The JoAnne Pow!ers Trio:
JoAnne Pow!ers - Saxophones
Jennifer Pendur - Bass
Paul Baker - Drums; Percussion

After four years of aperiodic Midwestern performances and a short-run self-released CD-R (2005's "Legendary Weapons of Free Jazz"), the JoAnne Pow!ers Trio is ecstatic to announce the release of "Food for Thought" on the Unofficial Records label. Both bassist Jennifer Pendur and drummer Paul Baker had joined saxophonist Pow!ers in other free jazz combos before the Trio solidified at the beginning of 2004. Hot-off-the-presses at the end of November, the new CD displays the effortless communication and chemistry that the ensemble has developed over their long association. On "Food for Thought" the Trio displays its range, from disquieting whispers and drawn-out rumbling to heated conversations and battering squalls of sound. All tracks on the CD were completely improvised.

The centrepiece of the new CD is a lengthy suite entitled "Three for Malachi", each piece dedicated to a recently passed participant in Chicago's creative music scene: "Low Profile (for Malachi Favors Maghostut)", spanning nearly half an hour, pairs Pender's arco bass with Pow!ers' thunderous baritone in honour of the great Art Ensemble of Chicago bassist who passed on in early 2004. On "One Direction (for Malachi Thompson)", Pow!ers forgoes her usual saxophones to coax restless whispers from her cornet over quiet punctuation from the rhythm section, in tribute to the AACM trumpeter who in 2006 succumbed to lymphyoma, first diagnosed 17 years earlier. The final piece on the CD, "Exit Strategy (for Malachi Ritscher)", has the greatest resonance for Pow!ers, who recorded the piece for the antiwar activist and tireless archivist of improvised music in Chicago, who she befriended during her many visits to the Windy City over the last decade. Last November third, Ritscher doused himself with gasoline and self-immolated next to the Kennedy Expressway in protest of the illegal war in Iraq. With Ritscher's sacrifice as inspiration, the Trio stretches out on a tangled track that culminates in both a bang and a whimper.

Also on the CD are the aggitated "Improvised Explosive Device" featuring Pow!ers on a jittery soprano saxophone, and "Explosive Improvised Device", an exercise in fits and starts in which Baker's versatile percussion quarrels indignantly with tenor saxophone and a particularly dynamic bass.