Chris Corsano
Chris Corsano (b. 1975, USA) is a New York-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990's. He's been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of "jazz" (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and "rock" (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O'Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk for her Volta album and world tour, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee).
Chris Corsano (b. 1975, USA) is a New York-based drummer who has been active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and experimental music since the late 1990's. He's been the rim-batterer of choice for some of the greatest contemporary purveyors of "jazz" (Joe McPhee, Paul Flaherty, Mette Rasmussen, Zoh Amba) and "rock" (Sir Richard Bishop, Bill Orcutt, Jim O'Rourke), as well as artists beyond categorization (Björk for her Volta album and world tour, Michael Flower, Okkyung Lee).
Scraps And Shadows
Scraps And Shadows is the second album by the dream pairing of Joe McPhee and Chris Corsano. A follow-up to Under A Double Moon, which featured McPhee’s alto saxophone, Scraps And Shadows finds him largely on tenor. Recorded live in Milwaukee in 2011, the album consists of seven dedicatory pieces, from the delicate balladry of “For Adrienne P” to the appropriately combustible “For Han Bennink.” Corsano’s stupendously detailed drumming and McPhee’s free-soul love cries weave a master latti…
The Count Visits
"Recorded at Brooklyn's Issue Project Room, this live burble features Flower on Japan Banjo, Corsano on tubs and Heyner (or Bobby McGee or Count 'fucking' Chocula or whatever he's calling himself here) doubling on bass (three tracks) and tubs (one track). Corsano's in his ferocious carpet bomb mode, laying down a thick lumpy rug of imaginary bubble wrap for the others to prance upon, and prance they do. Flower's doing a kind of China Pig upward spiraling wail on his axe, and Heyner (I mea…
The seven storey mountain
Brilliant second album from Nate Wooley's Seven Storey Mountain project. David Grubbs and Paul Lytton have been replaced by Chris Corsano and C. Spencer Yeh (Burning Star Core, New Monuments)."This second recording of Seven Storey Mountain is what I hoped the series would be, a chance to try to find different ways of creating something over the same basic ideas (tape manipulation, long forms with simple written musical directions, an attempt to reach some sort of musical ecstaticism) with differ…
Under a double moon
With a career now spanning over 40 years and more than 100 recordings, Joe McPhee has shown that emotional content and theoretical underpinnings are thoroughly compatible — and in fact, a critically important pairing — in the world of creative improvised music. Since recording The Hated Music with Paul Flaherty in 2000, Chris Corsano has been hyper-active in far-reaching corners of the free improvised world. Under A Double Moon, recorded live in Paris during a spring 2010 tour of Europe, i…
Identical Sunsets
"Best known for his collaborations with people like Paul Flaherty, Michael Flower and Thurston Moore as well as a year-and-a-half stint as the drummer for Björk's Volta tour, Chris Corsano is widely considered to be one of the best and most adaptive drummers of his generation. Equally adaptive is UK saxophone giant, Paul Dunmall, who has worked disparately with jazz greats like Alice Coltrane and Evan Parker as well as funk and folk acts like Johnny Guitar Watson and Dando Shaft. After a…
Tsktsking
In improvised music, double bass and drums have a very different role to that in rock or jazz. Freed of the duties of “the rhythm section,” they are featured as much as any other instrument, without having to wait in line for their turn to solo. They are equal partners in the collective enterprise of music making. Bassists or drummers who have arrived at improv via rock or jazz often seem to relish the freedom they are afforded and become more extroverted. One need look no further than Ha…
Another Dull Dawn
When Chris Corsano turned 6 years old, I already begged him on my wounded knees to record an LP for Ultra eczema. He played it cool, was clearly annoyed but remained polite. From then on (he is now 46) I would email him the same question daily. I slept in a tent in front of his house, sent him letters every week, had all his different cell phone numbers, I even gave him new clothes, though he kept wearing his fully blue outfit. Much like Michael Jackson, corsano, the last drummer on earth, alway…
The Live in Lisbon
What happens when two stars collide? An interstellar collaboration out of this galaxy! Here in this new fantastic LP from Virginia Genta (of Jooklo fame) and Chris Corsano (arguably considered 'the last drummer on earth'), both musicians put blood, sweat, and lots of muscle into three new wildly charged cuts!!!! The album begins at sunset on a terrace in Lisbon (Summer 2008) with ferocious sax and drums escalating as the sun sets with Chris' incredible drum solo leaving everyone in a trance, whi…
The Dim Bulb
Baritone player Steve Baczkoski hails from Buffalo, rides his bike to gigs with his horn on his back (it's a baritone for Christ's sake!), and wails harder than most sax players either 1/2 or double his age or anywhere in between. This is a live recording of a this trio's first show, May 31st, 2003.
Bounced Check
Wally Shoup, Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty make up this screamin' free punk jazz liquid solid noize trio captured LIVE 'in your face' style in Seattle, WA. 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. Recorded at an art gallery with artwork melting off the walls and frightened fans nervously mopping their furrowed blood-stained brows (they were especially afraid one or both o…
The Young Cricketer
The Young Cricketer is Chris Corsano's debut of Frankenstein-gamelan skin detail. It's a monster and a babe all wrapped under the guise of The Solo Drum Album. Corsano's flea-market kit of cast-iron pot lids, super-bouncy-balls on sticks, butter knives, and even a sax mouth-piece jammed-in-a-hose conjures a part rhythmic maelstrom, like a Milford Graves drip painting, and the sweet metallic ice drones of Tony Conrad and Keiji Haino rubbing sticks together until end days. Globally known for a doz…
Full Bottle
"It's not a church anymore, it's an ex-church, it's used now for cultural purpose, not for praying and religious madness anymore", those are the exact words some random anxious pedestrian yelled at Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty, trying to stop them from putting the St. John Renaissance Theater in Louisville, Kentucky on fire, Paul Flaherty used his long grey beard to start the fire and blew as high as he could with a rusted tenor and alto saxophone, the flames went high, but not high enough fo…
Slow blind avalanche
Snow blind avalanche is a completely different album than A Rock In The Snow also being released on Important though the two records were made during the same sessions. This vinyl only release is limited to 1000 copies with the first 200 on snow-white vinyl. Artwork by C. Spencer Yeh. Liner notes from Wolf Eyes bro John Olson aka Johnny Coors. The Flaherty-Corsano-Yeh power trio have emerged on album with a dual format dual release for Important. Snow blind avalanche finds the Flaherty-Corsano-Y…
A rock in the snow
Together Chris Corsano and Paul Flaherty have re-written the concept of modern free-jazz with their post-hardcore punk style approach of euphoric togetherness. Ferocious, spontaneous, explosive and aggressively lyric they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings. Liner notes by John Olson (aka Johnny Coorz!).