Avant-garde jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist Joe McPhee began blowing his horn in the late 1960s, exploring music harmony and theory with the trumpet. It wasn't until after his first release, FREEDOM AND UNITY, that he fell in love with the saxophone. Striving to find freedom while not completely abandoning melody, he developed what he termed “Po Music." Although through most of his early career he remained unknown in the United States, thanks to his prolific European and Canadian releases, he eventually attracted the attention of the North American jazz community, both leading and collaborating with like-minded artists such as Ken Vandermark and Peter Brotzmann in the late '90s.