Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano: No Place to Fall

11

Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano: No Place to Fall

By

View read count
Rodrigo Amado & Chris Corsano: No Place to Fall
Did you know that besides his talents as a saxophonist and composer, Rodrigo Amado is also a professional photographer? His camera captures an instant in time and preserves it for eternity. Now compare his photographs' frozen moments against the seemingly perpetual motion that is this free jazz set with drummer Chris Corsano. This juxtaposition of static and dynamic calls to mind the Chinese Yin and Yang symbol, or how opposites can actually be complementary, connected and interdependent. But then again, we are investigating jazz here.

Amado and Corsano have recorded together, This Is Our Language (Not Two Records, 2015) and A History of Nothing (Trost Records, 2018), in a quartet setting with Joe McPhee and Kent Kessler. Even though this disc was recorded between the above sessions, it feels as if the previous quartet recordings act as prologue, and blessing for this session.

Amado certainly displays his admiration for Joe McPhee's music here, especially his early recordings, and even McPhee's duo Dream Defenders (MNÓAD, 2012) with Corsano. The disc (also available as a cassette and download) opens with thunderous room clearing "Announcement." Both musicians exhaust themselves with wave upon wave of energy music, as if to declare, "who is with us?" Not that the pair dial back their vigor, but "Don't Take It Too Bad" enters in sotto voice. Amado's tenor plies breathy notes against quiet tom-tom drumming in a piece that builds momentum by trading off each other's energy. If Amado's photography captures a static image, Corsano's drumming is the converse. He is in constant motion, like if Paal Nilssen-Love was fused with Elvin Jones. The title track is squeezed out with blurts and blasts of notes that draw inspiration from both early tenor titans and 1960s free players. By the time Corsano enters with this rumbling attack, the pair have ignited a forest fire of sound. "Still with us?" they ask, then deliver two more tracks, the final "We'll Be Here In The Morning," a bone-tired bluesy psalm. It is certainly worth the wait.

Track Listing

Announcement; Don't Take It Too Bad; No Place To Fall; Into The Valley; We’ll Be Here In The Morning.

Personnel

Rodrigo Amado: tenor saxophone; Chris Corsano: drums.

Album information

Title: No Place to Fall | Year Released: 2019 | Record Label: Astral Spirits

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Tramonto
John Taylor
Ki
Natsuki Tamura / Satoko Fujii
Duality Pt: 02
Dom Franks' Strayhorn
The Sound of Raspberry
Tatsuya Yoshida / Martín Escalante

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.