Skip to main content
Joe McPhee at Cafe Oto and Kahil El'zabar at Ronnie Scotts
CS

AT CAFE OTO in Dalston, 82-year-old Floridian multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee introduced his performance with the Decoy Quartet by saying: “Thank you very much for extending my childhood.”

You could hear the whole century of jazz sound in McPhee’s first excruciating volley of tenor saxophone notes. After two pandemic years it was as if the spirits of Armstrong, Ellington, Parker, Coltrane and Ornette were rising above the darkening skies of Dalston.

With him were three English nonpareils creating a relentless sound of roaring unity: drummer Steve Noble’s rampaging toms and rattling cymbals; John Edwards’s throbbing, cavorting bass coming as if from the Earth’s centre, and the churchlike yet secular glory of Alexander Hawkins’s Hammond B3 organ, like a merry-go-round of now-times musical truth.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
CS+SN
Interview / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
LEDLEY album cover
Men’s football / 4 April 2025
4 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE interviews saxophonist Chris Williams about the extraordinary electro-acoustic album LEDLEY - a bold fusion of Jazz, football, and community spirit
ineza
Interview / 26 February 2025
26 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Rwanda-born jazz vocalist INEZA
somuah
Interview / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to Ghanaian trumpeter PETER SOMUAH
Similar stories
CS+SN
Interview / 14 April 2025
14 April 2025
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to drummer Steve Noble
oto 2
Music review / 22 November 2024
22 November 2024
CHRIS SEARLE translates the fusion of four jazz maestros into a mental image of Hackney Carnival
Music review / 6 September 2024
6 September 2024
CHRIS SEARLE is transported by a combative fusion of US and UK instrumentalists and landmark evening of jazz
birchell
Interview / 24 July 2024
24 July 2024
CHRIS SEARLE speaks to self-taught tenor saxophonist Nat Birchall