Also this issue: Mount Vernon Blues Label hassles and sonic shifts can’t stop GFS Productions from duly appointed drum and bass rounds. -A.D. Amorosi Review: Anner Bylsma -Peter Burwasser Bella Morte -Helen Thompson Dave Burrell -Kyle Parker Ladytron -Paul Burress Four Tenors -Kyle Parker The Blood Brothers -A.D. Amorosi The Post -A.D. Amorosi

February 13-19, 2003

musicpicks

Joe McPhee/William Parker/ Harold Smith

The storm of free jazz may have crested culturally in the late '60s and early '70s, but its artistic substance seems to have only deepened over time. For instance, consider bassist William Parker and saxophonist Joe McPhee, two musicians who participated in the loft scene but have really come into their own more recently. McPhee spent the past three decades shifting from post-Coltrane athletics to Pauline Oliveros-inspired electronic ambience to his current emotive explorations (his band, Trio X, is one of the prime ensembles in free music). Parker, who apprenticed in the '80s with Cecil Taylor and in the '90s with David S. Ware, has recently emerged as a franchise unto himself -- releasing several albums a year and co-founding the Vision Festival in New York. Add to this volatile mix the Philly didgeridoo virtuoso and percussionist Harold E. Smith (pictured), and you have an earnest continuum of the jazz avant-garde.

Sat., Feb. 15, 8 p.m., $10-$12, Sedgwick Cultural Center, 7137 Germantown Ave., 215-248-9229.

—Kyle Parker