Chris Corsano, born in 1975, is an American drummer active since the late 1990s at the meeting point of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock and experimental music. His long duo with the saxophonist Paul Flaherty set the tone: fast, dense, joyful playing that treats the kit as a single vibrating object, with bowed cymbals, hand percussion and whatever else is to hand.
Eat The Rich is an eclectic intersection of two serial collaborators: Giffoni (No Fun Fest / No Fun Productions) continues to explore new dimensions in sound, primarily using modular / synths (with recent full lengths on Ideologic Organ and Room40), paired here with the instinctually abstract percussion of Corsano (known from working with everyone from Bill Orcutt to Richard Bishop to Bjork but with literally 100's of appearances under his belt since the turn of the century). Produced by David S…
The duo of Camila Nebbia and Chris Corsano brings together two fiercely creative voices from the international improvised music scene. Nebbia’s searching tenor saxophone lines meet Corsano’s explosive, highly textural percussion in a set of spontaneous exchanges of raw expression. Their music moves fluidly between delicate detail and surging intensity, driven by deep listening and fearless experimentation. The result is a striking dialogue where every gesture reshapes the sonic landscape in real…
Were you to tap the lifeblood of Chicago music, you would find Josh Berman flowing liberally through its veins. Active on the scene for more than a quarter century, the cornetist, bandleader, and composer has helped retain the unique flavor of the city's soundscape, with particular attention to the music of its jazz past – groups like the Austin High Gang and the Oliver-Armstrong lineage and Freddie Keppard, as well as more recent figures from Lester Bowie to Wadada Leo Smith.
But Berman is more…
"Messrs. Corsano and Dorji are both familiar names in the Feeding Tube discography. Chris has played drums on eight FTR LPs (and recorded two other), and Tashi has played guitar on six (details upon request if you are lazy.) But this is the first time they have appeared on vinyl as a duo, and we are damn proud to have them. Over the past years Chris has recorded with a lot of the era's best guitarists -- Bill Nace, Ben Chasny, Thurston Moore, Nels Cline, David Vanzan, Bill Orcutt, Rick Bishop, G…
There are super groups, and then there are Supergroups. This trio, comprised of three prolific journeymen improvisers whose work has been recognized across the globe, is neither. This is a band of down-to-earth, hard-working musicians, whose focus and dedication to the music is exceptional. That’s not to say that these three don’t have a combined CV that straddles a who’s who list of contemporary music across multiple scenes. But their ethos is one that emanates from their midwestern locale …
*2025 stock* "Sadly, many will hear Chris Corsano & Bill Orcutt's latest LP, Made Out of Sound, as 'not-jazz,' though it would be more aptly described as 'not-not-jazz.' In a better world, it would warrant above-the-fold reviews in Downbeat, or an appearance on David Sanborn's late-night show (if someone would only give it back to him). More likely, we can hope for a haiku review on Byron Coley's Twitter timeline to sufficiently connect the various improvised terrains trodden by this long-time d…
Whisker is a duo consisting of modular synthesist Ben Baker Billington and bassist Andrew Scott Young. These are two space cadets who have emerged from the burned-out basements and sweaty lofts of the midwest noise scene to become leading figures in the Chicago music community. Billington has mastered trippertronics under his Quicksails project and provided tactile drum work to the pivotal Chicago industrial collective ONO, while Young’s bass playing has graced records by Ryley Walker, Circuit d…
2025 stock After a chance meeting in a taxi line at Lisbon Airport, a surreal intertwining of tours emanated. In between the lasers, confetti and face-painted fans at Plymouth Pavillions and Wolverhampton Civic Hall, Chris Corsano left the Björk mega-tour to get down to business alongside the imaginative Paul Dunmall for some vital improvisation at Slak Bar in Cheltenham, England.
