home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
ftp.xmission.com
/
2014.06.ftp.xmission.com.tar
/
ftp.xmission.com
/
pub
/
lists
/
zorn-list
/
archive
/
v02.n849
< prev
next >
Wrap
Internet Message Format
|
2000-02-01
|
30KB
From: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (Zorn List Digest)
To: zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com
Subject: Zorn List Digest V2 #849
Reply-To: zorn-list
Sender: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com
Errors-To: owner-zorn-list-digest@lists.xmission.com
Precedence: bulk
Zorn List Digest Wednesday, February 2 2000 Volume 02 : Number 849
In this issue:
-
Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
Re: urgh
Philadelphians + Zamiro
RE: Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
Re: percy howard
re: taboo & exile imagery
another downside to the bigs
Re: percy howard
Re: Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
Re: urgh
On Partch
new albums
Re : new albums (kletka red)
re: taboo & exile imagery
Spectralists
Re: Spectralists
Do This Today
Zorn i London
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 09:01:52 -0800
From: Andrew Shay <bobtj@wwa.com>
Subject: Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
Tom Pratt wrote:
> listening to: Morton Feldman - Piano, Violin, Viola,
> Cello (hatART)
This reminds me: there are a few things I'd like some listmember
opinions on...
First, coming right off of Tom Pratt's post: what are some
recommended Morton Feldman records? I just picked up a
disc with Feldman's "The Rothko Chapel" composition, two
Varese pieces and a composition by Gerhard Winkler. How
does Feldman's other work compare/relate to this? Again,
which records are recommended?
Second: Where does one start with Harry Partch? And
how is his Tzadik release featuring the Li Po poems?
Third, what are some thoughts on Dave Douglas' Winter
and Winter lps, "Charms of the Night Sky" and "Songs
for Wandering Souls"?
Finally I was wondering if anyone has any opinions on a
Chicago band called The Pinetop Seven.
Thanks,
Andrew
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 10:11:44 -0500 (EST)
From: Ken Waxman <cj649@freenet.toronto.on.ca>
Subject: Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
So no one will feel left out:
Brecht was a Communist sympathizer
Jean Paul Sartre was a Communist apologist
Pete Seeger was a Communist
Dashiell Hamett and Lilian Hellman were Trostkyites
Richard Wright was pro-Communist
Jack London and Upton Sinclair were Socialists
Lionel Hampton is and Don Ellis was a Republican
Woody Guthrie and Josh White were fellow travellers
On Mon, 31 Jan 2000, Brian Olewnick wrote:
> Ken Waxman wrote:
>
> > Ezra Pound was a Fascist
> > L.F. Celine a Nazi
> > Hemming was at very least a misogynist
> > William Burroughs may have killed his wife; Norman Mailer tried to
> > O. Henry was an embezzler
> > Jean Genet was a thief and terrorist apologist
> > T.S. Elliot was an anti-Semite
> > F.Scott Fitzgerald and John O'Hara were snobs
> > Von Karajan was probably a Nazi
> > Ornette Coleman has made some anti-gay statements
> > Charles Gayle is anti-abortion
>
> Hmmm...Ken manages to leave leftist-collectivists off his list. Just
> think what we few libertarian new music fans must turn a blind eye to!
> ;-) But I still manage to love "Song for Che".
>
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 10:40:13 -0500
From: Joseph Zitt <jzitt@metatronpress.com>
Subject: Re: urgh
On Mon, Jan 31, 2000 at 11:17:48PM -0500, myke cuthbert wrote:
> I'm guessing coming from the classical side of things that I don't see
> as many innovative guitar players as I should, so seeing the glidepad
> attached to Sharp's instrument was a great surprise for me. going to
> see if i can put one next to the thumb rest of my bass clarinet.
What was he doing with the touchpad? Controlling processors?
- --
|> ~The only thing that is not art is inattention~ --- Marcel Duchamp <|
| jzitt@metatronpress.com http://www.metatronpress.com/jzitt |
| Latest CD: Shekhinah: The Presence http://www.mp3.com/josephzitt |
| Comma: Voices of New Music Silence: the John Cage Discussion List |
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 11:11:37 -0500
From: kurt_gottschalk@scni.com
Subject: Philadelphians + Zamiro
lemme check myself on a coupla points, if you don't mind.
first off, i mentioned a danny zamir cd w/masada trio later this year. according
to the dmg newsletter, it'll be sooner than i thought, and it looks a little
different than what i'd heard. here's what bruce said:
January 29th was the return of one
great duos of downtown scene - Fred Frith & John Zorn at Tonic for
one set only and it was amazing! This was be followed by two sets of
the Young Philadelphians who were comprised of Zorn, Marc Ribot,
Jamaaladeen Tacuma & Calvin Weston! Zorn also invited Israeli saxist
Danny Zamir to sit in, Danny will have his Tzadik debut cd out in
March with Zorn as his guest.
