Joe McPhee / Vandermark / Kessler - A Meeting in Chicago

Musicians

Joe McPhee — brass & reeds

Ken Vandermark — reeds

Kent Kessler — bass

Cover and Artwork

Cover painting: Dan Grzeca
Graphic design: Louise Molnar

Songs

1. A Meeting in Chicago (trio) (5:12)

2. Heart of the Matter (trio) (2:25) (MPEG2)

3. Matter of the Heart (trio) (4:55)

4. Soft Circles (McPhee solo) (2:28)

5. Breakneck Ridge (McPhee & Kessler duo) (2:12)

6. Central Wisconsin Double Wide (Kessler solo) (4:43)

7. Hard Circles (McPhee & Vandermark duo) (6:06)

8. Zahava (McPhee & Vandermark duo) (3:26)

9. Menga Kala Koota (trio) (3:04)

10. Empty Bottle Blues (trio) (5:06)

11. Lalibela (trio) (8:53)

12. Fourteen Years Later (Vandermark solo) (2:28)

13. I Leave You Love (McPhee & Kessler duo) (4:10)

total time: 55:12

All compositions by McPhee/Vandermark/Kessler

Recording Info

Recorded at Überstudio, Chicago, IL, February 14, 1996

Produced by: McPhee/Vandermark/Kessler
Executive Producer: Adam Paul Vales
Engineered & mixed by: Brendan Burke
Reissue produced by: Bruno Johnson

(this is a reissue of Eighth Day Music disc #EDM 80008, released summer ’97)

On A Meeting In Chicago, Vandermark and Kessler encounter Joe McPhee, an undersung veteran brass and reeds player from Poughkeepsie. Here’s hoping the meeting becomes a regular date; I could certainly live with a few more of the explorations of lyricism, applied aggression and pure sound that make this album one of the year’s best.

[picked as one of the best five free/jazz albums of 1997]

- Bill Meyer, Magnet, November/December 1997