Aria Nativa is more than Flaherty's third solo saxophone album; it merges rhapsodic avant garde music, patriotic dream verse, and mortality into a frighteningly pure work of audio, visual and literary sledge. Recorded during a pair of 2007 performances, its four pieces capture lifeblood in stunning detail from foot stomps to gut hollers and crowd roars as Flaherty's free power blues dips into the well of wretchedness and raises with fists of mirth. It's the sorta record that splays naked the artist for all: equal parts wise ass and universal vision.
From his early 1970s woodshedding through a dozen plus albums each with drum buddies Randall Colburne and Chris Corsano, and collaborators Bill Nace, Wally Shoup and Sunburned Man of the Hand, Flaherty remains a total wildcat -- on and off the alto/tenor horns. For this LP his massive tonal craft is equally matched by Ken Hill's gorgeous cover shot of a snow blown grave and “No More America" -- Ken DelPonte's epic poem that spans nearly five decades and fills the back jacket, framing the atmosphere the music was recorded under.
Each 500 copies of the LP contain a download coupon for MP3 version of the album that includes a bonus track of “No More America" read by the author.
The LP will be available at fine independent record stores world wide and various on-line merchants. iTunes, eMusic and other digital retailers will carry the downloadable version.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
