Paul Flaherty / Chris Corsano - The Beloved Music

[Steve Reynolds]

Recorded May 4th, 2004 in Louisville, KY

Paul Flaherty: tenor and alto saxophones
Chris Corsano: drums

On Family Vineyard (FV39)

I received a copy of this from Eric Weddle who runs the family vineyard label

Having never heard either of the participants and being in somewhat of a funk as far as listening to
jazz for a variety of reasons (which will follow) I didn’t have much hope that I would be in the mood for this. The reasons being that I am:

1) currently obsessed with listening to Can’s first 4 recordings in a very compulsive way

2) my recent obsessive listening to erstlive 005 (maybe through the whole thing 5 times within 2 weeks) and my obsessive listening of the first disc from the Cloud 2 CD set

3)Not feeling too good about anything over the last 3 or 4 days – infact kind of struggling with acceptance over many things (including myself) over the past few weeks has me in a bit of a rut – and when I’m in a rut, sometimes, I can’t egt with anything different – and even old favorites don’t quench my thirst.

Every time I do start to listen to jazz over the past few weeks, I am not seeming to be in right space for it – even Miles/Trane from 1960 or Dunmall’s Ghostly Thoughts or Hemingway’s The Marmalade King – none were doing it for me.
So feeling full and a bit blue after eating lunch today, I had an empty 45 minutes before going back into the office – so I put this on expecting something on the order of Frank Lowe/Rashied Ali type of thing – or another screaming saxophonist with a bashing drummer doing their version of the sax/drum duo inspired by Interstellar Space 40 years hence.

In the past as many know maybe my favorite jazz/improve format has been variations on the sax-bass-drums trio. Some of my post-Coltrane incarnations have been combinations such as Wilkinson-Fell-Hession, Parker-Guy-Lytton, Anderson-Parker-Drake, Brotzmann-Parker-Drake, Brotzmann-Hokins-Ali, Gayle-Parker-Ali, Dunmall-Rogers-Norton, Lacy-Avenel-Betsch, Perelman-Duval-Rosen or anyone with Morris and Charles.And anything with Peter Kowald and a good drummer and a good saxophonist – the Anderson trio set with Drake comes to mind as a very fruitful and rewarding listen.


I think most of you who don’t know me get a bit of the point. In fact, if I go back about 3 or 4 years, I might have been as fanatical about much of this sort of music as anyone who posted here.

However, besides a few things like the Parker-Prevost duo, “Most Materiall”, I often found (and find) sax-drum duets (especially) blow-outs lacking in variation and dearly missed what the great modern bassists often bring to these occasions – really always the glue that would give what otherwise might be almost meaningless emotive playing a purpose.

More recently I seem not to be as attracted to this sort of thing – I sure hope it doesn’t come from listening to Paul or Brian (let alone Jon) – but I have been more interested lately in the jazz (more recent jazz at least) that I listen to – to hear for more subtlety that fire in the jazz I do listen to.




And then I heard this. It is not so much that this wasn’t kind of what I was expecting – it might be that I didn’t know that there was:

1) a saxophone player who could play like this – this type of visceral and intense stuff – even moreso than a guy like Perelman – and have a fullness of tone – and pack it all in so tightly. Not taking his time ala Dunmall – but keeping a melodic sense as Dunmall is wont to do. And having the kind of awesome control of his instrument with jazz dropping intensity. And yes – unrelenting through the 42 minutes (and I love 40-something minute discs – nothing better than wanting for more – not much worse than waiting for a disc to end – as one might know that the rest might be the same as what had come before.
2) Didn’t know a drummer like Chris Corsano existed. Simply said, the most explosive powerful drummer of this sort I have ever heard. Has changed my paradigm as to what is possible playing free jazz on the drum kit. And yes – he is kind of a basher – and despite how powerful he is with Flaherty – the two solos – particularly the one that opens the middle 18 minute piece – is pretty much 6 minutes of sonic bliss. Never heard a drum solo like this before

damn - nice to write something like this about this disc

Never thought I would write any of this about this disc. I was execting something *like* something I had heard before. The liners talk about Corsano channeling Denis Charles through some other sort of experiences - but the only thing I hear is some kind of nuclear force drummer. And I have long railed against some of the drummers who bash - usually can't take it anymore - I usually lean towards guys like Paul Lovens, Tony Oxley or Mark Sanders. In fact, I have oftne been dissapointed by the younger drummers who have played at events like the Vision Fest over the years - having seemed to my ears to have only listened to guys like Murray and Graves - and having turned into lesser versions of the grand masters.

Corsano (at least from the evidence here) is a new player on a different plane than anyone else playing this sort of fiery free jazz improvisation - at least that I have heard

5 stars






peace and blessings

[Derek Taylor]

This one gets a voiciferous "HELL YES!" from my corner too. If anything it builds on the majesty of their earlier Ecstatic Yod disc (haven't heard their two slabs of Finnish vinyl). I think the official street date is the first week of March.

Nice write-up, Steve. Sorry the past few days had you down, but glad this disc managed to turn the frown around.

[spekkola]

Nice story Steve. Saved my day, thanks! I can't wait to hear this one. My favorite duo for sure!

There is pretty new .mp3s (hmm, actually it's whole release with the covers and all...) at Tulipesä (http://www.deepturtle.net/greenwah.html) by Jaakko Tolvi / Chris Corsano. A Drum duo recorded last summer in Finland. Even the recording doesn't reach all the things from the gig, it's still something to remember.

Sami

[Jon Abbey]

Originally Posted by Steve Reynolds

Didn’t know a drummer like Chris Corsano existed.

funny, I bet you bought tickets from him a couple of times when he used to work at Tonic back in the day, before he moved to Massachusetts and started working at Byron Coley's store.

I've only seen Chris live a few times, but the one that was memorable is the Alan Licht-led thirty minute version of the Stooges-1970 in the first No Fun Fest, the quartet of Licht, Tamio Shiraishi, Matt Heyner and Corsano. totally over the top, taking 'LA Blues' even farther out, great stuff...

[Sergio Zamora]

Well, I'm sold.

[Uli]

Originally Posted by Sergio Zamora

Well, I'm sold.

I am still waiting for Ollie's opinion.

[MRS]

Could be wrong but I believe Corsano backed Jandek at two or three of his first public performances.

[Jon Abbey]

yeah, the ones in NYC were with bands of Loren Connors/Heyner/Corsano and Heyner/Corsano, maybe some others also...

[Adam Hill]

Originally Posted by MRS

Could be wrong but I believe Corsano backed Jandek at two or three of his first public performances.

I hated that he came forward and did live shows. It was one of the great practical jokes in music, and then he comes out and does these live shows and suddenly you realize it's not a joke, the guy is serious with that god-awful stuff he puts out.

[Samuel]

I spent a bunch of time playing and hanging with Flags when I lived in Hartford. He was (and no doubt still is) a funny, honest, unique person and I value the music we made.

One time Flags, "Froc" Fillipetti, Bill Walach and I got booked into a bar in Hartford. We walked in. The management realized who they'd hired. They fired us on the spot, saying we "were too wild." The punch line? WE HADN'T PLAYED A NOTE YET!