Joe McPhee has been a deeply emotional composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist since his emergence on the creative jazz and new music scenes in the late ‘’60s. Inspired by the music of Albert Ayler, he taught himself the saxophone and proceeded to cut two records that remain defining monuments to the civil rights movement: the outré free jazz of Underground Railroad (Bo'Weavil Recordings, 1969) and avant-funk of Nation Time (CjRecord Productions, 1971). His odyssey since has taken McPhee through Deep Listening collaborations with Pauline Oliveros and countless left-field improv sessions both within and way outside of the jazz tradition.
