Last night (Thursday) and tonight (Friday)

Hmmm, I was worried the day would come when the template for the blog would be revamped. I guess it's here. And it's off-putting.

Last night I got to Garfield Artworks 20 minutes into Chris Corsano's set. I could've left the house earlier and caught it all, but nooooooooooo. Anyhow what I saw was astounding. And I don't use that word loosely. Corsano has an amazing technique and a wealth of ideas. He had two mallets in his right hand, one was hitting the ride cymbal and the other was hitting the floor tom. Then he did what looked like a magic trick - one of the mallets disappeared! And with the greatest of ease, he switched out that mallet for a stick.

Not only that - the guy can circular breathe! He started blowing on some plastic hose thing but I didn't realize he was going without breathing until he picked up some instrument with a sax mouthpiece on it and looked like either an Eastern reed instrument [I won't try to approximate the spelling of it] or some toy horn and pressed it to the head of the floor tom. The final piece also involved some device made of metal keys and a pick-up mike which he alternately held in his mouth and wedged in the high hat, getting some overdriven, metallic groove to the music. After melting my brain with that, he drove it home with an amazing solo all over his kit.

Around seven years ago, Corsano left an impression on me when I saw him with saxophonist Paul Flaherty. Last night reminded me that all the memories I have of his crazy technique are still accurate.

Late last night I got a message that Josh Berman and Fred Lonberg-Holm are playing at the Shop here in town. While I wish I had known sooner - in order to tell more people - I'm glad I know. If you're in Pittsburgh and reading this, check this out!