OREN AMBARCHI / CHRIS CORSANO / PAUL FLAHERTY / C. SPENCER YEH
Ambarchi / Flaherty, Corsano, Yeh
(Krayon Recordings) split 7-inch $9.00
The Flaherty, Corsano, Yeh Trio's oceans of bawling drum kit fire and fluttering string overtones fuse a complex web of ear asterism. Infiltrated by a woozy sax line that soon reduces in duration and increases the overall vehemence, with fragmented reed chewing rasp and roar joining myriad coordinates in this dense labyrinth of free magic. On the flip, an unexpected monolith from Ambarchi, stunningly crafted harmonic percolations of feedback glare, and riff particles slam into tantric drum force blast beats by Matt Skitz Sanders. Art by Paul Coors.
CHRIS CORSANO / PAUL FLAHERTY / WALLY SHOUP
Bounced Check
(Records) Used LP $12.00
“Totally improvised double sax and drum explosions that break down into duos and solos and re-ignite as trio howlin’ paint splattered madness gone butt-naked wilder” from 2007. This companion to The Blank Check LP released by Finnish label Tyfus, was “recorded at an art gallery with artwork melting off the walls and frightened fans nervously mopping their furrowed blood-stained brows.” Sealed
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY / MIKE MURRAY / STEPHEN SCHOLZ
Cydonia
(Tulpa) Used LP $20.00
Free jazz from 1993
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY
Endangered Species
(Cadence) Used LP $14.97
Tightly wound, hallucinogenic and intricate free jazz from 1989
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY / STEPHEN SCHOLZ
Impact
(Cadence) Used LP $18.00
Free Jazz from 1990. Sealed
PAUL FLAHERTY / TIGER HATCHERY
Live In New Haven
(Ergot - ERG007) LP $17.00
Ben Baker Billington, Mike Forbes, Andrew Scott Young and Paul Flaherty bring the heat to fire music. Live In New Haven documents four purveyors of the ecstatic now convulsing as one, with the labyrinthine saxophone mutations of Forbes and Flaherty squirming against the brink of the Billington-Young skins’n’strings throb unit. Despite the volcanic nature of the session, the quartet exhibits a sage capacity for both restraint and an elevated plane of almost-composed melodicism, “tracing a jagged pathway of legible melodic interplay,” as noted by Tiny Mix Tapes, “that breaks off at a moment’s notice into freefall runs of conjoined squalling.”
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY
Ottowa
(Zaabway - 2006) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
After a decade of intensive, near-telepathic interplay and wide ranging expressive armory, on this live recording from 1991 at Art Court in Canada, “Flaherty’s alto warbles like an Evan Parker, preaches like an Ayler, or croons like a subdued Sanders, while Colbourne remains … sensitive and creative.”
RANDALL COLBOURNE / RICHARD DOWNS / PAUL FLAHERTY / FROC
Prana
(Zaabway - 2007) CD $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Quartet performance from 1989 (released 2001) with some really beautiful high-powered ache from Flaherty,” describes our friends at Volcanic Tongue, “Working almost Ornette-ish flights of blue spirit into the path of bassist Downs and drummer Colbourne. Guitarist Froc ... plays with a fairly clean tone and comes from relatively deep within the jazz guitar tradition but he rarely distracts from the flow of ideas making their way around Flaherty’s hot-wired brain.”
RANDALL COLBOURNE / RICHARD DOWNS / PAUL FLAHERTY
Primal Burn
(Tulpa) Used LP $8.00
Agitated, freaky free jazz from 1991.
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY
Ringtaw
(Zaabway - 2004) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
“Almost big-band scale free-jazz conceptions,” concludes Volcanic Tongue, “From a sextet led by these legendary drums/sax shooters and featuring James ‘Chumly' Hunt on trumpet and plastic castanets, Matt Moran on vibes and percussion, Mike Murray on guitar and long-term collaborator Richard Downs on bass. A pretty singular installment in this on-going saga, with the music existing in some kind of flux between all-valves-exploding high-energy gush and slightly more elaborately conceived big band geometries. A beauty, for sure."
CHRIS CORSANO / PAUL FLAHERTY / GREG KELLEY
Sannyasi
(Wet Paint Music - 3001) CD $10.00
Seven bursts of careful yet flamboyant free improvisation from 2002. Trumpeter Kelley blasts fast, high-register, staccato lines in contrast to Flaherty’s alto and tenor playing, which is less frantic than on The Hated Music. Similar feel, though: intense splashes of bombast sit next to pensive passages, pushing and pulling, jumping moods quickly and logically.
RANDALL COLBOURNE / RICHARD DOWNS / PAUL FLAHERTY / STEPHEN SCHOLZ
The Fourth Way
(Tulpa) Used LP $25.00
Free jazz from 1992. Sealed
The Hated Music
(Ecstatic Yod - E#1B) Used CD $10.00 (Out-of-stock)
Flaherty’s impassioned overblowing and legato style recall Noah Howard and early-70s Joe McPhee, and his chord outlines, sheets-of-sound-era Coltrane. The Hated Music is raucous but well-crafted: the visceral and incendiary duo captures the spirit of the wildest, most hectic, most flamboyant free improvisation without blowing themselves into monotony.
RANDALL COLBOURNE / PAUL FLAHERTY
Visitants
(Zaabway - 2001) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
Classic thunderous now-fi recording of this killing unit,” according to Volcanic Tongue, “Scything their way through mountains of hidebound mediocrity with huge gulps of liberated human spirit. From 1994, this one also features Richard Downs on baritone horn and bass and Mike Murray on guitar. Massive.”
Voices
(Wet Paint Music - 3002) Used CD $5.00 (Out-of-stock)
Forceful, punishing, destructive free improv for solo alto and tenor saxes from 2001, with “some reflective bluesy playing and aggressive low-register honking,” according to Dusted, “But much of Voices consists of tangled, high-pitched runs and screaming multiphonics. Without any other musicians to create the sort of interaction that drives The Hated Music and Sannyasi, it feels like a single [overwhelming and shocking] sound rather than a collection of related ones.”