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Zorn List Digest        Monday, April 20 1998        Volume 02 : Number 337



In this issue:
-
       Re: Cecil Taylor questions
       Recent goodies
       Zony Mash Tour!
       weird little boy review...
       ribot
       RE:Another Zorn
       avant & diw
       Re: Another Zorn
       Re: David S. Ware
       Re: Cecil Taylor questions
       Re: David S. Ware
       Weird Little Boy
       MUSICA JAZZ
       Derek Bailey and Joelle Leandre on a new French label called Potlatch !!!!!
       Ayler's New Grass

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 01:47:02 -0400
From: Steve Smith <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cecil Taylor questions

Patrice L. Roussel wrote:

> [snip] a single CD sampler issued with a recent issue of the Italian jazz
> > magzine Musica Jazz included samples of many of the CT FMPs I hadn't heard and
>                         ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Any idea if an excerpt with Evan Parker showed up on this sampler?

No.  It contained excerpts from the solo disc, the duos with Sommer, Moholo, and
Oxley, the "Alms/Tiergarten" orchestra, plus non-box FMP recordings including the
Feel Trio and Corona versions of "Looking" and the solo "Double Holy House."  The
disc also included an unreleased outtake from "Always a Pleasure" that featured the
"rhythm section" (Taylor, Honsinger, Sirone, Bakr) without the horns, as well as an
11 minute 1990 recording available nowhere else that features Taylor, Parker and
percussionist Masahi Harada.  A damn fine sampler, but, like I previously stated, it
just makes me want all the original releases I don't have.

Between this, a Verona Jazz live sampler disc I got some time back that included
excerpts from live recordings of Ornette's "Skies of America," a live Zorn
performance of a Morricone piece, a fragment of a Butch Morris conduction and more,
and a disc of Steve Lacy duets subsequently released commercially last year, I'm
beginning to think "Musica Jazz" may be the most enlightened jazz publication on the
planet.  Anyone who can actually read the magazine care to voice an opinion of the
editorial content?

Steve Smith
[e-mail]


- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 02:47:20 -0400
From: Steve Smith <[e-mail]>
Subject: Recent goodies

After a lengthy abstinence, I went nuts this weekend and purchased and
enjoyed the following:

Joe McPhee - As Serious As Your Life - hatOLOGY 514
Seems like everything Joe does is worth hearing.  I like his work with
ensembles better, but this is a very interesting solo effort.

Matthew Shipp Trio - The Multiplication Trio - hatOLOGY 516
His best yet to these ol' ears.  Susie Ibarra is Goddess.

Mat Maneri Quintet - Acceptance - hatOLOGY 512
Like it, but still processing before I'll have the language to say why.
(Highlight of my weekend, aside from hearing the newly rejuvenated
Sphere at the Village Vanguard, was meeting Joe Maneri on Saturday, who
was giving an interview to journalist/Zornlister David Strauss in a car
parked outside Downtown Music Gallery, while I was doing most of the
fiduciary damage about which you're currently reading.)

ProjeKCt Two - Space Groove - DGM 9801
Adrian Belew, while not much of a drummer, is still more creative than
I'd anticipated given his minimal groove drumming in the '80s King
Crimson live shows.  But this is two discs worth of Robert Fripp letting
what little of his hair remains down with a pair of trusted companions,
Belew and "touch guitarist" Trey Gunn, and for the price of one disc, to
boot.  And this recording was their first-ever rehearsal in this trio
format, which makes me even hungrier for the upcoming live date at
Irving Plaza.  Much like the more groove-oriented tendencies of the
sainted 1973-74 King Crimson lineup in collision/colusion with the weird
instrumental KC stuff on side two of "Three of a Perfect Pair."

John Lurie - Fishing with John - Strange and Beautful 0014
Well.  It's got a lot of nice moments, but it hangs together as a whole
about as well as the average soundtrack compilation.  If you're a Lurie
completist or a Tom Waits completist you'll need this (not one but *two*
drunken vocal duets between Waits and Lurie-doing-Waits) and there's
also a really brief track by the superlative current Lizards lineup, but
otherwise you're better off buying "The Queen of All Ears," the new
Lizards disc.

Steve Smith
[e-mail]



- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 00:05:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: Toby Dodds <[e-mail]>
Subject: Zony Mash Tour!

ZONY MASH
FEATURING:
Wayne Horvitz - keyboards
Timothy Young - guitar
Fred Chalenor - bass
Andy Roth - drums

is on the road again!
Hope to see ALL of you there.

