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zorn-list Digest          Tuesday, 21 January 1997      Volume 02 : Number 053

In this issue:

    Ruins
    Re: Voodoo
    Zorn promo ixnays
    zorn reviews
    Re: Cadence and other reviewers
    Re: zorn reviews
    Re: Cadence and other reviewers
    Cobra comparisons
    Re: Tom Cora 's Roof
    Next batch of Tzadik releases
    Re: Cadence and other reviewers
    book of heads
    Re: Cobra comparisons
    Frith article.
    Re: Tzadik Festival 97
    Re: Zorn/Canada ?
    Re: Zorn a fake?
    Re: Next batch of Tzadik releases
    Re: book of heads

See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the zorn-list
or zorn-list-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Matt Walsh <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 97 15:56:00 PST
Subject: Ruins

Hey folks,
   I recently bought the Ruins CD "Hyderomastgroningem". Well, I when I
opened the CD case I noticed that the CD was not placed in the "holder"
correctly (which happens in manufacturing fairly often). Well, much to my
suprise when I took the CD out of the case I realized that it wasn't in
the holder because there was another CD there. Unfortunately it was not a
second disc of different music, the manufacturing machine must have
accidentally put a second copy of the CD in there. Did this happen to
anyone else or am I just lucky? I guess this makes up for the times where
I bought a CD to find out it wasn't in there, or the wrong CD was in
there, or the music on the CD was different than what was printed (all of
these have happened to me at least once).
  I guess my point is, anyone want to buy or trade for a copy of
"Hyderomastgroningem"? (no cover, obviously - but I'll be nice and supply
a jewel case). Fantastic disc, highly reccomended.

Matt Walsh
[e-mail]

Currently annoying co-workers with: Anthrophobia - "Framework"

------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Steve Smith)
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 17:46:03 -0500
Subject: Re: Voodoo

>Sorry to have shocked anybody by bringing up Voodoo. I think it's a cool
>record. I was just trying to imagine how some bop head might hear it and
>find it inept rather than original, the same way a lot of reviewers dogged
>Braxton's In the Tradition.

I had a very trad bop friend back in San Antonio during my college radio
years... his tastes were very Phil Woods / Richie Cole, but when I played
him "Voodoo" he really dug it.  Thought Zorn sounded a lot like Rahsaan
Roland Kirk, actually...

>Like, I haven't seen any reviews saying Zorn can't play, but I've hardly
>seen any reviews in proportion to his prolific output.

Probably more to do with Zorn's no-promos policy than reviewers not wanting
to write something about his stuff.  What few reviews did get out tended to
happen because Sphere Marketing overruled Zorn's wishes and sent out a few
promos.  Harmonia Mundi UK must do the same thing because The Wire always
has reviews of current Zorn releases on DIW, Avant and Tzadik.  And I can't
tell you how many people used to call me to get Tzadik stuff when I was at
Koch (some even resorted to buying it at reviewer's price).

Steve

- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Smith
Public Relations Manager
Knitting Factory / Knitting Factory Works
74 Leonard St., New York, NY 10013 [phone] ext. 22
[e-mail]
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------



------------------------------

From: DANIEL BITTON <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 18:16:12 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Zorn promo ixnays

What's his rationale behind not sending out promos?

>
> Probably more to do with Zorn's no-promos policy than reviewers not wanting
> to write something about his stuff.  What few reviews did get out tended to
> happen because Sphere Marketing overruled Zorn's wishes and sent out a few
> promos.  Harmonia Mundi UK must do the same thing because The Wire always
> has reviews of current Zorn releases on DIW, Avant and Tzadik.  And I can't
> tell you how many people used to call me to get Tzadik stuff when I was at
> Koch (some even resorted to buying it at reviewer's price).
>
> Steve
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Steve Smith
> Public Relations Manager
> Knitting Factory / Knitting Factory Works
> 74 Leonard St., New York, NY 10013 [phone] ext. 22
> [e-mail]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

------------------------------

From: "ALAN E. KAYSER" <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 21:03:02 -0500
Subject: zorn reviews

