Masada (band)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.
Masada is as much a "songbook" as a group, comprised of more than 500 relatively brief compositions. Each song is written in accordance with a number of rules, including the maximum number of staves, the modes or scales that are used, and the fact that the songs must be playable by any small group of instruments.
Given the historical associations of the project's name (see Masada), the Hebrew titles of the compositions, and the Jewish imagery on the covers of the associated albums, Zorn was clearly exploring his Jewish roots, with Zorn stating, "The idea with Masada is to produce a sort of radical Jewish music, a new Jewish music which is not the traditional one in a different arrangement, but music for the Jews of today. The idea is to put Ornette Coleman and the Jewish scales together." [1]
Contents |
[edit] History
Zorn formed the group Masada in order to record and perform this set of tunes. The first group to use the Masada name was Zorn (alto saxophone), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Greg Cohen (double bass), and Joey Baron (drum set). On occasion, different drummers filled in for Baron -- most regularly Kenny Wollesen.
This first edition of Masada had the same instrumental make-up as the pioneering free jazz group led by saxophonist Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s and early '60s, and earned frequent comparisons to Coleman's music. Masada recorded the music on a series of ten CDs on the Japanese DIW label and a number of live recordings on Zorn's Tzadik label.
By the last few months of 2004, Zorn wrote over 300 new tunes for the Masada songbook. Some of the new tunes were debuted at Tonic, NYC in December of 2004, as a mini festival. Tzadik has released a series of CDs of these songs played by various ensembles, including the Masada String Trio, Marc Ribot, Koby Israelite, Erik Friedlander and others as the "Masada Book 2: The Book of Angels" collection.
As of early 2007, according to the Tzadik website, "Together for close to fifteen years, John Zorn's Masada Quartet is officially breaking up and will be performing two of their last live concerts ever at Lincoln Center March 9th and 10th on a double bill with Cecil Taylor's New AHA 3."
[edit] Related projects
Since the middle '90s a number of new projects have arisen under the Masada banner.
[edit] Masada String Trio
The Masada String Trio performs selections from the Masada songbook in a classical-cum-chamber jazz form. Personnel include Mark Feldman (violin), Erik Friedlander (cello), and Cohen, bass. With the addition of Marc Ribot (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion) and Joey Baron (drums), this same group has performed as the "Bar Kokhba Sextet".
The performing style of both groups is characterised by the use of improvisation (sometimes conducted by Zorn himself) and its use of the inflections of Jewish music that are part of the compositional language of Zorn's "Masada" themes.
[edit] Bar Kokhba
Bar Kokhba is a lounge music style band with, among others, Cohen, bass, Marc Ribot (guitar), Anthony Coleman (piano), David Krakauer (clarinet), John Medeski (organ) and piano, Mark Dresser (bass), Kenny Wolleson (drums), and Chris Speed (clarinet). Various arrangements of these players can be heard on the albums Bar Kokhba and The Circle Maker, both under Zorn's name.
[edit] Electric Masada
One of Zorn's most active Masada project of recent years is Electric Masada. Drawing on Zorn's wide ranging stylistic influences, the band takes the Masada songbook into a whole new direction, reminiscent of jazz fusion and noise rock. The group, which includes Baron, Ribot, Wollesen, and Cyro Baptista, from previous Masada groups, as well as Trevor Dunn on bass, Jamie Saft on keyboards and Ikue Mori on laptop/electronics, continue to take the Masada themes and transform them into something entirely new.
Zorn uses hand signals to conduct the band, allowing for him to make up different arrangements on the spot. During Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration at Tonic in September 2003, Electric Masada was recorded live. Released in May of 2004, Electric Masada: 50th Birthday Celebration Volume Four became the group's first official recording. This was followed by At the Mountains of Madness recorded in 2004 in Moscow and Ljubljana.
[edit] 10th Anniversary
2003 saw the 10th Anniversary of Masada and Tzadik released five new CD sets in commemoration. The first release, Masada Guitars, has three guitarists, Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and Tim Sparks, playing the tunes, mainly acoustically. Volume 2, Voices in the Wilderness, has a huge range of groups and individuals playing and Volume 3, The Unknown Masada, has yet more new groups, together with some familiar faces playing Masada tunes never before performed in public. A fourth volume, Masada Recital, performed by Sylvie Courvoisier on piano and Mark Feldman on violin, followed in 2004. The fifth and final volume Masada Rock features the band Rashanim and was released in August 2005.
[edit] Discography
- Masada: Alef (1994; DIW)
- Masada: Beit (1994; DIW)
- Masada: Gimel (1994; DIW)
- Masada: Dalet (1994; DIW)
- Bar Kokhba (1994–96; Tzadik)
- Masada: Hei (1995; DIW)
- Masada: Vav (1995; DIW)
- Masada: Zayin (1996; DIW)
- Masada: Heit (1996; DIW)
- Masada: Tet (1997; DIW)
- Masada: Yod (1997; DIW)
- First Live 1993 (2002; Tzadik)
- Live in Jerusalem 1994 (1997; Tzadik)
- Live in Taipei 1995 (1997; Tzadik)
- The Circle Maker (1998; Tzadik)
- Live in Middelheim 1999 (1999; Tzadik)
- Live in Sevilla 2000 (2000; Tzadik)
- Live at Tonic 2001 (2001; Tzadik)
- Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 1: Masada Guitars (2003; Tzadik)
- Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 2: Voices in the Wilderness (2003; Tzadik)
- Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 3: The Unknown Masada (2003; Tzadik)
- Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 4: Masada Recital (2004; Tzadik)
- Masada Anniversary Edition Vol. 5: Masada Rock (2005; Tzadik)
- 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol 1: Masada String Trio (2004; Tzadik)
- 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol 4: Electric Masada (2004; Tzadik)
- 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol 7: Masada (2004; Tzadik)
- 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol 11: Bar Kokhba Sextet (2005; Tzadik)
- Sanhedrin: 1994-1997 (Unreleased Studio Recordings) (2005; Tzadik)
- Electric Masada: At the Mountains of Madness (2005; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 1: The Jamie Saft Trio play Astaroth (2005; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 2: Masada String Trio play Azazel (2005; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 3: Feldman & Courvoisier play Malphas (2006; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 4: Koby Israelite plays Orobas (2006; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 5: The Cracow Klezmer Band play Balan (2006; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 6: Uri Caine plays Moloch (2006; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 7: Marc Ribot plays Asmodeus (2007; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 8: Erik Friedlander plays Volac (2007; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 9: Secret Chiefs 3 play Xaphan (2008; Tzadik)
- Masada Book Two, Vol 10:Bar Kokhba plays Lucifer (2008; Tzadik)
[edit] Discography of Masada String trio
- John Zorn, Bar Kokhba, 1996
- John Zorn, The Circle Maker, Disc 1 ("Issachar"), 1998
- John Zorn, Filmworks XI: Under The Wing, 2002
- Masada String Trio, 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 1, 2004
- Masada String Trio, Azazel: Book of Angels Volume 2, 2005
[edit] External links
