Joe McPhee
Underground Railroad
Atavistic
For several years, Chicago producer and musician
John Corbett has been scouring the earth for the lost gems of energy jazz, free improvisation, and experimental noise, amassing an impressive catalogue of more than two dozen rare recordings in his "Unheard Music" Series. His most recent discovery is
Underground Railroad, the thrilling 1969 debut recording by legendary avant-garde jazz trumpeter/saxophonist and composer
Joe McPhee, which has remained out of print since its initial 500-copy pressing. Like
McPhee's subsequent releases,
Nation Time and
Trinity (which
Corbett has also reissued),
Underground Railroad, "dedicated to the black experience on planet earth," brims over with the fiery radicalism of late '60s black politics. The album's explosive, groove-heavy, percussion-driven style of free improvisation provides a blueprint for the more fully realized free funk
McPhee would explore later in his career. As an added bonus,
Corbett has included a second disc containing a heretofore unreleased
McPhee gig performed six months earlier at the same West Park, NY monastery where
Underground Railroad was recorded.
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
12/20/01
