{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox album | name = Pieces of Light | type = Album | artist = Joe McPhee and John Snyder | cover = Pieces of Light.jpg | alt = | released = 1974 | recorded = April 1974 at CjR Studio in West Park, NYC | venue = | studio = | genre = Jazz | length = 46:47 | label = CjR <small>CjR 4</small><br>Atavistic <small>ALP256CD</small> | producer = | chronology = Joe McPhee | prev_title = Trinity | prev_year = 1972 | next_title = The Willisau Concert | next_year = 1976 }}
'''''Pieces of Light''''' is the first studio album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Joe McPhee (with John Snyder on synthesizers) recorded in 1974 and originally released on the CjR label, then reissued by Atavistic in 2005.<ref name="Joe McPhee discography">[http://joemcphee.com/pieces-of-light.html Joe McPhee discography] accessed April 20, 2015</ref>
==Reception== {{Music ratings | rev1 = Allmusic | rev1Score = {{rating|2.5|5}}<ref name="Allmusic"/> |rev2 = ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings'' |rev2score = {{Rating|3|4}}<ref name="Penguin">{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |authorlink1=Richard Cook (journalist) |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |authorlink2=Brian Morton (Scottish writer) |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |year=2008 |edition=9th |publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-141-03401-0 |page=984}}</ref> }} The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek stated "The result is a meandering six-part meditation on how best to combine acoustically and electrically driven sounds... most of ''Pieces of Light'' is merely a curiosity".<ref name="Allmusic">{{AllMusic|first=Thom |last=Jurek |class=album |id= mw0000719660 |title=''Pieces of Light'' – Review |accessdate=April 17, 2015}}</ref> On All About Jazz writer Kurt Gottschalk noted "McPhee at times plays marvelously jazzy in alien vistas and if Snyder's synthesizer sounds a bit dated at times it never comes off as quaint".<ref>Gottschalk, K., [http://www.allaboutjazz.com/joe-mcphee-nyny1971-and-pieces-of-light-1974-by-kurt-gottschalk.php All About Jazz Review], October 7, 2006</ref>
== Track listing == ''All compositions by Joe McPhee and John Snyder'' # "Prologue/Twelve" - 9:13 # "Shadow Sculptures" - 3:38 # "Heros Sont Fatigues" - 7:41 # "Red Giant" - 3:08 # "Windows in Dreams/Colors in Crystal" - 23:07
== Personnel == *Joe McPhee - tenor saxophone, trumpet, pocket trumpet, flugelhorn, E-Flat alto, modified nagoya harp, chimes, voice *John Snyder - synthesizers
== References == {{reflist}} {{Joe McPhee|state=autocollapse}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Joe McPhee albums Category:1974 collaborative albums Category:Instrumental duet albums Category:Atavistic Records albums