ONGAKU: enjoy sound 19-01-2003

Joe McPhee (saxophones, pocket trumpet), John Edwards (double bass),

Paul Hession (drumset) Ross Lambert (guitar),

Anthony Guerra (guitar), Daniel Beban (guitar)

Legendary US multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee will be appearing at ONGAKU: enjoy_sound at 291 Gallery on 19 January 03. McPhee has remained defiantly outside the mainstream of the US jazz scene for the entirety of his 30-year career. Although under-exposed in the US until the 1980s (despite long-term popularity in Europe), renewed interest in his work has led to the recent reissue of his monumental early albums including Nation Time and Trilogy (on Atavistic) and a large number of new recordings on various labels, with musicians including William Parker Hamid Drake, Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali, Matthew Shipp and Peter Brotzmann.

The concert will be his second ever appearance in the UK, after an absence of more than twenty years, and the first date on his UK tour with Leeds-based drummer Paul Hession, (Hesssion/Wilkinson/Fell, Peter Brotzmann), They are joined for this date by formidable double-bassist John Edwards (Evan Parker, Louis Moholo, London Improvisers Orchestra) in what promises to be a very special event in the impressive surroundings of 291’s neo-gothic main gallery.

Also appearing at ONGAKU: enjoy_sound will be the international guitar trio of Ross Lambert (Ireland: Evan Parker, Derek Bailey, Ami Yoshida) Daniel Beban (New Zealand) and Anthony Guerra (Australia) in what will be their first performance together. All three musicians represent the new, international generation of improvisers based in London, and each represent a very different approach to the guitar, contributing to the development of a new aesthetic of free-improvisation emerging in recent years.