Paul Flaherty, Greg Kelley, Chris Corsano - Sannyasi
(Wet Paint)
Paul Flaherty, Greg Kelley, and Chris Corsano have very limited experience playing with one another, though the three men, all relatively based in the Boston, MA area, find such a large amount of common ground on Sannyasi that it's hard to imagine that they haven't been improvising together for years. This album, their first recording as a trio, was recorded in one day in 2001 and finds the three men playing free jazz that could peel paint with a delicacy and thoughtfulness that's constant throughout the album.
Flaherty is the decided leader of the group. His alto and tenor saxophones serve as the compass for Kelley and Corsano, and his voice is easily the most conspicuous during every track. Combining a melodic sensitivity with noisy, blustering attacks, Flaherty makes use of the lessons taught by Coletrane, Coleman, and even Brötzmann; what he lacks in an unmistakably individual sound is easily counterbalanced by his energy, resourcefulness, dexterity, and skill as an improviser. Kelley's trumpet mainly adds accents to the playing of Flaherty. His growls, trills, and splatters of bulbous sound tend to follow Flaherty's saxophones, and he does a commendable job of finding just the right type of vociferation with which to complement the many faces of Flaherty's improvisation. Corsano's percussion, while fairly standard within the realms of the "classic" free jazz sound, is well rounded and easily diverse enough to keep up with the other two men in the trio. His sound relies heavily on quick, multi-drum rolls and subtle cymbal work, but when the improvisation takes a turn that calls for something different, Corsano is usually quick to astutely find a way to gel with Kelley's sparse gurgling or a Flaherty's sustained, bubbling snarl.
Sannyasi may not present a new direction in the already jumbled family tree of improvised music, but it does feature three musicians with abundant skill and diversity of technique playing at their best. And, most importantly, it is a document of three men whose ability to communicate and intuit in an improvisatory setting is nearly unfailing, which is the factor that most often eludes even some of the most acclaimed and individual musicians improvising today.
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