This wonderfully recorded live set begins with Dunmall swirling away on the border pipes (he may be the preeminent …
2025 stock "Hard to believe it has been 18 years since this set was first issued, but that’s what the calendar says. Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano had been playing together for a while before this. I seem to recall rehearsals outdoors in Hartford beneath stretches of raised highway under construction. But that may have been Chris and Pete Nolan, back when Pete played guitar. Who can remember exactly? It’s been a long time. But I do remember we put this set together because it seemed essential …
*CD Version* Since exploding on the improvised music scene a couple of years ago Tennessee native Zoh Amba has found herself engaging with an ever-widening group of collaborators as she tours across the US and Europe. She's forged some enduring partnerships, working regularly with drummer Chris Corsano, bassist Thomas Morgan, and pianist Micah Thomas, among others, but one of the deep pleasures of improvised music is when a first-time meeting produces sparks. Indeed, that's certainly the case wi…
"These three artists don’t need volume or soloing to get their message across. Their message is inscribed in elegant lower-case and rarely used aural fonts. You will find yourself leaning forward because not a note or whisper should be missed..." - Brian Morton
Saccata Quartet are Nels Cline, Chris Corsano, Darin Gray and Glenn Kotche. On June 28, the band share their first album together, Septendecim, on We Jazz Records, with their live debut to follow on June 30th at Wilco's Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts. Painting a dense sonic texture on a broad canvas, the albums four deep cuts envelop the listener much like the trillions of cicadas predicted to appear across the US en masse around the time of the album launch as two broods of …
This album consists of never before released material compiled especially with this collection in mind. the LP is housed within its own letter pressed “matchbook” (similar in nature to the ones used on the eight trails, one path guitar compilation [TLR-091]) bearing new original artwork by casey burns and printed by dexterity press. each LP is pressed on 140g black vinyl pressed at record industry in the netherlands and includes a download coupon. mastered by patrick klem. A couple of years in t…
A feverish essay of transcendent drumming: Chris Corsano’ solo approach, rooted in the exploration of elements of extended technique, sought another level, via possibilities facilitated by a self-made string drum! The Key (Became The Important Thing [& Then Just Faded Away]) brings his encompassing focus on free improvisation and noise into a granular fusion with acoustic experiments and hot-wired ideations of hard rock riffing and the post-punk sound.
released August 4, 2023
Michael Flower - Ja…
Trost Records returns with a blasting gut-punch of an LP, with “Live at SuperDeluxe - Volume 1”, a full throttle body of improvisations from the all-star quartet of Akira Sakata, Jim O'Rourke, Mette Rasmussen, and Chris Corsano - never before captured on tape - live at legendary Tokyo venue, SuperDeluxe. Riding the wire between free jazz and noise, it's nothing short of powerful, real-time advocation of socio-political importance of free improvisation that leaves you on the edge of your seat fro…
When Mars Williams dove into his vault to excavate several recordings for a Mars Archive series on Corbett vs. Dempsey, he immediately landed on a concert date from a decade earlier. The event, recorded at Chicago's Elastic Arts Foundation in 2012, featured a trio with Williams on reed instruments, Darin Gray on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums. This configuration had already been highly enough estimated by Williams that he'd posted one set on Bandcamp, but he saved the other set for future rele…
"Here, then, are three men who have, if you will, won the argument already. They don’t need excess volume or headline soloing to get their message across. Their message is inscribed in elegant lower-case and rarely used aural fonts. You will find yourself leaning forward because not a note or whisper should be missed ..." - Brian Morton
Few sounds in music are as instantly recognizable as the searching sting of guitarist Bill Orcutt and the cyclical propulsion of drummer Chris Corsano. At the same time, every single performance or recording I've heard by the duo has been markedly different, discovering new paths with a given set of tools. For more than a decade now they've been meeting up to instigate visceral sonic journeys without a map, engaging in elliptical dialogues with one another, but more often conjuring twinned excur…
