I've got to say that I've
missed John Zorn. He's continued to release strong, or at least energizing, work,
but he's failed to sell it to me consistently over the last several years. I
grew weary of the DIW Masadas, preferring the group as a live band, and when
the live cds started coming, responded with more than a bit of 'been there,
done that.'
Where he's been excelling, of course, is as a composer. But I guess I'm a bit
of a rocker at heart. When he quit presenting new material in a standing
band format, I grew to feel a post-Naked City void.
As I've
kvetched elsewhere, Masada was supposed to be a more dynamic project than
it became. It was meant to be about the song, not the singer. But the
first fourth of Zorn's 49th year has been a good one. He's returned to the
idea of Masada-as-songbook (rather than a standing band or three),
introducing an increasingly exciting new line-up,
Electric Masada,
and three discs worth of new versions of Masada
tunes. With Voices in the Wilderness, he may well achieve the
remarkable feat of releasing two records destined for end-of-the-year Top 10
lists without playing on either of them.
Masada Guitars
was a beautiful set of solo guitar interpretations by
Marc Ribot, Tim Sparks and Bill Frisell. Now, this second volume of the
Masada Tenth Anniversary series hands the songbook over to two dozen acts over two
discs for a fairly staggering set of reworkings.
The versions more
or less fall into two camps. Some are hot bands sticking more or less to the letter of the
law, the others providing dramatic reworkings of the material. It's rare
that either falls flat.
Because of the nature of
Wilderness, it's hard to do much more than list pick hits. Pharaoh's
Daughter are a stronger band than their original material often allows them
to show, and their "Karaim" (performed on oud, bass, recorder, melodica,
guitar, cello, viola and vocals) is a strong start to the set. Rova do a
great "Lakom", Naftule's Dream are excellent and Kramer is lush and
saccharine. Jewlia Eisenberg and Pachora offer beautiful readings and Steve
Bernstein reminds that he is a bang-up arranger, even with serious material.
Medeski, Martin and Wood pick one of my all time faves ("Ziphim"), Mephista are, as
always, remarkable, and Jamie Saft once again demonstrates his close kinship
with the composer.
The tinge of self-glorification, or the
tiredness of the tribute album, might keep some of the flock away from this
new Masada project. Pity that, because it's a more valuable reiteration of
Zorn's last decade than Masada Live in Des Moines or whatever the next (or
last) quartet cd is (or was). And upcoming releases in the 10th Anniversary series (including a set by Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman and a disc of previously-unreleased titles, again by a variety of musicians) promise to continue the run. It might seem a tacky bit of
auto-ennobelization, but so far the ends justify the means. And really, if you made a
list of artists deserving tribute treatment, wouldn't Zorn be on it, even if
he had to do it himself?
Comments and Feedback:
|