Survival Unit III - Game Theory (2013)

Not Two Records: MW 907-2
http://nottwo.com/PelnaPlyta.php?Id=465



* Joe McPhee: alto saxophone, pocket trumpet
* Fred Lonberg-Holm: cello, electronics
* Michael Zerang: percussion

http://www.joemcphee.com/sur...erg-holm-michael-zerang.html

http://www.joemcphee.com/
http://www.lonberg-holm.info/
http://www.michaelzerang.com/

Recorded in concert on October 26, 2010, at Instants Chavirés
(http://www.instantschavires.com/), Paris, France by Jean-Marc Fossat.


Review

By Martin Schray
http://www.freejazzblog.org/...iii-game-theory-not-two.html

[...]

The beginning of their new album, “Ever Eat Anything Bigger Than Your Head”, is
very meditative, Lonberg-Holm and Zerang are very reluctant, they create an
almost spiritual atmosphere which enables McPhee to bring in a melancholic
blues improvisation before – almost without noticing - the piece escalates into
classic free jazz. Exactly in the middle the track seems to stop, as if it was
looking around for its possibilities. Introspections, McPhee’s only
contribution on pocket trumpet, a harsh Brötzmann-like outburst and McPhee
humming are the result.

Lately McPhee’s music has been less motivated by the political situation of
African-Americans but more by the sonic exploration of his instruments (“Sonic
Elements”) but on this album it seems that he wanted to comment on recent
social upheavals again. “Love in the Time of AIDS” just asks what love is today
opposed to sex, power and control. On the one hand it is an incredibly sad
comment on a feeling that seems to vanish, the piece sounds like a
requiem. However, it is also a great musical reminiscence to John Coltrane,
Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders.

The final track, “A Song for Beggars”, is the most obvious political statement
starting with the words “This song won’t feed the starving, nor will
conferences on hunger with a fortune spent on talking. Nor will it house the
homeless or quench the thirst of millions who will die from lack of water while
the vampires drink their blood” – words clearly in the tradition of beat
generation authors like Amiri Baraka (“Nation Time” was a tribute to him). It
is a dark piece, full of frenzy, yet it is also elegant, beautifully swinging,
enrooted in gospel and blues.

Another great album of a great artist.