"The question to be answered during this live performance was, "Will there be enough space for all the musicians' voices to be heard?" Recorded at Firehouse 12, in June 2019, this new ensemble is an adaptation of various duos and familiar trios. Saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano have performed and recorded numerous discs together since the late '90s, releasing high-octane free jazz. The same can be said of the drummer's duo work with Danish saxophonist Mette Rasmussen; their tw…
2023 repress. Brace Up! is the first ever studio release from the duo of Chris Corsano (drums) and Bill Orcutt (guitar). Recorded in Brussels at Les Ateliers Claus by Christophe Albertijn on March 19th and 20th, 2018. Stage dive photograph by Jason Penner. "Over the past six years or so, drummer Chris Corsano has proven to be one of Bill Orcutt's most reliably flexible collusionists. Regardless of whether Bill is cluster-busting electric guitar strings, weaseling around with cracked electronics,…
* Edition of 100. Lathe-cut 7" record with laser etching. * Kinematics is the explosive first time collaboration between multi instrumentalist Ka Baird and percussionist Chris Corsano. Side A, Ordinate, is a frenetic weave of bamboo reed pipe, bubbling vocal utterances and drums, sounding much like a cart-full of shimmering dodos on the loose with the wheels flying off. Side B, Abscissa, is a more focused beating drone that mixes layered tones from an Asian battery operated tone generator (used …
Music by four strong individual players with room for eruptive solo-parts, but always held together by intense communication and beautiful interwoven melodies. The quartet's second album A History Of Nothing got a huge number of excited reviews: "A superb quartet outing. The music is all improvised, but it's firmly rooted in jazz, with superb interaction between all of the players, both on ripping, high-velocity blowouts and more delicate forays." --Peter Margasak (Chicago Reader) "Freedom is c…
Music by four strong individual players with room for eruptive solo-parts, but always held together by intense communication and beautiful interwoven melodies. The quartet's second album A History Of Nothing (TROST 170CD/LP) got a huge number of excited reviews: "A superb quartet outing. The music is all improvised, but it's firmly rooted in jazz, with superb interaction between all of the players, both on ripping, high-velocity blowouts and more delicate forays." --Peter Margasak (Chicago Reade…
** In Process of Stocking ** Having crossed paths around the world many times over the years, Nate Wooley and Dave Rempis finally realized their long-time intention of forming a band together in the winter of 2014, with a lineup that can only be described as stellar. Featuring some of the leading lights of both the New York and Chicago improvised music scenes, the four members of this quartet, all internationally acclaimed players in their own right, found a common language as a unit right from …
** Edition of 75 White Vinyl ** If you’re reading this and know the incredible careers of Chris Corsano (US), David Maranha (PT) and Richard Youngs (UK) you can already imagine what you’re getting into… or maybe not. Opened up to virtually infinite possibilities, this is a blessed gathering by three of the most idiosyncratic and illuminated artists working in the sprawling field where the most defiant and unmapped music converge. Leading figures of the unnameable, each of them on his own has cre…
"Operating at an extremely high level, Smyth and Corsano share a special connection. One can almost see their thoughts syncing together and their bodies merging into one four-armed monster. Several moments are reminiscent of the best work from Cecil Taylor and Tony Oxley, while still managing to sound like Smyth and Corsano." — Burning Ambulance
“With the energy and focus on display, it is tempting to compare the meeting to two heavyweights coming toe-to-toe, prepared to slug it out… but that wo…
**First pressing of 175 copies with red cassette shells** The longer one works as an artist, the more secure one’s own identity becomes — whether visual, sonic, textual, or otherwise, the goal is to be clearly oneself. It may seem overly simple to cut the fat and center on creation and individuality, but considering those who have gone before and died for their art, the gambit seems far from easy. Saxophonist and photographer Rodrigo Amado (b. 1964, Lisbon) has worked in two different but relate…
**200 copies** Already sold-out at the label, numbered edition in silkscreened covers by Alan Sherry. Personnel: Susan Alcorn - pedal steel; Chris Corsano - drums; Bill Nace - guitar. Recorded September 5. 2018 live at Rotunda Philadelphia, PA.
