At age 78, Joe McPhee shows no sign of slowing down. Plan B is the master improviser’s new trio, with James Keepnews on guitar & laptop and David Berger on drums. A soundtrack to a science fiction movie existing only in their heads, From Outer Space finds McPhee and company envisioning the first encounter between alien life and a delegation of earthlings (while giving a nod to jazz’s original man from another planet, Sun Ra, with a side-long suite dedicated to him). It’s quite unlike anything else in McPhee’s vast discography. Cover art by Judith Lindbloom.

“Joe McPhee, who is one-third of the trio Plan B, was born in 1939. He’s old enough to have had the opportunity to see Buck Rogers in the newspaper, laser guns on projected in black and white on neighbourhood cinema screens, and Plan Nine From Outer Space upon its initial release. I can’t tell you if he actually did any of these things, but this much is known: McPhee is a science fiction fan of long-standing; he’s still making new work and taking real chances at the age of 78; and his playing is laser-like in its concentration of information drawn from his own life, the histories of jazz and improvised music, the complicated story of the USA and its relationship with its African-descended residents; and whatever is happening at the second he puts one of his several horns (pocket trumpet and alto and tenor saxophones on this record) to his lips. There’s always a lot of information in every note, reaction, and reference, and so it is with this LP.” - Francis Gooding, The Wire

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Joe McPhee / tenor saxophone, alto saxophone, trumpet

James Keepnews / guitar, electronics

David Berger / drums

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Artwork by Judith Lindbloom. 

Available as a 320k MP3 or 16bit FLAC download. 

Tracklisting:

A1. Overture - 1:19
A2. Space Travel - 5:32
A3. Arrival - 4:07
A4. A Peaceful Resolution - 5:32
A5. Plea - 4:38

Shadow Of The Sun Suite (for Sun Ra)

B1. Shadow Of The Sun Suite Parts 1-4 - 15:52
B2. Shadow Of The Sun Suite Parts 5 Aftermath - 8:20