Song For The Big Chief was recorded on 9 December 2017 at London’s Cafe Oto, the day after the death of free jazz drummer Sunny Murray. Before they began their performance, US reeds and brass multi-instrumentalist improvisor Joe McPhee and Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love announced that the show would be dedicated to Murray's memory, not necessarily playing his compositions, but, “true to Murray’s spirit ... creating new sounds and pushing the music into the future”.

This release is part of an ongoing partnership which began when McPhee played with Scandinavian jazz band The Thing in 2002. Since then, he and Nilssen-Love have worked together as a duo, among various projects. By 2015, their collaborations had accumulated enough recorded material to release the seven CD box set Candy.

Named after Sunny Murray’s 1969 album Big Chief, Song For The Big Chief is released by PNL on 4 October

Joe McPhee was the cover feature of The Wire 420. Wire subscribers can access the full issue via the online archive.