Joe McPhee, Mikołaj Trzaska, Jay Rosen
Not Two Records: MW 790-2 
http://www.nottwo.com/PelnaPlyta.php?Id=326&W=0

* Joe McPhee: tenor saxophone
* Mikołaj Trzaska: alto saxophone, C-melody saxophone, bass clarinet
* Jay Rosen: drums
 
http://www.joemcphee.com/ 
http://www.jay-rosen.com/

Reviews
~~~~~~~
By Stef

Mikolaj Trzaska is, together with Adam Pieronczyk, without a doubt the best of
modern Polish or even European saxophonists. I called him earlier the opposite
of Peter Brötzmann, in the sense that his tone is warm and elegant, and that he
does not need to shout or scream in order to be adventurous or move
boundaries. And his style of playing comes close to the efforts made by Joe
McPhee in the previous years, in whose tone anger has been gradually replaced by
compassion, though not completely. It's no surprise they met and played
together, assisted by the great Jay Rosen on drums. "Intimate Conversations",
the title of the album, is well-chosen, because that's exactly what this CD
brings. The first two tracks are duets between McPhee and Rosen, fierce,
anguished, powerful. On the third track the tone melts down to more melancholy
regions for a duet between McPhee and Trzaska. On "Did God Forget About
Darfur/What God?" the first trio track can be heard. While McPhee sticks to his
tenor on the whole album, Trzaska alternates between alto, bass clarinet and the
rarely used C-melody sax. That difference makes it easier to identify the
musicians, although their differences in style are easily recognized. The
interaction, the common language they find, the call-and-response, are all
excellent, especially in "Intimate Conversation # 2" on which they move to the
higher registers of the instruments, playing very controlled and shrill tones,
like birds. Jay Rosen brings a solo drums tribute piece to Max Roach, called
"North Star" and although I'm not a real fan of drum solos, this one is
captivating, with some one-handed drum rolls, played with power and subtlety as
Roach did himself. The most intimate conversation is the third one, on which
Trzaska brings some rhythmic and hypnotic circular breathing on bass clarinet
throughout the track, over which McPhee plays some eery light lines, sparsely
accompanied by Rosen, moving into a more intense blaze in the middle, yet
falling back in their initial routine at the end : a bizarre and impactful piece
of music. One of the greatest feats of the album is the space the musicians
offer each other, creating great openness. The best example of this can be found
in "Snowflakes on flowers", on which the music expresses exactly that, with all
the trembling lightness and softness of touch it entails, including a little
over 15 seconds when nothing can be heard at all. A great, explorative and
sensitive album.


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By Lyn Horton 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=28296

By Clifford Allen 
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=28471