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Last September, John Zorn celebrated his 50th birthday in style--with a month-long residency at Tonic, his home base in NYC, each night featuring a different group or style or combination of musicians. I was able to hit a few, but with these things, the true breadth is realized in what you missed… and I missed plenty more than I saw. Thankfully, Zorn has been doubly generous, releasing the recordings of these evenings one by one. The first offering is from the Masada String Trio, the one show I was truly upset I couldn’t make it to, as luck would have it. The power of technology: pop in the CD, close your eyes, and anyone anywhere can share in the unimaginable fantasy land within those walls that month. The recording is immaculate, the music transcendent.
For the uninformed, a sizable portion of Zorn’s output is centered on Masada. The songbook itself is the star here as it takes on many forms: a jazz combo, an electrofunk outfit, a chamber ensemble, and this string trio (each making their way onto the Tonic stage last September). Each group realizes new visions in the music, each song existing and self-replicating like a living organism. Masada String Trio is a unique crossroads of classical music with improvisation--hard to imagine without hearing, and hard to resist once you start.
The trio consists of Zorn/NYC mainstays: Greg Cohen on upright, Erik Friedlander, on cello and Mark Feldman on violin, each a master of his craft. Like the best trios, though, the individual talents barely seem to matter and the music pouring from these are like a three-way epoxy. Even when one is soloing, there is a larger purpose to the playing--listen to them play and you know a true professionalism is on display. And just as the individuals are irrelevant in the face of utmost cohesiveness, the individual tracks also become lost in the overall tide of the set as a whole. This is all attributable not just to the intimacy of the music nor the quality and selflessness of the players, but also to the fourth member of the “trio”--Zorn himself. He’s listed here as the “conductor,” but he’s more than a man with a baton reading from sheet music. Judging talent and recruiting the same are just the start. The heads of composition and improvisation are always butting in Zorn’s world, and twisting this juxtaposition into a classical genre makes the entire enterprise of his “conduction” both and accessible. Like great jazz, it works best in a live setting and I present this release as evidence.
Much of Zorn’s music is not for everyone, but probably everyone can find at least a slice of it to call his own. A good bet is the String Trio, which represents all that I love about his music. This archival series starts off on the right foot. Pick this one up and we’ll see if what follows lives up to this one.
Aaron Stein
JamBase | New Jersey
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