Steve Smith wrote:
>
> >Sorry to have shocked anybody by bringing up Voodoo. I think it's a cool
> >record. I was just trying to imagine how some bop head might hear it and
> >find it inept rather than original, the same way a lot of reviewers dogged
> >Braxton's In the Tradition.
>
> I had a very trad bop friend back in San Antonio during my college radio
> years... his tastes were very Phil Woods / Richie Cole, but when I played
> him "Voodoo" he really dug it.  Thought Zorn sounded a lot like Rahsaan
> Roland Kirk, actually...
>
> >Like, I haven't seen any reviews saying Zorn can't play, but I've hardly
> >seen any reviews in proportion to his prolific output.
>
> Probably more to do with Zorn's no-promos policy than reviewers not wanting
> to write something about his stuff.  What few reviews did get out tended to
> happen because Sphere Marketing overruled Zorn's wishes and sent out a few
> promos.  Harmonia Mundi UK must do the same thing because The Wire always
> has reviews of current Zorn releases on DIW, Avant and Tzadik.  And I can't
> tell you how many people used to call me to get Tzadik stuff when I was at
> Koch (some even resorted to buying it at reviewer's price).
>
> Steve
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Steve Smith
> Public Relations Manager
> Knitting Factory / Knitting Factory Works
> 74 Leonard St., New York, NY 10013 [phone] ext. 22
> [e-mail]
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------Steve
Cadence has also done Zorn reviews, though as far as I can recall they
were only of his hatArt releases.  I have two of them, one being Cobra,
the other More News...
August 1991:
Cadence reviews tend to be a bit self-inflated, so it is not surprising
to read "Pretension does however, rear its ugly head here on the silly
balladeering which concludes the 'live' version, the utterly stupid
vocals of 'Scherzo' and the heavy-handed use of cliches and quotes..."
At the same time "...certain textures throughout the overly long
realizations are beautifully sustained and even developed."  A rather
schizo review, but at least it IS a review.  Of course, at the time
Cadence was the American importer of hatArt from Switzerland, and still
is I believe.
August 1992:
"At first glance, More... is a bit of a disappointment.  ...it contains
only two new pieces...What's impressive about More...is that these
tracks sport a 'live'quality that eclipses the earlier versions track
for track."  Disappointed by a glance and impressed by the music.  Huh?
This type of reviewing I'm sure JZ and the rest of us can do without.
I also recall that Downbeat has reviewed quite a few of JZs CDs, and
most of them favorably.  Since I have a rather large stack of them, it's
not easy to locate a particular review.
The Penguin guide, which uses a four star system, gives four to almost
all JZ  right up until 1990.  They also call "Gundown" an essential
record, and award it a special rosetta which is reserved for best of the
best.  I don't have the recently released new guide, so Masada is not
reviewed.  I would think since "Spy" gets four that Masada ditto.
By the way, thanks for the tip and address on Tim Berne's 3CD set of
Bloodcount.  Got it, it's great.
Alan E Kayser

------------------------------

From: Caleb Deupree <[e-mail]>
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 22:48:28 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Cadence and other reviewers

>On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Jeff Schwartz <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
>How are Cadence and Option?
>

Cadence doesn't review much Zorn-related material, although one of their
reviewers rated Feldman's Music for Violin Alone on Tzadik and Dave Douglas'
Constellations among the best of last year.  Chris Cutler's p53 got a so-so
review in a recent issue (a piece that I like), and their review of the
Knitting Factory Cobra (which I haven't heard, but I love both the Hat and
Avant versions) was downright unfavorable (seeking other opinions on how the
KF version fares next to these others, since it is still widely available).

However, in fairness to Cadence, they review more really obscure (and
difficult) jazz than I've ever seen in one place, and I wonder sometimes how
close Zorn's music is to anything that might fairly be called 'jazz'
(although it is definitely 'creative' and 'improvised', two of the other
words in Cadence's banner).  I know of no other easy source for information
and music on labels like BVHaast, Maya, Okka, FMP, etc.  Certainly News for
Lulu falls within the 'jazz' boundary, and I might not contest Masada (the
recent Bar Kokhba set throws a wrench in these works' easy jazz
classification) or Spy vs. Spy, but Naked City and the film music almost
certainly don't, and the game and other composed pieces seem in a world of
their own which I relate more to contemporary classical (like Stockhausen,
Cage, and their offspring) than to jazz.

