Dave Burrell/Joe McPhee Duo

Joe McPhee combines the litheness of a ballet dancer with the drive and power of a baseball player. Intensely muscular improvisations, furious expressionism, music that moves mountains. His tone is universally praised, as well as his remarkable control of the highest register, in which his tone is as smoothly polished as the falsetto of a gospel or soul singer. The concept is simple, but the execution is so thrilling that the listener surrenders to pure joy. An important aspect of Dave Burrell's piano playing that is hardly ever addressed is the playful ambivalence behind it: is it biting sarcasm or good-natured humour, severely earnest or a private joke? It may well be all that and more. Titles such as 'Oozi Oozi', 'Booby and Si', 'Margy Pargy', 'Panaluu Peter' and 'Popolo Paniolo' are obviously tongue-in-cheek. Unfortunately, the Belgian public has not had much of a chance to hear them and judge for themselves. This duo concert with McPhee - a first in every sense of the word - will be a dialogue based on the conviction that argument is a good way of arriving at something new. What these two musicians have in common is a preference for a relative economy of means, as well as precision, attention to sound and great confidence in musical suggestion.