''A Meeting in Chicago'' is an album by trumpeter/saxophonist

Joe McPhee Joe McPhee (born November 3, 1939) is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone. McPhee grew up in Poughkeepsie, New York, and is ...

, reedist

Ken Vandermark Ken Vandermark (born September 22, 1964) is an American composer, saxophonist, and clarinetist. A fixture on the Chicago-area music scene since the 1990s, Vandermark has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compos ...

and bassist

Kent Kessler Kent Kessler (born January 28, 1957) is an American jazz double-bassist. Career Although born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, Kessler grew up on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He began playing trombone at age ten. When he was thirteen, he moved with his f ...

, which was released in 1997 on Eighth Day Music and reissued the following year with new artwork by

Okka Disk Okka Disk is an independent American jazz record company and label founded in Chicago by Bruno Johnson in 1994. Okka began as a rock music label, but Johnson soon changed direction to record free jazz.

. The album documents trio, duo and solo improvisations recorded all in a single take with no rehearsal, before playing their first concert later that night at

The Empty Bottle The Empty Bottle is a bar and music venue located at 1035 N. Western Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. Located on the west side of Chicago's Ukrainian Village neighborhood, the venue primarily hosts local, regional, and touring alternative music act ...

. Vandermark cites McPhee’s solo recording ''Tenor'' as a major influence.''A Meeting in Chicago''
at

Reception

In her review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, Joslyn Layne states "Ranging from fast and active to mellow and sparse, this recording session of truly excellent players holds many interesting moments for fans." ''

The Penguin Guide to Jazz ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' is a reference work containing an encyclopedic directory of jazz recordings on CD which were (at the time of publication) currently available in Europe or the United States. The first nine editions were compiled b ...

'' says "This extraordinary set could almost be the work of some as yet unknown, conservatory-trained but sceptical modernist who has written his thesis on the wind groups of early modernism, those experimenters who took perverse delight in trying combinations that had not been heard since the classical era."

Track listing

:''All compositions by McPhee/Vandermark/Kessler except as indicated'' # "A Meeting in Chicago" – 5:12 # "Heart of the Matter" – 2:25 # "Matter of the Heart" – 4:55 # "Soft Circles" (McPhee) – 2:28 # "Breakneck Ridge" (Vandermark, Kessler) – 2:12 # "Central Wisconsin Double Wide" (Kessler) – 4:43 # "Hard Circles" (McPhee, Vandermark) – 6:06 # "Zahava" (McPhee, Vandermark) – 3:26 # "Menga Kala Koota" – 3:04 # "Empty Bottle Blues" – 5:06 # "Lalibela" – 8:53 # "Fourteen Years Later" (Vandermark) – 2:28 # "I Leave You Love" (McPhee, Kessler) – 4:10

Personnel

–

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

, reeds *

– reeds *

– bass

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meeting in Chicago 1997 albums Joe McPhee albums Ken Vandermark albums Okka Disk albums