A Meeting In Chicago
   Joe McPhee (brass and reeds)
   Ken Vandermark (reeds)
   Kent Kessler (bass)

From McPhee's first trip ever to Chicago, the student meets teacher, becomes teacher, becomes partner.  Vandermark and McPhee are musical soulmates on this cd, following the music wherever it takes them, always pushing the other along with a continuous not-so-subtle nod form Kessler.  This is a reissue of Eighth Day Music disc, EDM 80008 (originally released summer '97).  Comes highly recommended.

13 tracks in 55:12 minutes      More Okka

If you missed this cd, you might also enjoy listening to:

International Front (Vandermark, Kessler, Newton)

Trinity (McPhee, Kull, Smith)

Kollapse (Gratkowski, Wierbos, Manderscheid, and Hemingway)

Luc Houtkamp In Chicago (Houtkamp, Zerang, Kessler)

"A Meeting In Chicago"

The sound begins in the silence of the morning
before the morning
of the day before
in a vortex of dreams
expanding
racing
to meet the dawn
racing naked across a razor's edge
through the frozen fog of memory

The sound emerges like long shadowy fingers
snaking throughout the silence
collecting the silence
in a cocoon of silence
in anticipation of
the next

The sound surrenders to itself
and becomes
the place
where the meeting begins
unfolding layers
of mystery
revealing nothing
revealing all
speaking in lost languages
forgotten in a climate
of nostalgia

The sound continues in
anticipation of
the next

Joe McPhee
Poughkeepsie, New York, September 1, 1996