''Variations on a Blue Line'' (subtitled Round Midnight'') is a live album by multi-instrumentalist and composer

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 ...

, recorded in 1977 and first released on the Swiss

HatHut Hathut Records is a Swiss record company and label founded by Werner Xavier Uehlinger in 1974 that specializes in jazz and classical music. The name of the label comes from the artwork of Klaus Baumgartner. Hathut encompasses the labels hat ART, h ...

label in 1979.Joe McPhee discography
accessed April 20, 2015

Reception

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 databas ...

gave the album 4½ stars.Allmusic listing
accessed April 20, 2015

Track listing

''All compositions by Joe McPhee except as indicated'' # "Beanstalk" - 17:06 # "Motian Studies" - 7:39 # "Variations on a Blue Line (After a Theme for Knox)" - 6:33 # " 'Round Midnight" (

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

) - 5:05

Personnel

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

References

{{Joe McPhee, state=autocollapse Joe McPhee live albums 1979 live albums Hathut Records live albums