=-->Meanwhile, IOUaLive1 wondered:
BTW--- where did they come up
with this name? I think Jamaaladeen is the only Philadelphian, and he aint
all that young. I thought Punk Funk Harmodelic fit them pretty well.
meant to answer, jody, but forgot what i was saying. according to ribot, it's a
movie reference. he loves the name, he said it fits the band perfect. i don't
quite get it, but then i don't quite get the appeal of this band either. tacuma
don't do much for me, and i agree with you about gaugh (although maybe he's no
longer from Philadelphia).
cheers,
kg
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 09:14:10 -0700
From: "Matthew W Wirzbicki (S) " <M_WIRZBICKI@ColoradoCollege.edu>
Subject: RE: Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
>what are some
>recommended Morton Feldman records? I just picked up a
>disc with Feldman's "The Rothko Chapel" composition,
My Feldman collection is comparatively small...but I think you're pretty
safe with his later works. One of my favorites is the piano and string
quartet disc on Nonesuch (this is a late work). I become more excited about
this disc every time I listen to it. Highly Recommended. Of course you
should be able to get the run down from Tom Pratt as he seems to have nearly
exhausted the discography of monumental Feldman works.
Matt Wirzbicki
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 08:28:08 -0800
From: "Patrice L. Roussel" <proussel@ichips.intel.com>
Subject: Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
On Tue, 1 Feb 2000 19:01:17 +1100 "Julian" wrote:
>
> > It is really sad when you have to defend somebody not for a despicable
> act,
> > but for showing a picture of it.
>
> Just wondering, is the "despicable act" in child pornography the taking of
> the photos? Quite an ironic point, considering some of the discussions
> we've been having...
This was a general statement where the messager is accused of the message.
Patrice.
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 17:32:56 +0100
From: "gschwend d. atelier" <gda@datacomm.ch>
Subject: Re: Taboo & Exile Imagery
hi boys and girls...
i know there's already been a lot of talk on this subject.
unfortunately, i haven't had time yet to read all the mails.
anyhow; has anyone pointed out yet that the EUROPEAN RELEASE of "taboo &
exile" (i got mine from the swiss distributor, still shrink wrapped)
DOES NOT
have the "secret photograph" covered by the plastic thing holding the
cd; that plastic thing is transparent. as soon as you take the cd out
you see the young girl with her hand positioned between her legs. (i
assume that this is the pic everybody's been talking about.)
patRice
np: miles davis, kind of blue
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 11:39:47 EST
From: Slntwtchr@aol.com
Subject: Re: percy howard
hello,
>I just listen to two new Percy Howard Cd's on Materiali Sonori with Massacre
>and I was wondering in which band PH played before ?
>Is anyone can send any info about the man who released, for me, two of the
best
>1999 album.
he was/is? in a band called nus, which released two laswell produced albums
on sub rosa. i don't care much for his voice at all. he also showed up on the
recent hashisheen spoken word comp that laswell put out (also on sub rosa)
and has a new album on materiali sonori with vernon reid, trey gunn and
others.
peace,
dave
___________________________________________________________
bill laswell, eraldo bernocchi, mick harris and lori carson discographies at :
http://www.geocities.com/slntwtchr
___________________________________________________________
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 17:40:31 +0100
From: "gschwend d. atelier" <gda@datacomm.ch>
Subject: re: taboo & exile imagery
Robert A. Pleshar wrote:
>
> Zorn has used images to shock for many years,
i've had the pleasure to talk to john zorn a few years back, and he
pointed out to me that he does not do things to shock people. he said
that he does/uses things because he is interested in them, has an
appreciation for them. (i must admit though that we were talking about
music; not images and/or texts.)
> but I really doubt he is
> pro-Nazi (Krystallnacht). I'll assume
to assume "kristallnacht" as pro-Nazi is, imho, completely & totally
missing the point of that work!!!
patRice
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 11:43:00 -0500
From: kurt_gottschalk@scni.com
Subject: another downside to the bigs
This clipped from a Knight-Ridder upcoming releases column. I guess when you
more attention, you can't control the kind you get. When Wynton fronts Cobra
I'll call myself retro, but not until then.
