John Zorn - 50th Birthday Celebration Series

[gnhrtg]

Placeholder for discussion on this ongoing series. I'm curious to hear people's opinions on any of these. I have none yet but am likely to include the string trio, electric Masada, and the duo with Graves in my next order. Comments?

[Derek Taylor]

Thumbs hoisted on:
String Trio [not much in the way of new, but a fine performance]
Graves/Zorn [ditto & a lot of fun]

Thumbs horizontal on:
Electric Masada [though that may change after a couple more listens]

[Other Steve]

The Masada String Trio disc didn't make a strong impression on first listen, simply because my frame of mind was, "More of the same (sigh)." Since then, I've spent more time with it, and I think it is in every way the strongest release yet from the trio; while much of the material is from The Circle Maker, in every case I find the live performance to be better paced and more exciting.

The Graves/Zorn Duo is enjoyable, and far less predictable than I'd expected. Don't imagine I'll pull it out all that often, but it will bring a smile when I do. (It has the greatest "you had to be there" quality of the four releases to date.) Likewise, don't look to Locus Solus for any kind of artistic revelation; it's a comfortable family reunion full of abrasive flying shards of guitar, shrieking alto, steady drumming and good humor.

Electric Masada grows on me with every listen; it's a thunderous tour de force for Marc Ribot, Jamie Saft and that monstrous Baron/Wollesen machine. Ikue Mori and Cyro Baptista provide plenty of textural contrast (and only occasionally become obstrusive), and Zorn I actually find relatively reticent. The biggest surprise, though, was A-B-ing the tracks with some of the earlier incarnations (again, a lot of this music is from Circle Maker); despite the seeming bombast, the arrangements are actually strikingly faithful.

I go into more detail on all of this stuff in next month's issue of The Wire, but really, this is the crux of the argument. I'm quite pleasantly surprised to say that the discs so far don't feel overwhelmingly superfluous, like mere souvenirs. And I'm very much looking forward to the duo disc with Frith due out in July.

Tangentally, I wonder if the label is going to become any more expensive or harder to find now that it's apparently parted ways with Koch, its distributor from the beginning...

[Other Steve]

Originally Posted by Other Steve

Tangentally, I wonder if the label is going to become any more expensive or harder to find now that it's apparently parted ways with Koch, its distributor from the beginning...

Sorry for the false alarm: Tzadik has suddenly returned to the Koch website, with copious upcoming releases listed through September, including (but not limited to) the following...

Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier - Masada Recital (June 29)
John Zorn - 50.5 - Zorn/Frith Duo (July 27)
John Zorn - 50.6 - Hemophiliac (Aug. 24)
Steven Bernstein - Diaspora Hollywood (Sept. 21)
John Zorn - 50.7 - Masada (Sept. 21)
John Zorn - Magick (Sept. 21, rumored to be a chamber-music collection that will include the new string quartet Necronomicon)

All release dates listed are for the U.S.

[gnhrtg]

Thank you Derek and Steve (I remember your mentioning the upcoming reviews at the Wire but it's been a couple of months since, if I remember, which got me wondering.)

Looks like the next releases of interest to me are in September, which means I'll include the said three volumes in my July order from cduniverse; two weeks to go, so would still appreciate other folks' comments. I remember Jason Bivins also giving an ok-to-good on the string trio.

[Librarian]

I agree with the above statements about the releases so far - these are some thoughts I jotted down while listening...

Masada String Trio takes an interesting approach in interpreting the Masada and Zorn catalog of music. Much of the Masada catalog comes from jazz interpretations of middle eastern and Jewish folk music and the trio, made up of Mark Feldman on violin, Erik Friedlander on bass and Greg Cohen on cello directed by John Zorn combine beautifully jazz, classical music and the folk tradition and make the most of the opportunity to play before an appreciative audience.

The duet performance with John Zorn and Milford Graves is the type of frenetic free jazz that would be expected of Zorn, and those who were feeling that his saxophone playing has been underrepresented over the past few years in favor of his composing and arranging will enjoy this quite a bit. Graves keeps the rhythms changing and Zorn's tone ranges from caustic to yearning. Again, the crowd at the Tonic just eats it up.

Electric Masada is an ad-hoc group made up of Zorn, Trevor Dunn, Kenny Wollesen and Joey Barron while adding Marc Ribot on guitar and Ikue Mori on electronics and some extra percussion.

This expanded group keeps the regular Masada sound of Hebrew and Middle Eastern melodies, but also includes heavy doses of Miles Davis fusion, electric funk and punk rock. Ribot is an inspired choice for this assignment because he is comfortable in many different types of improvisational environments – Zorn too, he’s experimented with so many different ensembles over the years that he’s able to change chameleon like and fit his trademark sound into any type of group.

Speaking in the most broad terms, the music alternates between free jazz blowouts, and some quieter sections where the music bubbles and simmers. All in all, this is a successful experiment. There are a few dead spots, with high-wire improvisation that’s to be expected and if anything the disc is a tad too long, clocking in at nearly the full length of a compact disc.

The group only plays together every once in a while, so further performing at festivals and clubs would further tighten the sound and really turn them into a lean fighting machine. This is still an interesting disc and anyone with an interest in the wilder side of fusion is encouraged to check it out.

