Trio X, Live on tour... Toronto / Rochester

Wrote John Ephland in "Down beat": "The rare treat of a three day festival featuring world-class acts became a reatity once again as Edgefest kicked out the jams. All were exceptional in their own right, but somehow rising above all this great music was Trio X, saxist / pocket trumpeter Joe McPhee’s band... rhapsodic, perfectly eloquent, subtle yet powerful... incredible lyricism."

And wrote William Parker - master bassist, composer, bandleader, poet, philosopher, visionary ~ in "The Bill Collector": "The music was breathing again please check out the melody, the harmony. Check out the spirits rising and falling. The burning straw. The hot peppermint stick dancing! Check out the heroic smoke from the tenor sax. And get with this now bass beyond basics get into the memories of the unanswered question. This is the music of McPhee, Duval and Rosen... It is the cosmos. It is the purple blues phrasing the call, blow baby blow, it was the song of the pineapple forest and the steelworkers... It is the morning Language. It sits on rooftops and spreads over the city... Let it fill you. Let it bounce off the walls of your soul."

Review by John Chacona

The Trio X CD, finds McPhee in the company of what is turning out to be the house rhythm section at the Spirit Room. In many ways, this is the most conventional of the three CDs, but also the most satisfying to my ears. In bassist Dominic Duval (a monster throughout) and drummer Jay Rosen, McPhee is surrounded by instrumentalists who approach his Olympian command of instrumental technique while sharing his exploratory spirit.

I take nothing away from Rosen’s sensitive contributions to say that the CD, recorded live on consecutive March, 2001 engagements, often sounds like a McPhee/Duval duo session. That’s how powerful the personalities of these two players are asserted here. "Monkin’ Around" starts with McPhee’s (uncredited) trumpet hammering repeated notes right out of Mile’s "Spanish Key." Indeed, the spirit of the Prince of Darkness hovers over these five cuts. it would be hard to avoid, in any case, on the band’s reading of "My Funny Valentine" but Rosen shakes things up with percussion solo of jittery, nervy intensity for four minutes, settling in a fast groove for Duval’s Ron Carterish paso doble rhythm under McPhee’s relatively straight reading of the melody. He picks up the trumpet to continue the journey and here the Milesian vibe gets stronger.

With personalities as strong as those of Trio X. the imitation comes off as flattery, not mere emulation, and places McPhee firmly in the tradition. The emotional high point of the CD. though, is the 22 minute-long "Trail of Tears," dedicated to the late Native American saxophonist and composer Jim Pepper. Here McPhee unleashes his full arsenal of extended techniques and keens an anguished lament, rising to two climaxes before the music recedes and then, like the people it celebrates, just disappears. The concluding "Old Eyes." The only selection recorded at Rochester’s Bug Jar, is almost an afterthought. But Rosen, with his hard-hitting solo and second-line rhythm, pushes McPhee and Duval to joyous, life affirming statements. To anyone not familiar with the majesty of McPhee’s command of technique and emotion, this CD will be a startling introduction. And to his greatest admirers, it will be further evidence of the national treasure we have in our midst.