This recording from the earlier years of Cafe Oto documents the impossible pairing of four contemporary giants. It's the reason the venue opened in the first place, for miraculous one-off groupings like this. "The magic of the first minutes -- an alto solo by Joe McPhee of true purity -- soft-spoken, masterful and accomplished -- brought back to mind the blissful Coleman/Haden duet last year at the Royal Festival Hall. 'Ornette gave me freedom to move in a certain way,' said McPhee. He searched …
The newest installment in Unrock’s ongoing Saraswati Series is the most rebellious and wildest to date. Again an intercontinental output. A dangerous, electric brew filled with exotic aroma from Cairo’s sound guerilla, Alan Bishop (Sun City Girls), Maurice Louca (Karkhana) and Sam Shalabi (Land of Kush, Karkhana). The always changing face of Dwarfs of East Agouza, shows them in a feverish mode and adrenalin rush. Massive eruptions fight genuine flow. Sultans of Unrock. Chris Corsano and Bill Or…
My first listen to these four extraordinary pieces by Chris Corsano, Bill Nace, and Steve Baczkowski was over a very rough ferry crossing from Cairnryan to Belfast. It's hard not to think of the ghosts of impossible crossings, victories, loses, harbors in such rough waters. Why would anyone venture out here? Finding something new or an overdue visit? Ending all of the wars? For me, for my first listen to Mystic Beings instantly cured all motion sickness. It was probably just the very welcome adr…
Great dedicated music by four strong individual players, brought together by Rodrigo Amado -- intense communication with room for outbreaking solo-parts but always held together through a vision of playing together, all the time exiting and interwoven with beautiful melodies. Personnel: Rodrigo Amado - tenor saxophone; Joe McPhee - pocket trumpet, soprano saxophone; Kent Kessler - double bass; Chris Corsano - drums.
"More than a decade since their first (and last) trio album, Dim Bulb (2005), 'Buffalo Steve,' Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty are back on the attack. The three recorded as part of a larger ensemble on the Open Mouth LP, Wrong Number
(2014), but they have a certain way of creating focused trio dynamics
that makes babies talk in tongues and old men drool. The line-up is a
bit unorthodox -- two saxes (one a goddamn baritone) and drums. You
might almost be tempted to call the format European. B…
2016 release. When David Greenberger first embarked on what has become a life-long journey, drummer Chris Corsano was not yet five years old! In 1979, after graduating from art school in Boston, Greenberger took the job of activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home, an all-male elder care facility in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and began collecting the stories, poems and music reviews of its aged patients for what became his Duplex Planet project, an undertaking that would eventually…
Wherein we come upon three visceralists who have been collaborating for years - innumerable instances in a roulette wheel of settings -- finally shacking up in a studio and fashioning a proper trio record. Glory be. Let's listen in-- 'These.' It's a phrase that never gets started, and an apt title for this record, which right off bolts from the barn and burns so brightly it nearly gets away from you by the time you're done twisting your head around looking for whoever it was that left the …
Beside Trost releasing artists Chris Corsano (projects with Akira Sakata, Massimo Pupillo, Joe McPhee, and Mette Rasmussen, to name a few) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (The Thing), with this new formation, the label works with the active US cellist and composer Daniel Levin. Daniel Levin is "one of the outstanding cellists working in the vanguard arena" (All About Jazz), "ridiculously fluent, virtually overflowing with ideas" (New York City Jazz Record), and "very much the man to watch" (Penguin G…
That guitarist Bill Orcutt & drummer Chris Corsano would play as a duo should come as a surprise to no one. As artists, both of them have bent sonic boundaries to the breaking point, especially as regards rock-based music, and they have long flowed through the same international sub-underground arteries. It was only a matter of time. The first fruit of their union was a brain melting LP called The Raw & The Cooked (2013), recorded on tour in 2012. Live at Various / Various Live is made up o…