Sick beard: Paul Flaherty

I'm not the first to say it out loud but if somebody made an impression on me this past year it has to be Paul Flaherty, the sickest beard in the biz today blowing his guts out of his reeds on a variation of albums, all completely essential. With Chris Corsano on drums, solo (Whirl of Nothingness, on Family Vineyard), with allstars Thurston Moore, Heather Leigh Murray, Corsano and Matt Heyner in Dream/Aktion Unit or in a threesome with Corsano and violin/throat tyrant Spencer C. Yeh (aka Burning Star Core).

Besides the fact the guy makes an impression based on his beard alone, his hard-edged manipulative style of playing fits perfectly well in todays musical outer edges. A bit bolder: he rules every album he plays on. Even bolder yet: he rules your life, if you'd want to.

Flaherty's earliest moves as a pro saxophoneplayer seemed to get smothered totally because of his anti stance towards any formal training and extremely punk attitude towards jazz. So he kept things on a downlow in the underground and when fellow New England crusader Chris Corsano met him some eight years ago that meeting resulted in a fabulous fire music collaboration named The Hated Music. This year saw it's follow up The Beloved Music and it's good to hear the two haven't lost their chemistry, nor their fire, on record.

Flaherty's solo album, Whirl of Nothingness is even more impressive while being extremely exhausting if you're not in the right mood for it. You can always just stare at that intriguing cover though. Beardy lament. Whirl of Nothingness is Flaherty at his most introspective, melancholic even although not often and only in contrast with reflective anger, he seems to be mad, dissapointed at something and doesn't know if it will ever change, he might be talking about life y'know.

There's two other Flaherty included albums I'm dying to talk about but don't have time for right now. Maybe I'll cough up reviews of those, A Rock in the Snow and Snow Blind Avalanche (both on the amazing Important label) in the near future.

Tonight I'll be seeing Kan Mikami, Keiji Haino and Overhang Party live. If life wasn't great already, it's gonna be this evening. Oh!