Fri - 4/24 - Neurolux - Boise, ID
Sat - 4/25 - Evergreen State College - Olympia, WA
Fri - 5/1 - Berbatti's Pan - Portland, OR
Sat - 5/2 - WOW Hall - Eugene, OR
Sun - 5/3 - Jambalaya - Arcata, CA
Tue - 5/5 - SLO Brewing - San Luis Obispo, CA
Wed - 5/6 - Coach House - Santa Barbara, CA
Thu - 5/7 - TBA - Chico, CA
Fri - 5/8 - Kresge Hall - UC Santa Cruz, CA
Sat - 5/9 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
Sun - 5/10 - McCabes Guitar Shop - Santa Monica, CA

WHAT THE PRESS ARE SAYING ABOUT ZONY MASH:
.....a smarter, more harmonically involved band that never stays locked
in a single groove. Its Meters meets Miles approach, though certainly
tailored for the crossover, jam band set, was of the type that would be
equally attractive to more discriminating listeners.
 Bill Kohlhaase, L.A Times

You've got to be ultra tight to convince listeners of your funkateer
prowess, and for the most part, the fingers of Zony Mash form a fist. On
the nimble intro to "Smiles" they have the accuracy of a string
quartet.... Here's to their inspired if unholy alliances. May they
continue to offer such seductive blends
Jim Macnie  Down Beat

Original tunes incorporate delightfully strange twists of harmony or
rhythm, but the essential appeal is to the urge to dance.
Josef Woodard   Jazziz

BYE!
Toby




- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 08:58:09 +0200
From: Stefan Verstraeten <[e-mail]>
Subject: weird little boy review...

Dear Zornies,

Yes, I have a copy of weird little boy, and here's my very personal
opinion...
Well, unless you don't want to own everything by Zorn, I say, don't buy
it, cause it's a lot of money for musical crap:
The first two songs (10.07 & 8.05 minutes) is typical zorn stuff: vinyl
noise as background, his duck-style saxophone playing, some guitar
picking, you know it...
Track 3 (2.14): imagine a kid who never had a guitar but plays it with
distortion....
track 4 (1.39): an idiot camp tune on guitar
track 5 (7.51): a childish imitation of doom metal
track 6 (3.04): one track that makes everything all right Zorn on sax
and trey spruance who plays guitar a bit like derek bailey would do, but
more on in a melodic way... I really dig this track
track 7 (2.59): vinyl noise and duck-style sax... I prefer merzbow,
cause this track is childish
track 8 (1.46): again a camp/country song
track 9 (4.04): image a track that ikue mori would throw away cause it
sucks... well you got a pretty idea what this sounds like

As you can see, I won't recommend this, unless for the collectors among
you. Zorn only plays his typical duck style and uses a sampler... in a
bad way, I suggest he would leave this to mori, ostertag, shea &
marclay. Mike Patton plays 'da drum' like a child (but probably this is
art, you know what i'm saying ???), Chris Cochrane must have had a bad
day because he can do better. Thank god for trey spruance, he tried it
anyway.

As a conclusion I would say: if you think that albums like mystic fugu
orchestra and & nani nani are no rip-off but 'avant-garde art', you'll
dig this album... if not buy the newest album of barbra streisand, cause
even that one contains more sens than weird little boy....
- --
Stefan Verstraeten

- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 98 9:07:17 EDT
From: M.Ho <[e-mail]>
Subject: ribot

Are Greg Ribot and Marc anyway related?

- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 08:34:27 -0500
From: John Howard <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE:Another Zorn

Date: Sun, 19 Apr 1998 17:40:45 -0400 (EDT)
From: Ken Waxman <[e-mail]>
Subject: Another Zorn

    If you check the "Upcoming Concerts" section on Braxton's
Tri-Centric foundation page you'll see that he's playing two concerts in
the future with someone named Jonathan Zorn on contrabass.
    I'm almost sure it's not *our* Mr. Z., but if that person is
pursuing a career in improvised music, I hope he's prepared for a lot of
understandable confusion.

Ken Waxman
[e-mail]


This is almost certainly Braxton's son's best friend, improbably named Jon
Zorn.  They played in a few bands together.  He is a great musician and
belongs to a Unitarian Church that some friends of mine belong to.  We saw
him play, Well You Needn't on piano for one of their services (Unitarians,
gotta love em!) In fact, a band I was in played at this church with "Braxton
and Zorn" and their post Nirvana kinda proggy pretty good for a high school
band.  Braxton's son (Tony?) told a great story about his dad getting him
backstage to meet his fave band...Nirvana!  He was very patient with the
requisite "your dad's the greatest" slobbering.       john

- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 16:36:17 +0200
From: Stefan Verstraeten <[e-mail]>
Subject: avant & diw

The avant-record label is a subsidiary of the diw-label (stands for disk
in the world).
DIW gave John Zorn the possibility to be the artistic director of a sub
label.... called avant...