Trumpeter Dave Douglas fronts a swinging '60s-style jazz-funk session "Soul To
Soul" that the retro kids should love, while pianist Kenny Werner shares "Beauty
Secrets" (both RCA Victor).
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 20:27:09 +0100
From: "Stefan Verstraeten" <stefan.annik@planetinternet.be>
Subject: Re: percy howard
>From: "in.out" <in.out@wanadoo.fr>
>Subject: percy howard
>I just listen to two new Percy Howard Cd's on Materiali Sonori with =
>Massacre and I was wondering in which band PH played before ?
>Is anyone can send any info about the man who released, for me, two of =
>the best 1999 album.
>Thanks .
>Mikl
Hi,
Percy Howard was the lead singer (and wrote the main part of the music) in a
band called 'Nus'. This wonderful band also has two cd's out on the Belgian
label subrosa http://www.subrosa.net . Unfortunately, due to low figures,
the band was dropped and are now on a low key level or even split.
Anyway, don't forget to check also percy howards solo album on the same
label materiali sonori http://www.matson.it
Oh yeah, did i mention that nus and percy howard - music can also be found
on very limited live series, also on the subrosa label
If you want to set up a trade, email me, maybe we can work something out
Best wishes
stefan verstraeten
NP The best of GROSS (4 cassette box with plenty of aube remixed noise)
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 12:42:22 -0800
From: improv@peak.org (Dave Trenkel)
Subject: Re: Feldman, Partch, Douglas, etc.
At 9:01 AM 2/1/00, Andrew Shay wrote:
>Second: Where does one start with Harry Partch? And
>how is his Tzadik release featuring the Li Po poems?
My absolute favorite Partch record is Delusion of the Fury, recently
re-issued by Sony. I picked up the original Columbia LP's years and years
ago, before I'd ever heard of Partch, and it remains one of my all-time
favorite records.
________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@peak.org : www.peak.org/~improv/
"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
-Sun Ra
________________________________________________________
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 18:04:58 -0500
From: myke cuthbert <cuthbert@hcs.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: urgh
jzitt@metatronpress.com wrote on Feb 1:
>
> What was he doing with the touchpad? Controlling processors?
couldn't be sure... i was sitting too far away to even make out what
it was until after the concert. He had a powerbook on stage with him
so I assume he was controlling that, but it seemed to be displaying a
list of possible changes (thus, a score of some sort) rather than
menus to be clicked on. He taped away at the keyboard a bit but
mostly used conventional foot controllers to make changes.
I need a course on modern guitar setups and computer interfaces -- i'm
at a loss for what he was doing. sound was great though.
Other things you don't normally hear in Boston: Ahknaten at the Lyric
Opera tonight--sold out I do believe though.
Myke Cuthbert
- -
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2000 22:27:07 -0500
From: Matt Laferty <bg60009@binghamton.edu>
Subject: On Partch
I'm new to the list (writing, not reading posts)
but
in response to the following:
Second: Where does one start with Harry Partch? And
how is his Tzadik release featuring the Li Po poems?
My fave Partch record is "on the Seventh Day Petals fell in Petaluma"
since it's big and full of instruments and noise and trance.
But there's one track about Partch "bumming around" that's more than
vaguely transcendent
be good
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 23:08:16 +1100
From: "Julian" <jcurwin@hartingdale.com.au>
Subject: new albums
Just thought I'd mention some to-be-released albums from the Aquarius
Records update:
Bob Ostertag "Verbatim Flesh & Blood"
Kletka Red "Hybrid" - does anyone have any information about this? more of
the same as on "Hijacking"?
The Melvins "Crybaby"
There is also a repeat mention of the album I mentioned here a little while
ago, "In His Own Sweet Way: A Tribute To Dave Brubeck" (with Frisell,
Caine, MMW, Kang, Baron, Coleman, Ruins, etc.). According to cdnow, it will
be available Feb. 22nd. But who knows?
Incidentally, if anyone's interested you can currently get $10 off at cdnow
by following the link at the site below...
Julian.
http://www.hartingdale.com.au/~jcurwin
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 15:21:30 +0100
From: "john rust" <johnrust@blinx.de>
Subject: Re : new albums (kletka red)
The new Kletka Red album is due to be released in a couple of weeks - I've
got the information from Leonid Soybelman yesterday night. The sound is less
agressive comparing to the Hijacking, many songs are in Russian. I would
call the album more "international", to my opinion the klezmer influence is
not as significant as it was three years ago.