Some of the supplementary material I've read puts Zorn in the avant-garde
tradition, which I see as a deliberate blurring of these kind of boundaries
and a willing embrace of all of them, plus whatever might be offensive and
shocking to people who really care about these distinctions.  I can't fault
Cadence for not reviewing Zorn's stuff more, since they aren't making any
attempt to be commercial and in fact have overall very high musical
standards, and since their audience only has a slight overlap with Zorn's.

I agree completely with the comments on Option.  I used to look forward so
much to getting the next issue in the mail, and now there's maybe one
article per year that holds any interest.  I shouldn't have renewed my
subscription -- they aren't worth it any more.

The Wire of course reviews Zorn often and very favorably.  And I saw my
first (and I think only) review of Kristallnacht in Wired (yes, the
multi-font hiphiphip computer monthly), where they raved so much about it
that I picked up a copy on Eva before they went under.

On now: Zorn, Redbird

- --
Caleb T. Deupree
[e-mail]
;; For every complex question there is a simple answer.
;; And it is wrong.  (H. L. Mencken)


------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 23:15:25 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: zorn reviews

I've reviewed several Zorn albums, but have bought all of those except for
"Harras" which Sphere or whoever's doing Avant must have sent to Option.
 (The most recent are Masada Chamber Ensemble for CD Review and the two new
Filmworks for Goldmine; i'll post them if anybody's interested.)  Sending out
review copies is something of a bind for indie labels:  it costs money that
they can't really spare (i've heard that publicists consider a 10 percent
rate of reviews to be a strong response) but without doing that, they won't
get as many reviews.  It's not just that some magazines will only review
albums sent to them but a reviewer may not even know about the album until
too late to cover it.  Zorn is more or less a known quantity and in my case i
would have bought the albums anyway.  But there are plenty of others--such
as, say, Prima Materia, Ned Rothenberg, Joe Morris--that i would never have
written about if i'd waited until months later, read some other reviews and
finally bought a copy.  (On the other hand, i'd never heard Elton Dean before
but loved the album that Cuneiform released and still couldn't interest any
of four publications in it.  So much for the power of critics.)  Which is a
kind of roundabout way of explaining why most Zorn reviews seem to be fairly
positive (though Scott Yanow's review of the Knitting Factory Cobra album in
Cadence was resoundingly negative).  But there seem to be an unusually high
number of people on this list with some connections to the music business so
this is undoubtedly all old news.

Lang Thompson
http://members.aol.com/wlt4/index.htm

------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:20:35 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Cadence and other reviewers

In a message dated 97-01-20 23:13:25 EST, [e-mail] (Caleb Deupree)
writes:

<< And I saw my
 first (and I think only) review of Kristallnacht in Wired (yes, the
 multi-font hiphiphip computer monthly), where they raved so much about it
 that I picked up a copy on Eva before they went under. >>


Greil Marcus gave it a favorable mention (paragraph-long rather than a full
review) in Artforum when it first came out.

Lang Thompson
http://members.aol.com/wlt4/index.htm

------------------------------

From: Christopher Hamilton <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 00:09:53 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Cobra comparisons

On Mon, 20 Jan 1997, Caleb Deupree wrote of _Cadence_:

> their review of the
> Knitting Factory Cobra (which I haven't heard, but I love both the Hat and
> Avant versions) was downright unfavorable (seeking other opinions on how the
> KF version fares next to these others, since it is still widely available).

The KF version has some nice bits (I especially like the all-vocal
version, which starts off with "The world is everything that is the case";
absolutely hysterical for a philosopher), but it's by far the weakest of
the three.  The sound quality is shaky on some tracks, but more
importantly, because the tracks are brief snippets of longer performances,
you get no sense of largescale structure.
     Both the Hat and Avant recordings are excellent.  People on this list
are likely to be more familiar with the players on the Hat version, and
that may be reason enough to go for that one (if you can find it); it's
interesting to hear familiar musicians adapting their playing to Zorn's
structure.  Personally, I'd give a slight edge to the Avant version,
the playing on which strikes me as slightly more consistent, but
that might just be the novelty factor.  (I've listened to the Hat version
many, many times.)  Is the Avant disc out of print, or just languishing in
distribution hell?

