Paul Flaherty
In the wake of the late 60s/early 70s free jazz diaspora, where any notion of musical freedom bit the dust along with any notion of FUN writ large (as Richard Meltzer was astutely stupe enough to point out in Autumn Rhythm) adherents of post fire music disciplines became as rare as girlfriends at power electronics festivals. New England saxophonist Paul Flaherty kept a solitary flame throughout most of the 80s and 90s, with his work with percussionist Randall Colbourne providing a phantom umbilical from the original post-Coltrane/ESP-Disk energies on through the late 90s NY jazz revival and into the 21st century's formally diffuse free music explosion.
In the wake of the late 60s/early 70s free jazz diaspora, where any notion of musical freedom bit the dust along with any notion of FUN writ large (as Richard Meltzer was astutely stupe enough to point out in Autumn Rhythm) adherents of post fire music disciplines became as rare as girlfriends at power electronics festivals. New England saxophonist Paul Flaherty kept a solitary flame throughout most of the 80s and 90s, with his work with percussionist Randall Colbourne providing a phantom umbilical from the original post-Coltrane/ESP-Disk energies on through the late 90s NY jazz revival and into the 21st century's formally diffuse free music explosion.
Wednesday Weld
Musician Paul Flaherty believes that the difference between pre-composed music and free-form improvisational music is a bifurcation of the mind, “The logical mind is reduced to a witness during free playing and the emotional mind is fully released.” Free from concept, outline or even leadership, the music is a free-form experience. This is realized on the newest release from Paul Flaherty (Tenor sax, alto sax) and his long-time collaborators Jim Matus (Electric guitar, Baritone guitar) and Larry…
Crying In Space
"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…
Touchless
Co-released in 2011, this 7" features alto saxophonist Paul Flaherty, a major American alto saxophonist active since the 1980s, and Bill Nace, head of Open Mouth, an experimental label in the same country. Includes two improvised tracks with alto and guitar, DL code included.
The Dull Blade
"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…
These
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 …
Star-Spangled Voltage
Star-Spangled Voltage captures the first meeting of Mette Rasmussen (alto saxophone) and Paul Flaherty (alto & tenor sax). Providing connective tissue behind the drums is frequent collaborator to both saxophonists, Chris Corsano, who also recorded and mixed the album. Long-time purveyors of the hated music, Flaherty & Corsano began playing together in 1998. A whole slew of records and tours followed, both as a duo and in collaboration with people like Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, Heather Leigh Mu…
Live In New Haven
Helios is typically credited for our solar well-being, but let's not forget that his four horses have been the ones doing the heavy lifting day in and day out all these years... They must have bailed on the bossman somewhere above Connecticut because on September 9, 2013 in New Haven it was not Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon but Tiger Hatchery (Ben Baker Billington, Mike Forbes, Andrew Scott Young) and Paul Flaherty who brought the heat. Neither party is any stranger to fire music: aft…
Low Cost Space Flights
2014 Release. It has been eight long years since we've had a new duo album by Paul Flaherty and Chris Corsano. The two have played together in other configurations, but we all know there has always been something special and telepathic about their duo collaborations. From the moment they began playing together late in the last century, Paul and Chris communicated in weird, deep ways. And so it is here. Low Cost Space Flights was recorded in June 2013, at Eric Gagne's 'Thing in the Spring F…
Wrong Number
Dredd Foole, vocals, Paul Flaherty, horns, Steve Baczkowski, horns, Chris Corsano, drums, Bill Nace, electric guitar.
An Airless Field
Once again teaming up with Vampire Belt bod Bill Nace, improvisational grandmaster Paul Flaherty returns for this new LP, An Airless Field, which features Nace on guitar and Flaherty on tenor and alto sax. Nace opens the LP with a sustaining, steely effects-laden wash of noise, leaving a dark, almost industrial background for Flaherty to solo over. Much of the dynamic between the two seems to involve Nace laying down vibe-heavy atmospherics while Flaherty roams freely. The counterpoint…
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…
New York Nuts & Boston Baked Beans
Violinist/vocalist C Spencer Yeh & unrivaled saxophone elder-titan Paul Flaherty team up without the assistance of acclaimed drummer Chris Corsano for the first time.Along for the jamz is bonkers Boston trumpeteer Greg Kelley. After performing numerous times and honing a distinct group dynamic as a trio over many years with celebrated percussionist Chris Corsano, Yeh and Flaherty decided to try it out one-on-one. The record comprises of the best from two live sets from a short duo tour in the No…
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…
Aria Nativa
His 3rd solo saxophone album that merges rhapsodic avant garde music, patriotic dream verse, & morality into a frighteningly pure work of audio, visual & literary sledge. Limited to 500 copies, each contain a download coupon.
Paul Flaherty / Thurston Moore / Bill Nace
Paul Flaherty has been a direct lifeline to the radical free-reed lineage of Albert Ayler, John Gilmore, Peter Brotzmann and Arthur Doyle since first coming into our vision sometime in the '80s. In the '90s he began woodshedding hard with Northampton, Massachusetts resident spirit-drummer Chris Corsano. As the contemporary free-noise-space-weird underground gathered around, minds were liberated to godhead heights. Also in the '90s a young and beautiful boy-man named Bill Nace was drawn to the re…
Bridge Out!
Don't call it a comeback. Bridge Out!, the first release in almost a decade by the duo of saxophonist Paul Flaherty and percussionist Randall Colbourne, is better thought of as a renewal, a reawakening of a collaboration which has lain dormant for too long. Joining forces in the late 1980s, these two New Englanders released over a dozen uncompromising and outlaw styled albums of avant garde jazz on their own and other labels that have since vanished into legend. Since then, Flaherty has expanded…
Whirl of Nothingness
Saxophonist Paul Flaherty is New England's purveyor of the ecstatic jazz pulse. Even before his 1978 debut, Flaherty remained unshakable in the pursuit of soul healing and demon dashing through freedom music. Whirl of Nothingness, Flaherty's second solo album, is eight pieces of alto and soprano saxophone steeped in the theme of loss channeled through blasting improvisations that showcase his fabulous wailing and inferno of sound to stark bluesy melodies. Even without drum buddies Chris Corsano …
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 lyrical, they've established their groundbreaking duo with loads of shows and a host of tremendous recordings.
When tales of C. Spencer Yeh's Burning Star Core project reached Corsano/Flaherty, the duo were eager to see him jam. Fortunately, fate brought them together at the DeStijl/Freed…