Post by Sordel on Aug 2, 2014 9:29:48 GMT -5
I attended the Masada marathon yesterday at the 60th Anniversary Newport Jazz Festival. Zorn had been either relegated (or promoted) to the Friday, which was reserved for up-and-coming acts in order to free up the weekend for the established headliners. As a consequence the audience was comparatively small and competition for seating was neither bitter nor bloody. We arrived at the stage about ninety minutes early in order to scout the area and managed to stumble onto the sound check, which we watched for what must have been much of its length. Nearly the first thing we saw was Zorn admonishing Banquet Of The Spirits for trying to turn their sound check into a rehearsal: he chased them off the stage in short order.
The set started on time at 2.30, by which time (thanks largely to the tunnel vision of my wife) I had possibly the best seat in the venue on the centre aisle about twenty feet from the stage. The sound quality was superb throughout. The original quartet was up first and set precedent by playing a too-brief set of two or three songs that flew by. Almost as soon as they started a photographer made his way up to the barrier in front of the stage and started framing up his shots; Zorn, without taking the sax from his mouth, swivelled his eyes at security and then fixed the interloper with a death stare. As he was bundled away, Zorn flipped him the bird for good measure much to the delight of the audience and, I think, to his own, since he seemed to be in high spirits throughout the day.
Second up was Bar Kokhba. On their first number, all the solo spots went to violin and cello, with Zorn holding Ribot back. The he positively unleashed him on the second number, giving him extended time and whipping up the rest of the band around him. Just when it seemed to be over, he brought the band back to full volume for another bite of the cherry. The set prompted deserved standing ovations.
Next up was Banquet Of The Spirits. Despite their involvement in Mount Analogue, I wasn't expecting a great deal from them and they became the surprise of the day, nailing a very tight set and giving me my first experience of Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, whose authority as a bass player (here he was on upright) was immediately obvious.
From this point on the running order switched from the advertised, with Mark and Sylvie playing fourth (now listed as Malphas), followed by The Dreamers and Masada String Trio, all performing exactly as you'd expect.
Introducing Abraxas, Zorn told off the audience for a lacklustre response to their name and said that we would be surprised by this young band. Having heard their album I was unconvinced, and I didn't much care for their set either, although their rhythm section is superb, with both Blumenkranz and Grohowski on it throughout. The weakness is in the guitarists, who have no chemistry with one another. Maoz, seated, quietly (well, not quietly exactly) gets on with his thing while Bajakian bounces around like an over-excited teenager, but this doesn't seem (to my taste) to do anything for the music, which is rough without being raw. My reaction, however, could not have been more different from Zorn's, who hugely enjoyed their set. He came on at the end and said that he didn't sign bands rashly, that he often watched them for ten years first, and that he & Abraxas were now 'hitched for life'.
Erik played three pieces solo and was fantastic on each of them, before Electric Masada capped off proceedings. This final set opened with a very long piece that opened with some very atypical sax heroics from Zorn. Joey found these hilarious and - since I like to think I'm 'in on the joke' I assume that Zorn was aping the sort of brash sax lines that might fly at Newport: certainly he sounded little like himself, although he dead-panned it so well that I could be reading it all wrong. The final piece, shoe-horned in when the marathon (actually a moderate and very short-feeling two and a half hours) ran ahead of time, was 'Hath-Arob', which Zorn forewarned us was 'sick'.
It was a fantastic concert, with Zorn's conducting immensely creative and precise throughout. At one point (I think in The Dreamers set) he indicated a particular beat that he wanted from Joey and, for the first time, I saw the drummer look confused, but he followed the indicated beat and almost immediately saw how it was intended to work with the music. That was just the clearest of many moments when the highlights were directly attributable to Zorn's control of the music.
If it weren't for the fact that I've already seen one other great concert this year I'd be prepared to call off the search and make this my concert of the year right now.
The set started on time at 2.30, by which time (thanks largely to the tunnel vision of my wife) I had possibly the best seat in the venue on the centre aisle about twenty feet from the stage. The sound quality was superb throughout. The original quartet was up first and set precedent by playing a too-brief set of two or three songs that flew by. Almost as soon as they started a photographer made his way up to the barrier in front of the stage and started framing up his shots; Zorn, without taking the sax from his mouth, swivelled his eyes at security and then fixed the interloper with a death stare. As he was bundled away, Zorn flipped him the bird for good measure much to the delight of the audience and, I think, to his own, since he seemed to be in high spirits throughout the day.
Second up was Bar Kokhba. On their first number, all the solo spots went to violin and cello, with Zorn holding Ribot back. The he positively unleashed him on the second number, giving him extended time and whipping up the rest of the band around him. Just when it seemed to be over, he brought the band back to full volume for another bite of the cherry. The set prompted deserved standing ovations.
Next up was Banquet Of The Spirits. Despite their involvement in Mount Analogue, I wasn't expecting a great deal from them and they became the surprise of the day, nailing a very tight set and giving me my first experience of Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, whose authority as a bass player (here he was on upright) was immediately obvious.
From this point on the running order switched from the advertised, with Mark and Sylvie playing fourth (now listed as Malphas), followed by The Dreamers and Masada String Trio, all performing exactly as you'd expect.
Introducing Abraxas, Zorn told off the audience for a lacklustre response to their name and said that we would be surprised by this young band. Having heard their album I was unconvinced, and I didn't much care for their set either, although their rhythm section is superb, with both Blumenkranz and Grohowski on it throughout. The weakness is in the guitarists, who have no chemistry with one another. Maoz, seated, quietly (well, not quietly exactly) gets on with his thing while Bajakian bounces around like an over-excited teenager, but this doesn't seem (to my taste) to do anything for the music, which is rough without being raw. My reaction, however, could not have been more different from Zorn's, who hugely enjoyed their set. He came on at the end and said that he didn't sign bands rashly, that he often watched them for ten years first, and that he & Abraxas were now 'hitched for life'.
Erik played three pieces solo and was fantastic on each of them, before Electric Masada capped off proceedings. This final set opened with a very long piece that opened with some very atypical sax heroics from Zorn. Joey found these hilarious and - since I like to think I'm 'in on the joke' I assume that Zorn was aping the sort of brash sax lines that might fly at Newport: certainly he sounded little like himself, although he dead-panned it so well that I could be reading it all wrong. The final piece, shoe-horned in when the marathon (actually a moderate and very short-feeling two and a half hours) ran ahead of time, was 'Hath-Arob', which Zorn forewarned us was 'sick'.
It was a fantastic concert, with Zorn's conducting immensely creative and precise throughout. At one point (I think in The Dreamers set) he indicated a particular beat that he wanted from Joey and, for the first time, I saw the drummer look confused, but he followed the indicated beat and almost immediately saw how it was intended to work with the music. That was just the clearest of many moments when the highlights were directly attributable to Zorn's control of the music.
If it weren't for the fact that I've already seen one other great concert this year I'd be prepared to call off the search and make this my concert of the year right now.
