Member Since: 3/12/2007
Band Members: STEVE BACZKOWSKIbaczkowski by tambata
Influences: YES
Sounds Like:
Corsano/Baczkowski 2
CORSANO/BACZKOWSKI DUO - LIVE AT THE TRANZAC IN TORONTO 9/9/07
a note from Byron Coley in '05: "Dim Bulb" is not a word pair traditionally thrown around in praise. I mean, think about it. The gist of the phrase is what? You are not very bright and a baldie, to boot. And I mean, I kinda get the baldie part. Both Corsano and Flaherty are known for their lack of tonsorial topping, but Baczkowski has so much hair it looks like he's wearing a goddamn wig! So you have to wonder if Paul and Chris are kinda making fun of Steve, because they've been on so fucking many albums and he hasn’t. It's a puzzler! And the dim part just doesn't register at all. Like, yeah, the baritone sax has a sorta dark low tone to it, and I suppose you could call that "dim" if you weren't very fluent with English. But these guys are all Anglos of long standing, so WHAT THE FUCK?
Anyway, for reasons of their own, they call this album The Dim Bulb. And it is really a goddamn churning duck of a session. Baczkowski has made some incredible appearances at various subterranean haunts across the Northeast over the last few years, but this is the first time (apart from a super limited CDR) that his baritone bonhomie has been available for home use. And he sounds totally choice. Not many guys are up to the chore of really blowing the stuffing out of a baritone (Charles Tyler, Hamiet Bluiett, Peter Brotzmann, Charlie Kolhase, and not too many others come to mind), but Baczkowski not only blows the living shit out of his here, but he does so after having bicycled to the gig with the instrument in question strapped to his back. Flaherty is still shaking his head about it. But Baczkowski has a kinda iron man rep in his beloved Buffalo. He helps lotsa avant players get gigs there, bikes all over the place and plays like a storm.
The three pieces here are wonderful gobs of instant composition, recorded at Hallwalls in Buffalo in May, 2003. Many people have had the pleasure of witnessing Corsano and Flaherty destroy the universe over the last few years. Their shows as a duo (or as part of a larger ensemble) have achieved legendary status in many quarters. Paul is a massive generator of sideways tonal aggression on both tenor and alto, and Corsano has kinda turned himself into some sorta human drum kit. I don't know how else to really describe the way that he has absorbed the instrument. Lately we've been trying to think of things that he can't do. But the bastard always dashes our theories the very next time we see him. When he and Paul play together it is always exciting and Transcendental in the best New England tradition. The addition of Baczkowski puts them in some of the best company with which they've yet traveled.
Because it is as big as a horse, the baritone is underutilized and when it is used, it is generally underblown. But there is none of that sparrow-fart stuff when Steve is playing. Listen to the woozy, Ayler-esque quality of his tone at the begining of "Soaking in Gravel and Shale." Hear the way that Chris' drums collapse around him while he works at turning his horn into something like a train-sized harmonica, before Paul comes busting in like a bantam rooster on amphetamines. The size of the sound these three generate, it's width, it's depth, it's feverish pulse, I mean, it just feels natural. It's like the music of TEN apes!
The other two tracks are equally dope. "Return to the Pasture of Ants and Sweet Rapture" seesaws back and forth between event and reaction like a flock of geese chasing a kite made of corn. There are layers of fluid displacement here that make the trio sound as organic as they are ferocious. "No Boat Will Ever Come," the album's magnum opus, is a bruising experience, not unlike discovering a charred ghost of the Giussepi Logan Ensemble sparring with Ben Webster on a very soft cloud.
And if that ain't yr cup of chowder, well, I don't know what to say. Just don't call these bulbs dim. -Byron Coley Deerfield MA, 2005
Record Label: RUBYRED EDITORA, IMPORTANT, QBICO, UTECH, WETPAINT