pure musical instinct, not exactly free jazz given the enormous cerebral talents and approach of the team members, Beyond Days starting with the clockwork propulsive structures detailed by Downs, who is quickly embraced by the burning sax lines of Mc Phee who this time lays his abrasive wizardy echoing the work if the great "Trane", McPhee is without a doubt the key player here, going to the surface in a desperate way and then immersing in the complex independent lines laid by Morris and Saft, which slowly start to really burn and create beautiful chaos almost at the end of the piece.

Personally I'm fed up when someone throw at me such cliché phrases like "think out of the box", Want to think out of the box? Listen to improvised jazz, get into free jazz first, because that's nit only out of the box, but is out of music, it’s almost embracing pure sound, What's beyond that? Listen to Simplicity of Man to again get embraced by Downs hyper dynamic beats, McPhee squeezing his own soul while being brutally beaten by Downs under Saft contemplative and at the same time slowly disintegrating piano lines.

Leaves of Certain takes us directly to Albert Ayler soul searching sax wanderings, here Saft shines connecting the dots towards Alice Coltrane's trascendental jazz work, while Morris creates a rock hard bottom impossible to brake apart giving the tune an indestructible characteristic that allows Saft to really go wild and letting Downs get really creative behind his drums, using the in free jazz fashion mire to give color than to lee a beat.

Last but not least is A Backward King, a song that emphasizes Morris heavy bass constructions, Morris a great guitarist, has declared to be at times tired of guitar, allowing himself to take a chance with bass, giving him a peculiar hyper dynamic style at the instrument, perfectly showcased here, teaming up with Saft in a spectacular way, with Saft floating gently over Downs tumultuous drumming.

You can call it free jazz, you can call it improvised music, you can "think out of the box" and simply call it sound, and that's precisely what McPhee transmit us in the end, where he simply transforms his soul into the purest sound ever heard.