Joe McPhee, renowned jazz and free jazz saxophonist and trumpeter (and frequent visitor to Cafe Oto), has gathered around him a dynamic trio of younger musicians under the tag MONSTER. At the grand young age of 85, McPhee has drawn together a group that is adept, versatile, and highly inventive, to complement his own powerful modus operandi.
On the second of his three nights at Cafe Oto, featuring double bassist John Edwards, Austrian bass clarinettist Susanna Gartmayer, and Brazilian percussionist Mariá Portugal, McPhee’s quartet stretched the envelope in all directions over two dazzling sets. Each musician brought a wealth of experience to the stage, and several short solos and duo combinations added to the rich, inventive undercurrent that ran through the performance, gently overseen by McPhee’s leadership.
Edwards set out MONSTER’s stall, strumming his bass strings with the end of his bow, then extracting the sound of a didgeridoo from his bass, followed by a crack of his hand slapping the woodwork. Gartmayer’s bass clarinet hovered and was quietly phased in to gradually mine the lower registers, while Portugal added metallic textures with her cymbals using hands, sticks and bow.
As the trio’s cross-currents intensified, the volume built up. When McPhee stepped in, the text on an audience member’s t-shirt caught his eye and he recited the words in the improvised vocalese associated with his own poetry, blending them with fog horn blasts on his tenor sax, building up to an Ayler-esque density.
Portugal was highly active, exploiting the full drum kit with imaginative flair, using tiny mallets on glockenspiel keys, twirling a large cymbal from the centre with her hand, and shaking tiny hand-held bells. McPhee brought a tone of slow sadness to reflective vocals from Portugal, while Gartmayer pushed the potential of the bass clarinet on a trajectory that Eric Dolphy might have followed – in a way, similar to Wadada Leo Smith’s pushing of the boundaries set up by Miles.
‘What a quiet audience!’ McPhee laughed as the house fell silent in anticipation of the second set which he opened with an improvised vocalese playing on the group’s name – ‘A man of pure heart becomes a MONSTER.’ which merged in to carefully phrased, glowing passages on his tenor.
John Edwards, like Portugal, was irrepressively active, drawing out all manner of sounds and rhythms from his bass, even taking on the sounds of the other instruments. Gartmayer dragged a raw melodic line through the mud then held the bass clarinet bell to the mike to play only the clicking keys.
It is fair to say that sparks were flying (in the best way) throughout MONSTER’s fast-moving, four-way, improvised interaction, as McPhee generously shared the initiative to bring out the best in his co-musicians in an enthralling evening. It had the feel of a lab with experimentation and invention at its heart.
Joe McPhee: tenor sax and vocals
Susanna Gartmayer: bass clarinet
John Edwards: double bass
Mariá Portugal: drums and vocals
