2012 MIDWEST TOUR

Jan 28 at Kranzberg Arts Center in St. Louis, MO. Trio with Dave Stone.
Jan 29 at Nachbar in Louisville, KY. Duo then Quartet with Tim Barnes and Steve Good.
Jan 30 at Mecca (new location) in Lexington, KY.
Jan 31 at Russian Recording Studio in Bloomington, IN.
Feb 1 at The Black Sparrow in Lafayette, IN.
Feb 2 at Improvised Music Series at Elastic in Chicago, IL. Trio with Mars Williams.
Feb 3 at Audio for the Arts in Madison, WI.
Feb 4 at The Sugar Maple in Milwaukee, WI.
Feb 5 at The Hungry Brain in Chicago, IL. Duo, trio and quintet with Michael Zerang, Dave Rempis and Joshua Abrams.
click here for past Chikamorachi shows


BIOGRAPHY

Since 2005 Darin Gray (upright bass) and Chris Corsano (drums) have performed side by side as Chikamorachi. Working either in a trio with saxophonist Akira Sakata or a quartet that adds Jim O'Rourke on guitar, they've released six albums to date, including 2011's And That's the Story of Jazz double CD and Live at Hungry Brain LP. The high-speed empathy that Gray and Corsano have developed over the years will be brought to the fore in 2012, when the duo strike out on their own for a tour of the Midwest. Neither member is a stranger to the possibilities afforded when the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic duties are left to an upright bass and drum duo. Gray's group On Fillmore with Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche has been going strong for the past ten years. For his part, Corsano has gigged and recorded as a duo with double bassists John Edwards and Matt Heyner.

Darin Gray is best known as Jim O’Rourke’s go-to bassist for nearly 20 years, as half of the duo On Fillmore, and as the bassist for Grand Ulena, Dazzling Killmen, and Brise-Glace. As an improviser he has performed and recorded with among others: Loren Connors, Masami Akita (Merzbow), Josh Abrams, Jason Roebke, Axel Dorner, Kevin Drumm, Alan Licht, Thollem Mcdonas, and Jim O'Rourke. As a session bassist he has played on recordings by Will Oldham, Cheer-Accident, Rope, Bobby Conn, Daneilson Family, Early Day Miners, Bunnygrunt, Jim O'Rourke, etc... He has toured extensively in the United States, Japan, Brazil, Canada, and Europe.

Chris Corsano began a long-standing, high-energy partnership with saxophonist Paul Flaherty in 1998. A move from western Massachusetts, USA to the UK in 2005 led Chris to develop a solo music of his own, incorporating sax reeds, violin strings, pot lids, adhesive tape and other household devices into his drum kit. 2007 and '08 were spent as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour. Returning back to the U.S. in 2009, Corsano shifted focus back to his own projects, most notably a duo with Michael Flower, Rangda (with Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and solo work. In addition to the those mentioned above, he's also worked with, among others, Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall, Nels Cline, Joe McPhee, Jessica Rylan, Jandek and Sunburned Hand Of Man.

click for high resolution version photo credit: Jack Bevan

click for high resolution version photo credit: Charles Harris

click for high resolution version

click for high resolution version

AUDIO & VIDEO

* Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi - Live at Hungry Brain - Wild Chickens in Lake M. (excerpt)
* Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi - Friendly Pants - Friendly Pants (excerpt)
* Akira Sakata & Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi - Hanamaki (excerpt)
* Akira Sakata & Chikamorachi - Live at 2009 Perspectives Festival in Vasteras, Sweden. video clip

QUOTES

"Chikamorachi is drummer Chris Corsano and bassist Darin Gray, now regular partners of the Japanese free jazz veteran [Akira Sakata]....Corsano's playing is meticulous and highly detailed, not so much polyrhythms as an elaborately extended and embellished line. The cantorial expressiveness and reassuring throb of Gray's playing is at times strikingly reminiscent of David Izenson." - Brian Morton, The Wire on Live at Hungry Brain

"The rhythm team of Darin Gray & Chris Corsano is especially incredible, ever-engaging, consistently creative and supportive." - Bruce Lee Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery, on And That's the Story of Jazz

"Sakata can still play the hell out of the alto sax and he tears through registers with all of the beautiful force of a Noah Howard or Marion Brown. Corsano is, of course, explosive throughout, playing at breakneck speed through Sakata's wild soloing while Gray wraps his strings all the way around the kit. Excellent." - David Keenan, Volcanic Tongue on Friendly Pants

