Joe McPhee : I’m Just Say’n

Badass free jazz OG—that’s Joe McPhee. Since the 1960s, the multi-instrumentalist and improvisational titan has gone against the grain in carving an inherently DIY aesthetic that paved a blueprint for underground avant-garde movements both in the U.S. and Europe over the subsequent decades. His musical and cultural impact has been nothing short of seismic. McPhee’s signature monolithic sound runs the sonic spectrum from in-your-face ferocity, impassioned soul-baring, exquisite sensitivity and spiritual bliss. And you name it, the 85-year-old living legend has played with just about every luminary in both giant and upstart categories, including the late great Peter Brötzmann, Steve Swell, Ken Vandermark, Evan Parker, Jamie Saft and Chris Corsano, just to name a few.
An argument can be made that McPhee falls under the proto-punk umbrella. Just take a look at the album cover of Nation Time, his free jazz touchstone from 1971. With saxophone in tow, afro and shades, McPhee projected badassery on another level in that black-and-white photo. The music matched the radical intensity seemingly peering from McPhee’s eyes behind those sunglasses. Few can touch the hair-raising effect as hearing McPhee kick off the epic and electrifying nineteen-minute title track like a preacher on a pulpit wailing with rage and desperation, “What Time Is It?!” “What Time Is It?!” (the composition’s title borrowed from an Amiri Baraka poem) as the live audience shouts back, “Nation Time!” That hard-charging, scorched-earth protest anthem served as a call to action and awareness to the Black community.
Five-and-a-half decades later, McPhee remains an indefatigable force. I’m Just Say’n reinforces his place among the premier free jazz elders. In recent years, McPhee has been a dynamic presence both as a hard touring road warrior and on record which has primarily found him in collaborative forms. I’m Just Say’n is billed as a solo record under the Joe McPhee name but it’s more of a genuine collaboration between two longtime sound-seeking cohorts. McPhee and Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustaffson have raised a ruckus together before, notably with The Thing. I’m Just Say’n is a purely different beast but certainly no less bracing as McPhee’s poetic rhymes and spiels take center stage while Gustaffson paints the sonic backdrop. Yes, this is a spoken word-cum-skronk bacchanal, one that vibes as if the listener is eavesdropping on an impromptu jam session between two simpatico musicians.
Even without the saxophone, trumpet and flugelhorn salvos that McPhee has made indelible marks with on improvised music, his profoundly expressive and powerful wordplay heard on the vignettes that make up I’m Just Say’n are a revelation on its own. As it turns out, McPhee doesn’t need his stash of horns to rattle off poetic blasts; his all-knowing tongue and lightning-rod train of thought does the trick. It bolsters an already-stacked arsenal with a warm cadence that adds a fresh layer to his wide-ranging sound.
McPhee lays the groundwork for I’m Just Say’n as soon as album opener, “Short Pieces” takes flight. On what sounds as if McPhee just pressed “record” on an old cassette recorder, he dives into the core essence of his spoken word yarns: “Short Pieces/Time Travel/And the life of a touring musician.” It’s an intimate portrait of an elder free jazz statesman, either in full-blast mode or waxing poetic on past glory years, delivering keen observations, hangs with his music pals or stream-of-consciousness meditations while Gustaffson whips up a sonic spattering behind him akin to a Jackson Pollock painting. On “Short Pieces” alone, McPhee drops the names of Eric Dolphy, David Murray and reminiscences of seeing Don Cherry in concert in New York in 1972. He even offers a comical impression of his frequent collaborator and friend Brötzmann, a reflection complete in a German accent. The musings continue from there. With Gustaffson serving up corrosive stabs, McPhee gives an ode to the six-string on “Guitar” and on “NYC Nostalgia Redux,” he sings the praises, literally, of yesteryear New York as thwacking subway platform-like percussion provide the arhythmic backbeat.
I’m Just Say’n offers a glimpse into the mind of a free jazz legend that is part tour diary, part memoir and as fiery and ruminative as his pioneering improvisations.
Label: Smalltown Supersound
Year: 2025
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