For all those living in the Berlin area - Leonid is appearing with his band
Poza on the 11th of Febr. in Waldschloss Potsdam. See you there!..
Kletka Red will be touring Europe soon.
John Rust
www.freespeech.org/unterwasser
different russian-german music
from Berlin
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 09:51:27 -0600
From: "Robert A. Pleshar" <rpleshar@midway.uchicago.edu>
Subject: re: taboo & exile imagery
At 05:40 PM 2/1/00 +0100, gschwend d. atelier wrote:
>Robert A. Pleshar wrote:
>>
>> Zorn has used images to shock for many years,
>i've had the pleasure to talk to john zorn a few years back, and he
>pointed out to me that he does not do things to shock people. he said
>that he does/uses things because he is interested in them, has an
>appreciation for them. (i must admit though that we were talking about
>music; not images and/or texts.)
Fair enough, although I'm sure he's aware that some will be shocked by the
imagery.
>> but I really doubt he is
>> pro-Nazi (Krystallnacht). I'll assume
>to assume "kristallnacht" as pro-Nazi is, imho, completely & totally
>missing the point of that work!!!
>
>patRice
Uh, no kidding. That was my point. Krystallnacht uses Nazi imagery, but is
clearly not pro-Nazi. Maybe you should have read my entire sentence instead
of chopping it down. Obvoisuly, being fascinated with an image or using it
for shock value or using it to clarify a point doesn't mean you agree with
the motivation of the people or actions in the image itself or even of the
person who created the image.
Rob
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 10:23:56 -0600
From: Herb Levy <herb@eskimo.com>
Subject: Spectralists
Besides Grisey, other folks who often get lumped into the category of
spectral composers are Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Tristain
Murail, Jean-Claude Risset, Kaija Saariaho. Many of these composers
have done some work at IRCAM.
As David Beardsley wrote earlier, the music is usually derived from
analysis of the structure of an instrument's harmonic overtones, but
I've seen the term used to describe both acoustic & electronic works
(particularly Harvey, Risset & Saariaho).
Thinking about this as I typed it, several pieces by James Tenney fit
the above description too, though I've never seen him described in
the same way (he & Risset were among the first composers to work at
Bell Labs, as composers, in the 1960s).
Bests,
Herb
- --
Herb Levy
NEW MAILING ADDRESS: P O Box 9369 Forth Wort, TX 76147
NEW PHONE: 817 377-2983
same old e-mail: herb@eskimo.com
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 11:45:11 EST
From: JonAbbey2@aol.com
Subject: Re: Spectralists
In a message dated 2/2/00 11:35:11 AM, herb@eskimo.com writes:
<< Besides Grisey, other folks who often get lumped into the category of
spectral composers are Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Tristain
Murail, Jean-Claude Risset >>
is there other Risset available on CD besides his recent Sonoris CD? I liked
that one a lot, but I didn't realize he'd been around for so long.
Jon
www.erstwhilerecords.com
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 09:10:34 -0800
From: "Suzy Creamcheese" <keithmar@jetlink.net>
Subject: Do This Today
Dust off your old _Freak Out!_ lp, or grab the CD re-issue, and listen to
'The Return of the Son of Monster Magnet.' It'll take you back to 1965, and
you'll thank me for suggesting this. Your day will be brightened. I
guarantee it.
Now back to your regularly scheduled program. . .
- -
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2000 08:20:25 +0000
From: "Richard Gardner" <print@colourtone.co.uk>
Subject: Zorn i London
Please excuse the long posting but I thought list members would like to read
the British press reaction to the London concert.
These were the only ones I read. The scan should be pretty accurate but I
haven't had time to read it carefully.
The BBC 3 broadcast will be within the next five weeks.
Guardian Thursday 27th January 2000
Doubled up dynamism
John Zorn
Barbican, London
Rating: ****
Steven Poole
John Zorn's early reputation as a fearsome avant-garde jazzer still precedes
him. Since he is many other things, this undoubtedly drives him nuts. But
his scalding concert to open the Barbican Jazz 2000 season overturned all
narrow views of his talents.
The gig was a triple-header. The Masada String Trio began, with the lilting,
softly insinuating Yiddisher dance-music themes Zorn has adopted in the 90s.
