This Is Not A Prayer For You [LP]

Steve Baczkowski & Chris Corsano - This Is Not A Prayer For You [LP]

'Drummer extraordinaire Chris Corsano is one of the best-known percussionists of his era as well as one of the most peripatetic musicians this side of Mike Watt (with whom he sometimes collaborates.) Saxophonist Steve Baczkowski (aka 'Buffalo Steve') tends to travel less, favoring gigs within a few hundred miles of his base in upstate New York. So although he has a heavy rep (especially on baritone), his discographical count and overall profile is lower than Corsano's. That said, the two have been friends and collaborators for many years. I think I first saw them play together as part of Thurston Moore's nine piece Dream/Aktion Unit at the 2005 Victoriaville Festival. They have also recorded together regularly, often with Paul Flaherty and/or William 'Bill' Nace. That said, This Is Not a Prayer for You documents a February 2017 session, recorded in Steve's Buffalo NY living room, representing their first recording as a duo. Chris reports they listened to Dewey Redman & Ed Blackwell's 1980 duo set, Red & Black at Willisau, before they began to play, but the skronk they came up with belongs to no one else. Steve plays both baritone and tenor (sometimes with various things jammed into their bells) while Chris handles drums, percussion and slide clarinet. Between the two of them they conjure up a hell of a beautiful racket. Steve's baritone playing has a savage mass that makes me think of Frank Wright in terms of gnarly edge and sheer force, while Chris' drumming is an example of his fleetest 'straight ahead' action, displaying an approach that is without frills while still managing to be ten places at once. The opening cut, 'Slowly Getting Rid of Everything in the Middle of the Room,' is as gorgeous a piece of sax/drum dynamism as you could ask for. And the rest of the album follows suit. The sounds range from a epic sequence of the kind of blats Han Bennink sometimes managed to coax from Brotzmann when they played in duo, to a piece, 'Even the Chairs Look Like They Are Resting,' pairing slow freak register sax-slink with Corsano's slide clarinet for artistic results. But the meat of this matter is dark and red and has to do with the interplay between two musicians who know how to stay nimble even when their playing gets hard as hell, and who never falter in their ability to listen to each other. It's a deep, immersive and thoroughly wonderful spin. I'm just glad we're able to hear it at long last." --Byron Coley

Tracks

A1. Slowly Getting Rid of Everything in the Middle of the Room
A2. A Nice and Quieting Feeling
B1. Even the Chairs Look Like They Are Resting
B2. It's Good and It's Bad
B3. Twice Removed From a Buffalo Reference