Joe McPhee
b. 3 January 1939, Miami, Florida, USA. McPhee played the trumpet in his school band and studied music theory and harmony in his Division Band while he was with the army in Germany (1964-65). His first recording was with fellow trumpeter Clifford Thornton in 1967. While he was playing with the Matt Jordan Orchestra in the late '60s, he took up the saxophone as he became interested in free jazz. He gave a lecture course entitled The Revolution In Sound when he taught at Vassar College (1969-71). McPhee has sought to extend the tonal range of the saxophone, introducing grainy effects into his playing and extending his phrasing by using circular breathing. The freedom he seeks is often clearly tied to melody. Though his first recording on saxophone was with Shakey Jake (vocal/harmonica) in 1972, he soon moved to New York to work with trumpeter Don Cherry, Thornton and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra. In the mid-'70s he worked in Europe with Steve Lacy, among others.