These were beautifully expressed by violinist Mark Feldman, who can play the
instrument on his lap like a jazz guitar, or produce stomping riff-packed
solos like a hoe-down fiddler. His technique makes the most passing sound
sing. The material mixed explosive Ornette Coleman-like pieces (Coleman,
John Cage, Anthony Braxton and Derek Bailey are the self-taught Zorn's big
influences) with mellifluousness. Dense melo- dies tumbled with notes
separated by sudden crash-stops. Feldman's exchanges with improvising
cellist Erik Friedlander absorbingly fused jazz's rhythmic elasticity and
classical music's sonorities. Bassist Greg Cohen was a rock and a gazelle in
all three bands, sometimes both at once.
The second set, from the septet Bar Kokhba, brought some of the trio's
material into contact with Latin rhythms, engagingly mingling the acoustic
strings with Marc Ribot's twangy, 60s-surfer guitar. It often worked up a
whooping clamour that brought the show an urgent intensity. Zorn lounged in
a chair but the beseeching movements of his hands and fluttering of his
fingers for tempo changes confirmed his presence in the music's shape.
The Masada quartet's finale was the killer. Though much of the material
preserved the night's cultural references, Zorn's saxophone-playing revealed
both tender lyricism and rawness (flat-out, he sometimes suggests the
abstract multiphonics of UK virtuoso Evan Parker). His no-prisoners
exchanges with Dave Douglas were astonishing: Douglas brilliantly combines
free-music's looseness with bop trumpet's discipline, and he was
contributing to a remarkable exposition of jazz at the limits. The music
changed pace and shape so quickly that he took to playing out of the corner
of his mouth so he could watch his mercurial partner at the same time.
Balancing chaos and order has long been Zorn's mission, and fans of his
hellraising free-style might find his enthusiasm for strict rules
contradictory. But he has always been prepared to alternate the worlds of
"out" and "in" music, and this concert showed how creatively the two can
come together. You would have to be a pretty strict improv-purist to insist
it is nothing but a compromise to both.
The Independent Friday 28th January 2000
Like a carful of banshees in an avalanche
LIVE
JOHN ZORN BARBICAN LONDON
JOHN ZORN is the most protean of modern musicians, dedicated to the pursuit
of the new and unusual wherever that may lead him. The first time I saw him
perform, in a tiny arts centre off the Charing Cross Road in the early
Eighties, he sported the de rigueur punk crop as he sat at a card-table on
which there were several dozen reed mouthpieces and duck-calls, which he
proceeded to play in a rapid blur of hands and squawks - a live version of
the kind of thing which would now be sequenced inside a computer.
A decade and a half on, the hair has grown out, flowing limply waistwards,
but the dedication to the sonic vanguard is, if anything, even stronger. The
intervening years have seen a formidable glut of recordings from the
prolific composer- some, such as 1987's Spillane, dealing with
quintessentially American themes, but the majority being increasingly
concerned with the development of a Radical Jewish Culture, most notably
1993's holocaustic KristaUnacht and the 10 volumes of work with his
fluctuating chamber Jazz group Masada.
It's the latter that is showcased tonight, in three sets which testify to
the versatility of Zorn's music and that of the pool of players which
comprises Masada - a high-calibre roll-call of New York avantgarde virtuosi
that includes guitarist Marc Ribot, percussionist Cyro Baptista and the
dazzling rhythm section of drummer Joey Baron and doublebassist Greg Cohen.
The first set features just the string trio of Cohen, cellist Erik
Friedlander and violinist Mark Feldman, whom Zorn conducts sitting
crosslegged on the stage with his back to the audience, leading the players
through the vertiginous dynamics of the pieces with gentle flutterings of
his hands.
Passages of frantic inscrutability alternate with more Iyrical sections in
which the Jewishness comes through strongly, particularly in the more
rhapsodic parts of Feldman's playing. There's much more pizzicato work
required than from most string sections, Cohen crowding the bridge as he
pushes the bass's higher reaches, and Feldman and Friedlander climaxing a
vibrant, energising set by indulging in a spot of what rock fans would
instantly recognise as an axe duel.
For the second set, the string trio is transformed into the sextet Bar
Kokhba by the addition of Ribot Baptista and Baron, who bring new flavours
to the music, Baptista's Latin lounge-music exoticism and Ribot's angular
twang combining with the Jewish elements to produce a vivid, constantly
evolving sound that evokes variously Tim Buckley's Blue Afternoon period,
the enigmatic pseudo-Western themes of Calexico, and a sort of Jewish
easy-listening music, albeit drained of ease.
