jeffrey maurer
What an amazing session from this super group. I can only hope we see more from them... and maybe some live shows.
Fundacja Słuchaj is absolutely on fire.
Thank you.
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To “Keep the Dream Up” is advice my wife Madeleine gave me. The subject of dreams became a part of this project. For starters, it has always been my dream to record with Joe. We have played gigs for years in trios and quartets but a record had yet to be made until now. I chose the name for the recording but hadn’t told the guys yet when Joe said it was “a dream given form.” A marvelous coincidence? One band member wrote to me right after “pinch me, did that just happen?” and another said he felt like he was floating for hours after.
Includes unlimited streaming of Keep The Dream Up
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
SAVE THE MONYE! Hard copies of our three new releases in a special discount price.
Includes unlimited streaming of Keep The Dream Up
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The Session
The day started out a little different - Park West Studio is in Brooklyn and so am I. It's not too far, but I would need to take the subway and walk a bit so I decided to make it easier on myself and take a cab. When I got in the cab, I started to space out and think about the music. The ride seemed like it was taking too long, and I regained consciousness and asked “are we going the right way?” The cabbie got short with me and said we were almost there. He stopped and I got out and he sped away; he had dropped me off in the completely wrong place now even farther from the studio than I started out! This has never happened before, and I even asked the guy before I got out to tell me the address he had in his GPS. So I had to find another cab, which in that area wasn’t easy. I ended up late to my own session. I’ve never been late to any session, let alone my own!
But this energy made it into the music somehow, this crazy morning. Jim the engineer was ready to go and we were tracking the first track within minutes of my coming through the door. It was like walking in while already playing. The music took off on an amazing flight. The first 6 tracks are presented in the order they were recorded exactly as the day unfolded. The other compositions and trios were recorded after a short pause.
Joe and Michael missed each other at a park-n-ride that morning and they were also late, but not as late as I was. After the session, Michael joked, “We should always be late!”
credits
released April 10, 2023
Knuffke-McPhee Quartet+1
Keep the Dream Up
Joe McPhee - Tenor Saxophone, voice
Kirk Knuffke - Cornet, voice
Christof Knoche - Bass Clarinet
Michael Bisio - Bass
Jay Rosen - Drums
1. Keep the Dream up 6:47
2. You See the Lights 19:58
3. The Essence Vibrates Love 11:29
4. Reaching Ever Out 4:49
5. Use of Clay 7:27
6. Buffaloes 7:16
7. Cracks into Burning 5:45
8. Take me to the spring 1:38
9. They will say 11:03
10. Invocation 2:26
Total Time: 78:40
Tracks: 1-5 by (Knuffke, McPhee, Bisio, Rosen); Track 6,9 by (Kirk Knuffke), Track 7, 8 by (Knuffke, Bisio, Rosen), Track 10 by Joe McPhee)
Thanks to Joe, Michael, Christof, Jay and Jim for this special recording. Thank you to Maciej for having us on your wonderful label. Thank you Madeleine for your inspiration.
-Kirk Knuffke, Brooklyn NY
To “Keep the Dream Up” is advice my wife Madeleine gave me. The subject of dreams became a part of this project. For starters it has always been my dream to record with Joe. We have played gigs for years in trios and quartets but a record had yet to be made until now. I chose the name for the recording but hadn’t told the guys yet when Joe said it was “a dream given form.” A marvelous coincidence? One band member wrote to me right after “pinch me, did that just happen?” and another said he felt like he was floating for hours after.
Joe McPhee
When I was living in Denver, I would frequent all the record stores (I still do wherever I go), and I found a Joe McPhee record called “Tenor and Fallen Angels” which was recorded in 1976.
I was very intrigued that it was a solo recording, saxophone alone. I brought it home and it blew me away, from then on I have bought up all of Joe’s recordings that I can find, and since we became friends he has been generous to give me ones I didn’t have.
An early gig we did together was a trio with Michael Bisio where Joe read one of his poems. In putting this record together I wanted Joe to read something as well. “Invocation,” the final cut, is a poem of Joe’s.
Joe is an incredible spirit, a game-changing improviser and saxophonist, a poet in every way. I’m glad this dream came true. A musician asked me years ago if I thought two people could improvise in unison or not, an idea as far-fetched as it sounds. But I feel Joe and I came close to that. When an improviser goes at the rate of the music without forcing an agenda and keeps their ears open as much as possible to every sound in the room, not racing into the future with a plan and not recollecting too much on the past in an attempt to reference something, you can get to a place like this with the right people. And those people were in that room in Brooklyn.
Michael Bisio
My friendship with Michael is a long and well-documented one. We have been playing for over ten years in his groups, his quartet the “Accortet” (Relative Pitch Records), his trio “Requiem for a New York Slice” (Iluso Records), and “The Art Spirit” (ESP). We have also made duo recordings “Row for William O” (Relative Pitch) and “For you I don’t want to go” (No Business Records). He also played in my trio with Matthew Shipp for the double album “Gravity without Airs” (Tao Forms). Playing with Michael is always a dream; you can shut your eyes and go on a magic trip.
Christof Knoche
Christof and I go the furthest back, 16 years. We met in Butch Morris’s band “Orchestra Slang.” We played with Butch in different configurations until his untimely passing. We became fast friends and have done many things over the years.
I heard 3 voices on my compositions “Buffaloes” and “They will Say,” and Christof immediately came to mind. He has spent more time with the bass clarinet than anyone else I know, really shedding and focusing on it. He brought so much to this session.
Jay Rosen
Jay is a true master. We met some 12 years ago playing with Bob Feldman’s quartet. I have been a fan of Jay’s since those record store days in Denver. Jay’s history goes way back with both Joe and Michael. Jay has a vast palette of sound, and everything he does is for the music. This is our first recording together. I want to add that Jay has these amazing drums, made from entire tree trunks, not ply’s or any formed pieces of wood, solid tree trunks. You can hear how he has become one with these drums; he makes an entirely unique and personal sound, deep, resonant, never too loud somehow, always warm.
Buffaloes - An Excerpt from ”Buffalo Dusk” by Carl Sandburg
The buffaloes are gone.
And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
Invocation by Joe Mcphee
Music
Love
Peace
Music, Rising from the heart
Free Music, Touching all
Listen
Energy,
Pure cosmic force
Free Spirits, Joyous!
Offering a gift from the heart
Freely given
Removed from supermarket discount chains of economic slavery
measuring our souls in inches of the universe
Music
Life!
Music
Free!
Free Music
Racing past the sun, touching all
Pure cosmic energy
A gift, a gift from the heart
Freely given in the name of love
Music
Listen
“As a long time trumpet player, I admired Kirk's sound from the first hearing. To be able to join him with Michael Bisio and Jay Rosen, is a dream given form.”
supported by 47 fans who also own “Keep The Dream Up”
Simply amazing to hear a new album with Wadada and Ewart!! ...And Reed rounds out this trio beautifully.
Just gave it my first spin. Absolutely magical. jeffrey maurer
Described as “an ecological history of humanity,” this sparse, tense suite of songs perfectly balances melody and chaos. Bandcamp New & Notable Apr 28, 2018
supported by 37 fans who also own “Keep The Dream Up”
On "Painters Winter", William Parker and company explore some fascinating musical spaces, a set of songs that stretch out and expand in a way that ably demonstrates both the players' impressive skills and Parker's exceptional gifts as a composer. rikm