"By 2006, O’Rourke had enough of a reputation that he could choose whatever musicians he wanted to drag over to Japan, and he picked some good ones: virtuosos Chris Corsano on drums (a sometimes Bjork collaborator) and Darin Gray on bass form a powerful improvisational unit known as Osorezan." - Erik Gundel, PopMatters on Mimidokodesuka

"The trio work as one, capturing the elegant strokes of jazz's heyday without completely abandoning new world charm. It's a tender balancing act; one Sakata, Corsano, and Gray have mastered well through numerous collaborations and releases, but it all comes to glorious fruition within Friendly Pants." -  Justin Spicer, Brainwashed

"...The Americans are in fine form, overdriving the music as usual, Corsano's speed drumming remaining one of the marvels of the modern music world." - Francois Couture, All-Music on Friendly Pants

"...The Corsano/Gray rhythm section is also at its best when all hell breaks loose, as in "In Case, Let's Go To Galaxy". But in stark contrast to this, the music can be gentle, sweet even, without using fixed patterns or rhythms, just letting it all flow quite meditatively and free, as on "Un", or finding the right level in between, in a kind of post-boppish mode, where the rhythm section does drive things forward, and Sakata plays the most beautiful melodic lines, as in "That Day Of Rain." - Friendly Pants review on Free Jazz-Stef blog


DISCOGRAPHY
Chikamorachi:
* Jim O'Rourke-Akira Sakata Oyobare/Tetrodotoxin CD (Japan, Polystar, 2005)
* Jim O'Rourke-Akira Sakata Explosion CD (Japan, Polystar, 2006)
* Osorezan [Jim O'Rourke-Darin Gray-Chris Corsano] Mimidokodesuka CD (Japan, Polystar, 2006) / (LP/CD reissue: Drag City, 2008)
* Jitsuroku: Rengo Sekigun original soundtrack to the film by Wakamatsu Koji CD (Japan, Solid Records, 2008) Featuring the pieces "All at Once and Once for All" by O'Rourke-Sakata-Corsano-Gray and "Headlight Like a Sun" by Sakata-Corsano-Gray
* Akira Sakata and Chikamorachi Friendly Pants CD (Japan, Shakaijin/Columbia, 2007) / (reissue: Family Vineyard, 2009)
* Makino Takahashi Still in Cosmos Video installation at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum (2009) 18min, color, sound by Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi
* Akira Sakata and Chikamorachi Live at Hungry Brain LP (Family Vineyard, 2011)
* Akira Sakata and Jim O'Rourke with Chikamorachi And That's the Story of Jazz 2CD (Family Vineyard, 2011)

Individual Selected Discographies:
Chris Corsano
* Flaherty-Corsano Duo The Hated Music CD (Ecstatic Yod, 2001)
* Chris Corsano The Young Cricketer CDR (Hot Cars Warp, 2006) / LP reissue (Family Vineyard, 2008)
* Flower-Corsano Duo Radiant Mirror CD/LP (FR, Textile TCD11/TLP11, 2007)
* Björk Volta CD (One Little Indian/Atlantic, 2007)
* Jandek Manhattan Tuesday 2CD (Corwood 0788, 2007)
* Evan Parker-John Edwards-Chris Corsano A Glancing Blow CD (Portugal, 2007)
* Thurston Moore Quartet (T. Moore, W. Shoup, P. Flaherty, C. Corsano) The Roadhouse Session Vol. 1 CD (Japan, Shakaijin/Columbia, 2007)
* John Edwards-Chris Corsano Tsktsking LP (UK, Dancing Wayang, 2009)
* Joe McPhee-Chris Corsano Under a Double Moon LP (Roaratorio, 2011)
* Nate Wooley-Chris Corsano-C. Spencer Yeh Seven Storey Mountain CD (Important Records, 2011)
Darin Gray
* Dazzling Killmen "Killing Fever" 7inch (Skin Graft, 1990)
* Yona Kit (with KK Null, Jim O'Rourke and Thymme Jones) s/t CD/LP (Skin Graft, 1995)
* Jim O'Rourke Bad Timing CD/LP (Drag City, 1997)
* Jim O'Rourke Halfway to a Threeway CD/LP (Drag City, 1998)
* Jim O'Rourke Eureka CD/LP (Drag City, 1999)
* Loren Mazzacane Connors and Darin Gray The Lost Mariner CD (Family Vineyard, 1999)
* Jim O'Rourke Insignificance CD/LP (Drag City, 2001)
* Darin Gray St. Louis Shuffle CD (Family Vineyard, 2002)
* Grand Ulena Gateway to Dignity (Family Vineyard, 2003)
* On Fillmore Sleeps with Fishes CD (Quakebasket, 2004)
* On Fillmore Extended Vacation CD (Dead Oceans, 2009)

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