In October Flowers for Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark offers not merely a dedication but a profound act of listening—a musician’s response to the lifelong echo of inspiration. Issued by Corbett vs. Dempsey in March 2025, this collection of solo performances was recorded live at the gallery’s Chicago space on March 17, 2025, in front of a small audience. The performance reveals Vandermark at his most direct and unguarded, exploring a full range of reeds—tenor and baritone saxophones, B-flat and bass clarinet—through a series of six composed movements interspersed with improvised meditations. Each segment bears the name of a flower significant to McPhee or Vandermark, creating a bouquet of sound assembled from memory, respect, and quiet exuberance.

Vandermark’s approach here is both technically assured and narratively transparent. Rather than constructing grand gestures, he finds power in refinement, channeling breath, articulation, and dynamic control to trace emotional contours that recall the lyric impulse behind McPhee’s Tenor(1976)—the landmark solo album that first changed Vandermark’s sense of what improvised music could be. In Vandermark’s hands, linear improvisation becomes storytelling: melody and abstraction coexist, bound by clarity and warmth. His tone—by turns gruff, mutable, and elegiac—turns each line into a meditation on creativity and friendship. The performance was exquisitely recorded by Alex Inglizian, mixed and co-produced with John Corbett and Jim Dempsey at Experimental Sound Studio. The resulting album, complete with artwork by Arch Connelly and design by Michael Dyer, captures not only a performance but an atmosphere—intimate, acoustic, and deeply attentive. The suite’s composed sections anchor a narrative framework, while the interwoven “filler flowers” (improvised interludes) provide spontaneous release, an oscillation between calm reflection and fiery motion.

October Flowers for Joe McPhee stands as both portrait and conversation: a solo album that feels collaborative through spirit rather than presence. Vandermark honors McPhee not by imitation but by embodying the principle his mentor has always exemplified—the ceaseless pursuit of honest expression. The result is music that breathes with gratitude and inquiry, expanding the lineage of solo reed performance and reaffirming the essential kindness at the heart of creative jazz.