Chris Hamilton
[e-mail]




------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (David FENECH)
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 13:52:45 +0100
Subject: Re: Tom Cora 's Roof

  > From: [e-mail] (NGUYEN VAN TAN Olivier)
  >
  >
  > Tom Cora : as usual, excellent. He said to me that now, he
  > lives in France (in Marseille) and is married with a French singer.
  >

Yes , he now lives with Catherine JAUNIAUX and their adoptive kid in
Marseille (south of France). This is where he met Hakim HAMADOUCHE.
Hakim is an "oud" (arabian luth) player from Marseille also. They both
did a gig in Villeurbanne (near Lyon, France) recently, and many of my
friends went there and all claimed it was absolutely fantastic.

Tom also plays with guys from my city (Grenoble, France) called
Metamkine. He plays cello and electronics, while Jerome Noetinger plays
tapes and electronics, and two other guys project images using
reflecting mirrors. They improvise images and music together. This is
quite different from the work he did with the Dziga VERTOV movie "The
man with the camera".

Tom has also played last year with Cathy JAUNIAUX in a group called
"Les scratcheurs de vynil" based on vynil scratch. There was Christian
MARCLAY and Otomo YOSHIHIDE in this band as well as local scratchers from
Marseille (including the now quite famous ERIC M.). They played at the
"Friche de la belle de Mai" (Marseille) and at the MIMI festival (Arles)
last year. A record is under press I guess ...

That's all for today . Bye

david FENECH

P.S : an excellent & exhaustive article on TZADIK in the new "Revue & CorrigΘe"
(a french magazine in which I write quaterly). Please contact me for further
details...

------------------------------

From: [e-mail]
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 97 08:47:32
Subject: Next batch of Tzadik releases

What's the poop on the next batch of
Tzadik releases? It seems like its getting
close to time for another batch to be
released, but the web page hasn't been updated
in a while. Anybody know any specifics?

- -------------------------------------
E-mail: [e-mail]
Date: 1/21/97
Time: 8:47:32 AM

Buckethead was raised in the chicken
coop by chickens.
- -------------------------------------


------------------------------

From: Robert Pleshar <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 08:22:43 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Re: Cadence and other reviewers

At 10:48 PM 1/20/97 -0500, Caleb Deupree wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 17 Jan 1997, Jeff Schwartz <[e-mail]> wrote:
>>
>>How are Cadence and Option?
>>
>
>Cadence doesn't review much Zorn-related material, although one of their
>reviewers rated Feldman's Music for Violin Alone on Tzadik and Dave Douglas'
>Constellations among the best of last year.

The main reason that Cadence doesn't review much Zorn-related material is
that he doesn't send them (or anyone else) any copies of Tzadik or Avant
releases for review.

I don't think the Knitting Factory Cobra record is very good. It's mostly
excerpts, so you don't really get the feeling(s) of the whole piece.

Ralph


------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Eric Schneider)
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 08:27:24 -0600
Subject: book of heads

Can anyone provide any info/insight about "The Book of Heads," the Zorn
composition performed by Marc Ribot?  I'm thinking of getting it for a
friend who is somewhat familiar with Zorn and really loves Frisell's
playing.  I'm familiar with Ribot's more rock-oriented playing (for Tom
Waits, Maria McKee,etc.) but was wondering what his more experimental jazz
work sounds like. Thanks.

- - Eric Schneider



------------------------------

From: [e-mail] (Steve Smith)
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 10:29:10 -0500
Subject: Re: Cobra comparisons

>Is the Avant disc out of print, or just languishing in
>distribution hell?

The latter, for the moment.  Avant will be distributed by Koch
International starting in March.  This should increase availability...
expect to see things in Borders now... but probably won't bring the price
down much, alas.

Steve Smith
[e-mail]



------------------------------

From: dennis summers <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 08:41:51 -0700 (MST)
Subject: Frith article.

Thank-you Patrice for sharing that article with us. I found it
extraordinarily interesting, both in an historical sense, and how many of
the issues raised still seem so contemporary.

Also to all of you who may have noticed my conspicuous absence from the Zorn
- -a fake thread, which I strarted, I'm sorry to say that I've had major
computer headaches over the last couple of weeks, including losing emial,
and worse. Anyway, I found the interchange exciting, and exactly what I was
looking for. My own take is that he always knows what he's doing, and if
he's not the finest Bop player out there, that's really beside the point.
Using bop as the standard would be like using trad-jazz as the standard for
bop players.