I don’t think it’s part of the series, but has anyone heard the Irving Stone Memorial Concert yet?

[Other Steve]

Originally Posted by Librarian

I don’t think it’s part of the series, but has anyone heard the Irving Stone Memorial Concert yet?

It's not part of the series, although tangentally it's related: The original Stone memorial concert was held in July, but the 2-CD set includes selections recorded during a subsequent matinee performance during the Zorn month, scheduled due to the demand of artists who'd been unable to play the original concert (such as a duet by JC's Ellery Eskelin with Marc Ribot).

The recording contains quite a good sampling of the first concert, although I do wish that the breathtaking Butch Morris solo performance had been included in the set (and I'm not the only one to have said so). I assume the second concert, which I could not attend, is similarly well acounted for; the selections from it are certainly fine.

My original Jazzcorner review of the Stone memorial concert is here.

[jaka]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Did not know what to do about these releases.

Now, I can go to buy them.

Beware credit card, I'm coming.

[john williams]

I have the Masada String Trio CD. Like Steve, I was a bit underwhelmed at first and my immediate thought was I'm not buying any more Masada related stuff. However, it is a strong release and does contrast well with the studio recordings. The digipack is pretty tasteful too. I tend to prefer Zorn the composer than the player these days so this one suits me just fine.

Steve: You sure do get to listen to a tonne of music and an impressively eclectic selection to boot.

[Other Steve]

Originally Posted by JBW

Steve: You sure do get to listen to a tonne of music and an impressively eclectic selection to boot.

Yes, and what's really odd is that despite the fact that I typically receive more than a dozen discs per week for free, the bulk of my time is spent listening to things that I've actively sought out and in most cases purchased. That's certainly the case with the four Zorn releases and Stone tribute in question here. In that sense, I'm not so different than anyone else here... and I personally get the sense that Fred K actually buys a lot more music than I do!

[gnhrtg]

I now have had Electric Masada, Graves/Zorn duo, and Masada String Trio for a couple of months and would agree with Derek - haven't been able to warm much to Electric Masada (but do know that I'm not a great Ribot fan) but I quite enjoy the String Trio and the Graves/Zorn duo.

I was wondering whether anyone had yet heard the upcoming acoustic Masada release in this series. The previous live Masada discs (especially Tonic/Sevilla/Middleheim) are some of my all time favorite releases so I will pick this up without a doubt but would still like to hear what you [others] have to say.

[Gary Sisco]

I just ordered it so I'll let you know, gnhrtg.

[Nick]

Any opinions on the new Hemophiliac disc?

[Gordon B]

Originally Posted by Other Steve

Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier - Masada Recital (June 29)
.

This has steadily grown on me with each listen such that it's now one of my favorite releases of the year. I like it even more than the String Trio disc. My third one, Masada Guitars, is ok, but definitely several notches below the other two.

[Gary Sisco]

The acoustic Masada disc in the series is very good.

[jaka]

Originally Posted by Gordon B

This has steadily grown on me with each listen such that it's now one of my favorite releases of the year. I like it even more than the String Trio disc. My third one, Masada Guitars, is ok, but definitely several notches below the other two.

I totally agree about the Feldman/Courvoisier but would have put the String Trio below Masada guitars, if only in terms of originality. I think all 3 guitarists do very good on this one.
Hear me well, I dig the trio, but that's not as if we had no other recordings already.

[Captain Hate]

Any comments by anybody on the Frith?? When I first started listening I was kinda turned off by the seeming offhand collection of Zorn's usual alto antics that didn't seem to cohere at all. But then things started coming together such that by the latter cuts I was really engaged as a listener.

For anybody that was there, is that how the concert itself struck you?

[gnhrtg]

The Masada String Trio (which I think is a very nicely paced, programmed, session) and Graves/Zorn duo (relentless, perhaps too much, but for me impressively so, but regardless of that, I enjoy the playing/music, period), I still like a fair bit and would recommend them to anyone who's been keeping an eye on those. Electric Masada, I will keep but as before keep going back to less often - than either these two or the live acoustic Masadas I have. That said, even that was good fun to listen to on the subway - the first 40-50 minutes in particular.

I'm going to get some more from this series and will start with acoustic Masada and am looking for opinions on the other releases (duos with Wadado Leo Smith and Susie Ibarra, the solo set, as well as the duo with Frith - maybe others I'm forgetting as well).

[crawjo]

I recently picked up the Zorn/Smith/Ibarra and the solo sets. I haven't yet listened to the latter, but the Zorn/Smith/Ibarra right now is one of my favorite releases of 2004.

[baksheesh]

Just got a bunch of these recently in a second hand CD shop. For my money the four Masada group releases are brilliant;

String Trio - Vol. 1
Electric - Vol. 4
Bar Kokhba - Vol. 11
Quartet - Vol. 7

I've hunted down all the stuff by these various groups and it's all utterly wizard! I'm just about to dive into the other Birthday releases I haven't gotten around to listening to yet. Dunno whether to look forward to it or not - some of that stuff looks like it'll be pretty 'avant'.