Capito ????
- --
Stefan Verstraeten

- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 08:19:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Bob Boster <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Another Zorn

On Sun, 19 Apr 1998, Ken Waxman wrote:

>     If you check the "Upcoming Concerts" section on Braxton's
> Tri-Centric foundation page you'll see that he's playing two concerts in
> the future with someone named Jonathan Zorn on contrabass.

No, rather a gifted young Weslyan student who also plays in a fine group
called the Middletown 3 - all three multi-instrumentalists I believe.  It
is improvisational, although with perhaps a taste of the contemporary
noise scene thrown in.  Or some would say maybe a more European approach.
They plan to tour somewhat this summer and I recommend catching them live
(this review based on a couple recordings I've recieved from them, one of
which was a live set on Weslyan radio).

For the most part, it seems like Braxton is VERY supportive of his
students in terms of including them in his work and creating some
opportunities for them.


Bob Boster
(recieved a tape from them in hopes of booking them to the Cultural
Labyrinth series here in SF)


- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:41:45 -0700
From: [e-mail] (Douglas Tapia)
Subject: Re: David S. Ware

>I think this quartet is one of the best working groups of the decade, and
>you can't really go wrong with any purchase. That having been said, I'd
>snap up the other releases on DIW ("Earthquation", "Flight of i", "Third
>Ear Recitation") before they go out of print.
>
>Jason Bivins
>
>
>-
You know, I really dug all the David S. Ware recordings I had ever heard,
and I even own a few.  Then, I saw the group live a couple of years back:
The pianist looked like he didn't want to be there at all, the drummer
played with the worst "anamatronic"-looking technique I've ever seen (and
played really stiff and unmusically)

Mr. Ware assended the stage, honked around a bit, and got totally pissed
off screaming that the sound "fuckin' sucked."  At this point, he ran off
the stage and the bass player had to stop playing and chase him down.  He
caught David at the back of the room where David continued to yell and the
bass player continued to try to calm him.  After about ten minutes of this
nonsense, the bass player took the stage again and told the audience that
the sound just wasn't right, and that they were going to stop playing and
let the engineer fix it.  David intoned that they wouldn't come back till
the sound was right.

Thirty minutes later, the band took the stage again, everyone in the band
appearing more disinterested than ever.  The rhythm section began and about
five minutes later Mr. Ware began playing.  He started off honking in the
low regester of the horn on one note which he kept up for a few minutes,
then giving up on even rearticulating, he just started circular breathing
and held the note for close to seven minutes.  (We timed it)

After the first tune was over, and in between each of the following tunes,
Mr. Ware took every oppritunity to sneer at the audience.  He put off this
vibe like he new what he was playing was mostly bullshit, but that the
audience was so dumb and eager to prove that they were hip that nobody
would dare express that the show sucked (sort of the empereor's new cloths
sort of thing)  When a few people, including some great local "free"
musicians, got up to leave, he made some really angry comments under his
breath, dismissing them as "not getting it"

I don't understand this.  I myself have been involved in performance art
pieces that intentionally alienate the audience, etc, but never have I seen
anything where the artist showed obvious hatred and repulsion towards his
audience so clearly.

Would any of you with more experience with David S. Ware like to comment?
I'd like it if someone could help me reconcile some of what I saw and heard
that evening.

- -Doug Tapia



- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 11:42:52 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Joseph S. Zitt" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: Cecil Taylor questions

On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Steve Smith wrote:

> Between this, a Verona Jazz live sampler disc I got some time back that included
> excerpts from live recordings of Ornette's "Skies of America," a live Zorn
> performance of a Morricone piece, a fragment of a Butch Morris conduction and more,
> and a disc of Steve Lacy duets subsequently released commercially last year, I'm
> beginning to think "Musica Jazz" may be the most enlightened jazz publication on the
> planet.  Anyone who can actually read the magazine care to voice an opinion of the
> editorial content?

