Williams / Gray / Corsano
Elastic
Purchase HERE
Free Jazz Collective review HERE
NYC Jazz Record review HERE
The Wire review HERE
When Mars Williams dove into his vault to excavate several recordings for a Mars Archive series on Corbett vs. Dempsey, he immediately landed on a concert date from a decade earlier. The event, recorded at Chicago's Elastic Arts Foundation in 2012, featured a trio with Williams on reed instruments, Darin Gray on bass, and Chris Corsano on drums. This configuration had already been highly enough estimated by Williams that he'd posted one set on Bandcamp, but he saved the other set for future release, and selected it to be the third CD in CvsD's archival suite. Gray is of course well known to creative music insiders for his work with Jim O'Rourke and Akira Sakata, and as half of On Fillmore (with Glenn Kotche, of Wilco fame); he's a massively resourceful player with keen ears. Corsano is one of the hardest working percussionists in improvised music who has played with everyone under the sun, among them Joe McPhee and Okkyung Lee. In this freely improvised context, the threesome works almost as a single organism, spinning sounds that develop organically and patiently. Dave Zuchowski documented the date in a gorgeous recording. This is creative music at an exceptionally high level, with no gimmicks or compromises. Taken together with the other episodes in the Mars Archive series, it helps paint a fullsome picture of the restless creativity that was embodied in Mars Williams.
- SET ONE 1 (8:56)
- SET ONE 2 (PART A) (10:07)
- SET ONE 2 (PART B) (5:10)
- SET ONE 2 (PART C) (6:52)
- SET ONE 3 (12:56)
Mars Williams, reeds, toys
Darin Gray, bass
Chris Corsano, drums
All music by Williams, Gray, and Corsano
Recorded by Dave Zuchowski at Elastic Arts Foundation, February 2, 2012.
Mixed and mastered by Dave Zuchowski. Cover image by Timothy Howe.
Design by David Khan-Giordano. Produced by Mars Williams.
CvsDCD107