A number of drummers have figured leaving a group setting and creating some sort of studio version of what's in their own minds' seems like a good idea. And a lot of times they end up being right. Art Blakey, who isn't known as one of the most versatile dudes behind a set, recorded his Drum Suite in 1956 and '57 to good effect. And more recently, Billy Martin (from Medeski, Martin and Wood) has released a load of solo discs - occasionally focusing on break beats, but also more broadly on percussion as a full music.

Some of these drummer directed affairs - and even a lot of what gets passed off as break beat albums - are just forays into art for art's sake. Again, it's like Duchamp's toilet. How many listeners are actually going to be able to sit down and listen to forty minutes of a drummer hashing out different modes and patters that he (or she, of course) has amassed over a life time of playing? A few, I guess, but not too many.

On occasion - as with Cale Parks - drummers work to move beyond the all too limiting specter of percussion and begin playing melodic instruments. Sometimes it works. But really, these dudes are in a band for a reason.

But jazz of any kind is a difficult medium to be a part of. Even as the more left leaning bizzaro acts are now given a bit of credence, it doesn't necessarily translate into proper tours, record deals or even more basely, dollars.

If dollars were Chris Corsano's motivation, though, it would seem that pairing with  Paul Flaherty was a mistake. While the sax players name and renown have grown over time, much of his adult life has been given over to not performing music, but house painting and other assorted laborious gigs. It's only really within the last twenty years or so that Flaherty made a go of music as a full time gig. And lately, Corsano has been his percussive companion.

As a result of having a ready made audience from touring with an already established player, Corsano began featuring his dexterous kit crashing on CDrs within the last few years. And while, each set showcases the drummer in some vast expanse of metallic objects, Young Cricketer, released in 2006, seems to have been the most passed around offering.

It's hard to image the instrumental landscape set before Corsano on this date. There seem to be endless and competing noises from whatever drum is closest to his flailing stick hands. But even with this, the music sounds remarkably precise.

Comprised of a series of short and pretty aurally disparate tracks, Young Cricketer comes off less like a disc of percussion, but a series of musical ideas. Surprisingly, there's stuff on here - apart from a few interspersed horns - that don't sound like percussion instruments. And the series of noises that Corsano strangles out of some of his equipment should leave even Flaherty confused. This isn't sample ready music, but sample it readily.