Brass City
by Joslyn LayneThe Brass City finds jazz original Joe McPhee and trombonist Jeb Bishop engaging in an interplay of extended techniques and freed-up structures. McPhee trades off between playing pocket cornet, valve trombone, and soprano sax as he and Bishop explore squeaks, overtones, guttural swirls, and airflows, with the exception of the groove-oriented "Brass City V" and the closing piece, "The Rozwell Incident." The latter, dedicated to trombonist Roswell Rudd, is an active number with silly, near-melodramatic sections off-set by flitting tangents.