McPhee/Vandermark/Corsano Trio: 101 African-American Museum, Louisville, KY

The trio of Joe McPhee (sax/voice), Ken Vandermark (reeds), and Chris Corsano (drums/percussion) continue a series of concerts in early autumn at the 101 African-American Museum in Louisville, KY on September 4th and conclude their tour at the Sound & Gravity Festival in Chicago on September 6th.  Though this is their initial music as a group, there have been a number of previous collaborations from these musicians, some of them longstanding.  Joe and Ken first played together at the recording session for A Meeting in Chicago in 1996.  Since then, they have worked together many times, perhaps most notably in the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.  Their latest album performances together are as a duo and documented on Musings of a Bahamian Son: Poems and Other Words by Joe McPhee, released by Corbett vs. Dempsey in 2024.

Joe and Chris have worked together extensively for more than 15 years, with many recordings and concerts as a duo and in groups with important figures in the music like Eddie Prévost, Evan Parker, Lol Coxhill, and Steve Swell.  Ken and Chris have also played together in many configurations, beginning with a trio concert at the Festival Germinal in Mexico City with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier during November of 2014 and, since then, they have continued to develop a special musical rapport.

Though the music from this new trio by McPhee, Vandermark, and Corsano will be completely improvised and spontaneous, it will be informed by their collective histories, a background which includes decades of work with a variety of musical aesthetics and artists that has taken place during hundreds of concerts and dozens of recordings, at home and abroad.

[poster by Robert Beatty]