Also love Steve Beresford. I only have Tea, Cue Sheets, and I just picked up
that Doris Day disk (in fact at the store where I got into the Zorn
discussion, the proprietor, who hates Zorn, loves Beresford). Only listened
to it once though, it seemed less "odd" than the other efforts and suffers
because of it, I think. Anybody have a Beresford discography? (Patrice?).

Couldn't agree more with the guy who wrote about the "young lions". I too am
sick of all the press they get, and find the whole thing to be part of a
very bad trend in current Jazz. When you start to prize to the past, you've
taken the first step into the grave.

Thanx for the reminder on the Tim Berne set I just dropped an order in the mail.

yours in Zornocity --ds
***Quantum Dance Works***
****http://ic.net/~denniss****


------------------------------

From: "Yeah-shure, Nah...er...ve'-so'n" <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:37:55 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Tzadik Festival 97

Okay, does anyone have or know where i can find a COPMPLETE list of
zorn/zorn-related shows in europe?  My friend studying in Copenhagen
hasn't seen the sun in weeks and could use some good music...:)

- -jascha


------------------------------

From: "Yeah-shure, Nah...er...ve'-so'n" <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:50:57 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Zorn/Canada ?

>
> If sometime Quebec become a country i hope he will come here. Ha! Ha! :)

     /
touche, Alain :)

- -jascha




------------------------------

From: "Yeah-shure, Nah...er...ve'-so'n" <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 14:01:17 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: Zorn a fake?

> giving Joey all the solos. In Victoriaville the man was holy like Rebbe
> Schneerson. Cosmojizzmatic.  Probly the best show I ever saw. Someone said
> there was a Radio Canada tape of it? How do I get it?
>
yeah, yeah, me too.

- -jascha



------------------------------

From: "Patrice L. Roussel" <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 12:10:05 -0800
Subject: Re: Next batch of Tzadik releases

On Tue, 21 Jan 97 08:47:32  [e-mail] wrote:
>
> What's the poop on the next batch of
> Tzadik releases? It seems like its getting
> close to time for another batch to be
> released, but the web page hasn't been updated
> in a while. Anybody know any specifics?

Here is the next batch (courtesy of David Newgarden):

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the schedule for March 18 releases (U.S. date - rest of world will
ship slightly earlier).

Zorn
Filmworks III (1990-1995)
w/ Thieves Quartet soundtrack (first JZ/DD/JB/GC recordings)
25 TV commercial cues
9 Cynical Hysterie Hour cues
duo with Ribot

Zorn
Black Box
(Torture Garden & Leng Tch'e)

Film Series
Fred Frith - Eye To Ear
Marc Ribot _ Shoe String Symphonettes
Elliot Sharp - Figure Ground

Composer Series
Bun-Ching Lam - ... Like Water

New Japan
Compostela - Wadachi

Radical Jewish Culture
John Schott - In These Great Times
Roy Nathanson & Anthony Coleman - I Could've Been A Drum

In Late Spring or Summer
Mike Patton
Burt Bacharach
Filmworks IV
ZOrn - New Traditions I n East Asian Bar Bands

Koch distribution of Avant will begin March 18.
most recent Avants are Derek Bailey "Guitar Drums n Bass" , Dim Sum Clip
Job "Harmolodic Jeopardy', Duck Baker plays Herbie Nichols "Spinning Song"
Smarnamisa! Resia Valley Music.


------------------------------

From: john shiurba <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 15:43:27 -0700
Subject: Re: book of heads

Eric Schneider wrote:
>
> Can anyone provide any info/insight about "The Book of Heads," the Zorn
> composition performed by Marc Ribot?  I'm thinking of getting it for a
> friend who is somewhat familiar with Zorn and really loves Frisell's
> playing.  I'm familiar with Ribot's more rock-oriented playing (for Tom
> Waits, Maria McKee,etc.) but was wondering what his more experimental jazz
> work sounds like. Thanks.

You can read my review of this CD for the SF Bay Guardian at
http://www.sfo.com/~shiurba/articles.html

I wouldn't expect the average Bill Frisell fan to like this music, necessarily. It's
pretty out there stuff-- with none of the lyrical melodicism that pervades most of
Frisell's stuff.


- --



[e-mail]

http://www.sfo.com/~shiurba

------------------------------

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