Zorn himself takes up alto sax for the final set, a jazz ensemble comprising
himself, Baron, trumpeter Dave Douglas, and Cohen. Again, the combo's
versatility is extraordinary with successive pieces featuring furious
post-loop blowing, squeaky bricolages of overblowing and percussion, the
kind of allout free jazz attack that sounds like a earful of banshees
trapped in an avalanche and something akin to a klezmer group on smart
drugs.
That's more music than most composers get round to in a lifetime played with
more spirit and conviction than a courtroom full of drunk drivers.
ANDY GILL
The Observer
Sunday 30th January 2000
Guaranteed not to make you want to kill yourself
JAZZ
Stuart Nicholson
John Zorn Barbican
SAXOPHONIST, composer and conceptualist John Zorn still speaks of the
'unspeakable abuse' he received at the hands of critics when he first
emerged in the New York scene in the early Eighties. Even now, with the
gradual acknowledgement that he may well be one of the most original and
creative minds at work in jazz during the last 15 years, he still avoids
giving interviews.
This Garbo-like desire to be left alone has conspired to make him a rather
shadowy presence as far as the jazz mainstream is concerned, but even so, he
was able to sell out the Barbican last Tuesday night with his band Masada,
formed in 1993, and two offshoots of it, the Masada String Trio and Bar
Kokhba. Formed in 1993, Masada is named after the fortress in Israel where
besieged Jews chose mass suicide rather than surrender to Titus's legions in
the first century AD. Zorn's Masada have recorded any number of albums on
the hard-to-get and expensive Japanese DIW label, beginning with Masada One
and so on into infinity, but all seem to resist the valorisation of one
album over another, so consistent is the their artistic delivery. Thus,
their European debut i promised much. The group examined Jewish musical
traditions in an improvisationary climate.
Yiddish music and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman aren't often mentioned in
the same breath, but in Zorn's hands there are similarities. And while
combining jazz and klezmer has been done before - the Hasidic New Wave has
been popular in Manhattan's Lower West Side for several years now - by
emphasising parallels between Coleman and midEuropean Jewish folk elements,
Zorn somehow made dirges, polyphony, abstraction, modal melodies both
lyrical and feverish cohere to form something new and distinctive. With Dave
Douglas, the most original young trumpeter in jazz by a country mile,
drummer Joey Baron with an accumulation of experience from everyone from
Dizzy Gillespie to the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Greg Cohen, a virtuoso
bassist who, for better or worse, has even played with Woody Allen, the band
was the last of the three ensembles to perform. With Zorn on alto saxophone,
their mixture of inside/outside playing and sparkling interaction was
enlivened by the catch as-catch-can exchanges between sax and trumpet which
at times moved from the intuitive to the inspirational. The leader of the
Jews at Masada was named Bar Kokhba, the name adopted by an expanded
ensemble conducted by Zorn in the middle spot. With Mark Feldman on violin,
Erik Friedlander on cello, Mark Ribot on guitar, Greg Cohen on bass, Joey
Baron on drums and Cyro Baptista on percussion, Zorn's concept was more
mid-Eastern bazaar than Ornette Coleman, a seamless blend of the written and
improvised. The opening interlude from the Masada String Trio (Feldman,
Friedlander and Cohen) was a reminder of what a convincing writer for string
ensembles Zorn can be.
His music was spun around Hebraic gesture and illusion, yet remained
unsentimental for all that, setting the tone for what followed. Yet it was
the roar that greeted Masada's final set, a mixture of freedom and
structure, that revealed the extent of Zorn's achievements. Years ago, the
mere mention of Free Jazz would make most people want to jump out of the
window, yet although freedom was one dialect among many Zorn drew upon
during the evening, the delight that greeted his occasional episodes of
abstraction showed how far he has travelled since the difficult reception he
endured in his early years. Now he was at the helm of three of the most
original ensembles to reach London in a long while, his selfbelief
vindicated. Such conspicuous success beyond the mainstream is rare, a
triumph to begin Barbican Jazz's sixth successful year.
- -
------------------------------
End of Zorn List Digest V2 #849
*******************************
To unsubscribe from zorn-list-digest, send an email to
"majordomo@lists.xmission.com"
with
"unsubscribe zorn-list-digest"
in the body of the message.
For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send
"help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message.
A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to
subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "zorn-list-digest"
in the commands above with "zorn-list".
Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from ftp.xmission.com, in
pub/lists/zorn-list/archive. These are organized by date.
Problems? Email the list owner at zorn-list-owner@lists.xmission.com