9. Joe McPheeNation Time
This is a classic album of free-jazz/funk from the legendary saxophonist and pocket trumpeter. You’ve worked with Joe McPhee a lot over the years. I guess he’s had a big influence on you?
Yeah. Again it’s hard to talk about it. Like Spiritual Unity the music speaks for itself. But I think Nation Time is a great introduction record. Spiritual Unity is harder, because it’s so fucking monstrously… hitting you. I understand why people run away when they hear it or Machine Gun, or records like that. But Nation Time, in a way it’s a perfect introduction to crazy music, and it’s as deep as Spiritual Unity. I’ve worked with Joe now for 15 years and he’s the best teacher I could ever have. This record is also coming from discaholism, because I thought the cover looked amazingly cool. I’d never actually heard about Joe McPhee before that. I just picked it up because of the cover and it was a pretty beaten up copy but I still bought it. And then I started to research, I found out about all these beautiful records he had on HatHut, like the solo records, Tenor, which is another masterpiece. This was the first one I picked up so I’m very, very ecstatic now about going to New York to play with Joe. We’ll actually play Nation Time at the concert at Guggenheim [on November 20]. ‘Shakey Jake’ and all that stuff. We have played Nation Time with Joe over the years, but it’s going to be interesting to do it in New York.
It’s a really funky record. You’ve got the free blowing and the Black Power chants along with these killer James Brown grooves.
Yeah, it’s deep. It’s great that there’s a box set coming out, I think four CDs, with the complete Nation Time sessions. He’s coming to Krakow to play in the Nu-Ensemblen. I’m trying to trick him into playing the space organ. On a couple of early recordings he’s using some electronic devices. He’s always talking about his early experimental electronic work. There’s a double CD that John Corbett and Jim Dempsey put out, Sound On Sound, with all his early recordings on organ and weird harp and it’s the sickest record ever! It’s sick! It’s fantastic, a monster record!
We were on tour in Romania and we listened to the record with the space organ, the harp and things, really loud in the car, driving through Transylvania. And the driver completely freaked out. We didn’t know if it was positive or negative. He had to stop the car and run out into the forest. Then he came back and said it was one of the most amazing music experiences he’d ever had. Music does change people!
