Numerous
are the musicians who adopt the DIY tack and launch record labels to document
their work. Relatively few are those that can claim an enterprise founded by
others with the express purpose of releasing their music. Joe McPhee holds that
latter distinction thanks to Werner X Uehlinger and the Hat Hut imprint. Up to
1975, McPhee had been dividing his time between occasional teaching engagements
at Vassar College and a day gig at a factory in his hometown of Poughkeepsie,
NY, fitting music into the time between and off from both. The Willisau Concert, Uehlinger’s second release on his fledgling
label, documents an eponymous Swiss leg of a European tour undertaken by McPhee
and his colleague John Synder in the fall of that year. South African drummer Makaya
Ntshoko joined the group, but the chemistry between the three players was
apparently off leading to a truncating of the tour soon after.
