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By Fotis Nikolakopoulos
Tenor rising, drums expanding!
As George Paul’s tenor sax erupted, after brief moments of silence, into
bursts of noisy repeated phrases, provoking equally energetic responses from
Chris Corsano’s drums, the aforementioned phrase came to my mind. A
collective expanding universe of drums, various percussion objects and a
tenor saxophone. Free jazz.
We haven’t seen Chris Corsano live in Athens for some years now, so for us
Athenians it was a big event and a lot of people felt the same about this
gig as me. The rapture of this duo –totally in the magnificent tradition of
the sax-drums duos from the past- was immense, catching many of us off
guard from the very end. Someone could comment that since there is no
recording by this duo, they have forged their musical relationship the
old-fashioned way. Just by playing live together. Their performance, which
lasted for almost an hour, was divided into two sets. Not knowing what to
expect, the two musicians allowed a big flow of energy through aggressive
playing, filling the room with excitement, as I could see on many faces.
Trying to be objective when writing or reviewing is a difficult task by
itself, becoming even more difficult, I believe, when it comes to the live
experience. Their two sets where at times fragmentary, at times fully
cohesive. They , in my eyes and ears at least, that they followed an
invisible trajectory that involved pushing each other to go ahead, while
listening attentively to what each one had to say. There were no actual
solos, but, from time to time, room for both to play on their own. Phrases
and gurgles from the tenor saxophone were intertwined with Corsano’s full
use of his modified kit. Joyful noises, many of them, were followed by very
short passages of silence. But mostly aggressive, passionate playing
leading to what this music has always been about: transcendence and
catharsis.
With a tenor sax that rose over the roof and a drum set that expanded into
polyrhythmic territories…
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