Paul Flaherty has a long-standing penchant for pairing prosperously with powerhouse drummers. His past partners have included percussion dynamos Randall Colbourne and Chris Corsano. But the recorded results are sometimes hard to come by given their limited circulation on tiny independent labels like Zaabway and Ecstatic Yod. Marc Edwards fits well as a member of that strongman fraternity, his sticks having supplied rippling rhythmic muscle for both Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware. His own albums at the helm have been few in number but notable, particularly a CIMP date with Sabir Mateen and Hill Greene, which thanks to the early bass-stifling acoustics of the Spirit Room, was more duo than trio. Flaherty’s go-for-broke philosophy on horns demands this sort of assertive, sedulous support. A shrinking violet behind the kit would all but certainly buckle and flatten under the saxophonist’s blitz.
In this respect and others Flaherty is like an American equivalent to Brötzmann, a comparison no doubt conjectured before. Both men hold no compunction when it comes to blowing their respective stacks. Their horns are means to an end, not habiliments handled with care and diplomacy. But each tempers his shouts and bellows with bouts of melancholy and even melody, albeit the latter often wrung through the wringer. Like his German counterpart, Flaherty loves to burrow and root in the bowels of his instruments, especially tenor, unearthing wide-girthed atonal slabs that explode like pockets of natural gas ignited by a steam shovel spark. Texture and timbre also play crucial parts There’s plenty of room for him to engage in such excavations on this set, the first of two volumes documenting a confab with Edwards in, of all places, a Pubic Television Station studio (the natural addendum question being: was it aired?).
Improvisation nourishes all six tracks. “Dark Desert” gathers velocity like a sand-blasting sirocco, Edwards’ sticks whipping dervish rhythms across skin and cymbal surfaces. Flaherty’s tenor unleashes a stream of scalding multiphonics, eventually tapering into a gnarled point that etches at the edges of melody. Simmer to boil marks the strategy on “Small Doorway” where Edwards manages to generate a whirlpool force on nothing but brushes and kick drum. Flaherty chews through another reed, this time affixed in alto mouthpiece, blowing a surge of overtones that sound almost like Dunmallian bagpipe sonorities. Again the Brötzmann parallel is powerful and conspicuous as the pair traffic in emotion-on-sleeve sincerity. “Amrita” scales back the momentum significantly. Edwards crafts a sparse clip-clop cadence and the track’s brief five-and-half minutes amble by as feature for Flaherty’s more measured and lyrical side.
“Janagama” benefits from more Flaherty firepower, but falters under Edwards’ numbingly static beat. “Mahabharasta” detonates as the filibuster closer. Edwards erects a tumult-filled backdrop while Flaherty digs in, long blustering breaths singeing the curved corridors of his horn. By the time the disc slides to a stop it’s a wonder there’s any lacquer left unblackened by the furnace-hot onslaught. This is just one of several recent discs with Flaherty in the front line. Others include a date with Corsano and saxophonist Steve Baczkowski on Wet Paint, and an outing by the possibly one-off Jumala Quintet where Flaherty crosses horns with Joe McPhee. As exciting as all the activity is, it also heightens yearning for another match-up that might be even more momentous. A teaming with Brötzmann seems long overdue.
~ Derek Taylor
Posted by derek on May 26, 2005 3:34 PMNicely written review, Derek. I saw Flaherty once (with Corsano) and I liked it a lot, but it was enough Flaherty for one lifetime for my purposes. I prefer dynamic contrasts in my music.
Reading this made me think of Todd Whitman, another "Brötzmann of America" type figure, and given he lives in Buffalo, NY, I'd reckon he'd be an even more natural partner for Flaherty, though for all I know they've already played together. I haven't heard Whitman enough to say whether I actually like it—I'm not optimistic based on the limited data of a few short one-off sets in High Zero—but his tone is pretty sick and miraculous, pretty much in the category of DSW, Flaherty, Brötzmann, etc in that specific way.
whitman is awesome.
