When Joe McPhee steps on stage, a piece of jazz history enters the room. For decades, the tenor saxophonist has stood for a jazz that knows no compromise – from the early, funky and raw recordings of his album Nation Time to the widely acclaimed solo excursions on Tenor. McPhee never stopped playing, yet it was a new generation of improvisers who rediscovered him in the mid-1990s – not least through his long-standing collaboration with Peter Brötzmann, in whose legendary Chicago Tentet he became a central figure. To this day, his tone is considered one of the finest in the field, even where he ventures into the outer regions of jazz.

At his side is Steve Swell, one of the most distinctive trombonists of his generation. Swell treats the technical peculiarities of his instrument not as limitations but as invitations – howling glissandi, chattering chromaticism, and a playfulness that pushes his instrument to its limits and beyond. That he never abandons the ground of postbop linearity is what makes his music so multi-layered: virtuosic and unpredictable at once.

The foundation is provided by Mark Tokar on double bass and Klaus Kugel on drums – two musicians who have understood each other intuitively for years. Tokar plays with a concentration and devotion that takes every moment of interplay seriously; his full, unmistakable tone forms the sonic backbone of the quartet. Kugel, in turn, ranks among the most defining drummers in contemporary European jazz: precise, alert, and always in dialogue with his fellow musicians, moving confidently between structural clarity and complete freedom. Together, the two form a rhythm section that distills improvised music into a universal language – the sturdy foundation on which the sound worlds of McPhee and Swell can unfold freely.

Photo: Žiga Koritnik