Wow -- is it possible to find copies of this magazine and its CDs?
- - ---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1---------1----------
|||/ Joseph Zitt ===== [e-mail] ===== Human Systems \|||
||/ Maryland? = <*> SILENCE: The John Cage Mailing List <*> = ecto \||
|/ http://www.realtime.net/~jzitt ====== Comma: Voices of New Music \|


- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 13:56:37 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brent Burton <[e-mail]>
Subject: Re: David S. Ware

On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Douglas Tapia wrote:

> You know, I really dug all the David S. Ware recordings I had ever heard,
> and I even own a few.  Then, I saw the group live a couple of years back:

sounds like you saw a terrible show.  i love the quartet's recordings and
their show here in d.c. a few months back was simply one of my favorite
all-time live experiences.  it's really rare to see a group of such
virtuosic intensity and any one of those four musicians (ware, william
parker, susie ibarra and matthew shipp) would be well worth seeing solo.

b


- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 14:34:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: William York <[e-mail]>
Subject: Weird Little Boy

I've had a chance to listen to this several times thru the magic of radio
promo-ism, and I think it's great- my favorite of the things that have
come out this year.  It's in the ambient/soundtrack/noise vein, it sounds
a little like what I've heard about Absinthe or Elegy, but I haven't heard
those.  The book is really screwed up, but I didn't pick up on the writer
being into gay/S+M stuff.  Anyway, its only 42 or so min. long, and there
is a virtually unlistenable high pitch at the end of the first track
lasting about 2 minutes.  The first song is sectioned, about 5 sections in
10 minutes, into various ambient/noise oriented things.  The rest of the
tracks are shorter and do not have many sections. 1 is a sludgy Black
Sabbath type thing only the drums are played with brushes.  That's the
closest it gets to rock, but there are two others that have distorted
guitar and an implied rock feeling to them, then there's another that's
kind of a darker Morricone western thing.  But the one's that get me are 2
near the end that have what sound like fire crackle or vinyl noises, with
some really subtle noir things underneath (that's the Spillane part).  I
don't want to ruin it for anybody, but listening to #7 and thinking about
the title is really something- scary.  I wouldn't listen to this one
everyday, as it's pretty dark and needs to be listened to straight thru,
but it's pretty powerful and much more than the noisey fooling around I
expected.  Still, it sounds like they're not even trying, that's the scary
part.


- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 98 17:09:09 -0300
From: [e-mail]
Subject: MUSICA JAZZ

Joseff Zitt wrote:
Is it possible to find copies of this magazine and its cds?


I don't know know if MUSICA JAZZ is the most enligthened jazz
publication on the planet, but it is a great Italian magazine very well
written, with lot information, and very interesting CDs.
I can get it in Argentina in some special book-stores. Email me
privately Joseph, if you are interested. I can check it out.
You'd better read Italian, otherwise...

Hugo, from Argentina

- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 23:57:20 +0200
From: "Olivier Nguyen Van Tan" <[e-mail]>
Subject: Derek Bailey and Joelle Leandre on a new French label called Potlatch !!!!!

Hear or Die !

A new french label, called Potlatch, has just released a must-have record
with MISTER Derek Bailey and "MADAME" Joelle Leandre.

This CD is a pure moment of joy ! A splendid acoustic ballet between two
jewels of improvisation... Every time, I listen to it, I listen to another
record. Bailey is simply great and so is Leandre !!!  :))

It is the first time that these two great improvisers appear together on a
whole CD.
The music was recorded live by Jean-Marc Foussat at Les Instants ChavirΘs, a
club located in Montreuil, very close to Paris (on may 9, 1997).


Potlatch records are available from distributors (d) and mail order services
(mo) :
* United Kingdom : Harmonia Mundi (d)
* USA : Northcountry Distribution (d), Forced Exposure (mo)
* Canada : Verge (d+mo)
* Japan : DiskUnion (d)

Information on the label can be found at : http://www.potlatch.digiweb.fr



Olivier




- -

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

Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 17:34:56 +0000
From: John McMahon <[e-mail]>
Subject: Ayler's New Grass

Quote from Scott Handley:

"Now for the ALBERT AYLER question: I haven't heard NEW GRASS, and I'm
not sure I want to.  What does everyone think of this?  I seem to hear
nothing but horrible reports of this record;  on the other hand, it
seems that Al was trying something NEW (or was he?), which would explain
a lot."

I'm listening to New Grass as I type this (not an amazing coincidence; I
put it on to refresh my memory). I think this is definitely worth
acquiring. As you suggest, Ayler is trying something new. In a spoken
intro on the first track, he says "The music I bring you is of a
different dimension in my life... Through meditation... I have been made
a universal man through the power of the creator...." etc.

In the album, Albert works out over some soul/gospel grooves, as well as
some soul singing by, um, The Soul Singers.

Also, you GOTTA hear Albert and band SING "Ghosts"!

If you like Ayler, give this a chance.

It brings to mind another album from roughly the same era, "Atica Blues"
by Archie Shepp. If you know that one, you will have a frame of
reference. (Has Attica Blues ever been released on CD?)

One quibble with the Ayler record: there are occasions where the sax is
panned wildly from speaker to speaker. Probably pretty cool at the time;
pretty annoying now.

Anyhow, Cheers.
John McMahon



- -

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

End of Zorn List Digest V2 #337
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