Posted by: faster at May 27, 2005 7:12 AMI have three or four Flaherty discs - The Hated Music, with Corsano, which I bust out when Charles Gayle seems too timid for the moment; Sannyasi, with Corsano and the trumpeter Greg Kelley; and The Dim Bulb, which is mentioned in your review. I think I like the latter disc the best, because Baczkowski's baritone playing adds something unexpected to the shriek 'n' clatter. I had Flaherty's solo disc, and that Cold Bleak Heat album, but neither really got me going the way the smaller ensembles do. I might have to check out this one you've reviewed.
Posted by: pdf at May 27, 2005 7:28 AMyeah great duo on kaivalya 1. Playing on Taran's Free Jazz Hour: www.tfjh.blogspot.com
taran
Agreed with Phil - Dim Bulb is a regular brain-fry (if that's what you like). I was a bit disappointed with the Jumala 5tet disc on Clean Feed though. On the other hand, I thought Cold Bleak Heat rocked out, especially Kelley.
Posted by: Dan Warburton at May 30, 2005 11:35 AMI’ve not heard/heard of Todd Whitman, but he sounds damn intriguing. Any recs in that regard?
The Hated Music has a enough heat to boil eyeballs in the skull. Haven’t heard Sannyasi, but there’s a fair amount of bullion in the Zaabway back catalog, iirc, Ottawa a duo w/ Randall Colbourne stands out. And Resonance, an ‘all-star’ jam w/ Raphé Malik, Daniel, Sabir Mateen is uneven, but has its moments.
I enjoyed the Jumala Quintet set, mainly because it defied my expectations of a full-bore blowout. Sat with ear goggles on over crash helmet, bracing for the impact of an impending sonic wave & was struck instead by the chamber style restraint of some of the interplay.
Posted by: derek at May 31, 2005 4:52 AMTodd Whitman is indeed a powerhouse player, and could not be more obscure. I've known him since 1981, when he was living in a small, burned out mining town in the lehigh valley north of philly. I began playing with him then and have continued over the years--he introduced me to the european players, of which he had a huge record collection, and was a major influence on my own playing. I see him regularly, he lives and plays in Buffalo, where he's been the past ten years or so. He has no recordings out, not even tapes. I'll write him to see if he would share some recordings.
A few years ago I made several recordings of our duo that I wanted to release as a cd, but given todd's obscurity, and since there is an extremely limited market for my own recordings, it would have been a total loss of money. However, since I began a CDR series recently just for to cover such unprofitable ventures, I have been thinking of releasing this as a CDR.
That would be great, Jack - please let us know if he agrees. The other solution is to put stuff online as free download - this is something I'm beginning to consider for Paris Transatlantic (though it's not ready yet!). I'd be happy to include material like this. BTW -excuse me for hijacking the public thread to pass a personal message - I finally got the CDR of Up for Grabs you left: super!
Posted by: Dan Warburton at May 31, 2005 9:34 PMThanks for info on Whitman, Jack. And please count me as a potential purchaser/downloader of the recordings you mentioned- they sound very intriguing.
Be wary of the 'copyright police', Dan. Some of them carry very big sticks ;)
Posted by: derek at June 1, 2005 4:30 AMI've talked with todd, in fact will see him in a week. He says yes, he is interested to have our duo come out as a cdr. I'll see if he doesn't have some solo as well to add to it.
This brings up the whole question of obscurity, and the difference of interests between musical consumers (as such) and musicians (as such), which I keep harping on. Of course there is more overlap in improvised music than any other, improvising musicians having, in my experience, a wider range of musical listening interests than any other kind of musician. Similarly, there are few non-player fans of improvisation that are exclusively loyal to the genre. Yet "as such" permits us to see a difference, and one is, that not all players want to be better known, have larger audiences, record their music and have it duplicated. Yes, obviously the vast majority do, but we have no right to assume that the music of those who resist the norm, who absent themselves from the music world, are in the dark because they have tried to enter and have been rejected. The sad truth is, all it takes to enter the music world, to get reviewed and sold and "taken seriously" is a large bank account, marketing skills, and a talent for creating a music that appeals to a certain niche. If one lacks these AND chooses not to enter that world, then it is only accidental that it will happen. So I say to the consumer (or the consumer side of the players)--allow for this gap, for the fact that some musicians may define their relation to the world individually. And I think Todd fits into this category.
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