Thursday, 5th of June, 2003

The extent to which I am behind in my music reviewing is insane. There is no way I can catch up. There has been a huge amount of wonderful music coming my way in the last few months, but I either haven’t been up to reviewing or have been busy doing other things. Sorry. Here’s one to start me back into it, and a humdinger it is too!

John Zorn is the infamous bad boy of the Jewish music scene, founder of cut-up punk jazz group Naked City, producer of the legendary first Mr Bungle album, composer of bizarre string quartets for Kronos, and so on. For the last 10-15 years (at least?), he’s been at the hub of the downtown New York free jazz/experimental/punk/whatever scene, and with his extraordinary and expansive label Tzadik has popularised what he likes to refer to as “Radical Jewish Culture”. Just about epitomising that Radical Jewish music is his Masada project. Initially Masada was (and is) a jazz quartet modelled after Ornette Coleman’s quartet - Zorn on sax, Dave Douglas on trumpet, Joey Baron on drums and the omnipresent and brilliant Greg Cohen on double bass (see myriad releases by Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, etc etc). Masada perform original tunes from Zorn’s Masada songbook, an ongoing creation which has enriched the world of Jewish music incalculably (not that there wasn’t a huge amount of wonderful stuff around already!)
Then in 1996 Tzadik released the 2CD set Bar Kokhba (go and google Masada & Bar Kokhba and brush up on your Jewish history if you’re interested), which featured “chamber” versions of Masada tunes and swiftly became Tzadik’s best-seller - and justifiably. It was the first Tzadik CD I got and I never looked back. Among the musicians featured are the three other Masada members, David Krakauer (awesome clarinettist, ex-Klezmatics, check out his solo albums, esp Klezmer NY), guitarist Marc Ribot, John Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood on organ, and various others in various combinations. One of the most glorious combinations from that CD was what became the Masada String Trio: Marc Feldman on violin (you may know him from his playing on They Might Be Giants‘ version of Istanbul Not Constantinople among other places), Erik Friedlander on cello and Greg Cohen on bass. The follow-up, The Circle Maker, devoted one whole CD just to that combination, and they’ve appeared on Zorn-penned soundtracks as well.

Which brings us to this project. There’s a Masada Guitars CD I’ve not yet heard, but on this double CD various heroes of the Tzadik world and beyond interpret songs from the Masada catalogue. A lot of the tunes here are familiar to those of us who are fans, and the artists involved either stay beautifully true to the sound or put their own spin on the pieces. The highlights far outweigh the few missable numbers here; the double CD is entirely justified.
Pharoah’s Daughter start off the first CD with a combination of vocals, strings, oud, melodica and guitar/bass/percussion that puts Masada right into the Middle East; lovely. Uri Caine (whose downtown klezmer/improv versions of Mahler on Urlicht/Primal Light (Winter & Winter) are extraordinary and essential) contributes lovely understated piano to drummer Ben Perowsky’s track. The Cracow Klezmer Band’s track is great but doesn’t live up to their extraordinary second album for Tzadik, The Warriors (strongly recommended). Naftule’s Dream (the more experimental incarnation of Boston’s Shirim Klezmer Orchestra) simultaneously bring out the klezmer and the free jazz, while Kramer is as bizarre as ever…
The most wonderful discovery on the CD is Jewlia Eisenberg, whose multitracked vocals and percussion recall the extraordinary Tzadik CD by Tin Hat Trio’s Carla Kihlstedt (review forthcoming - remind me!) No surprise then that Carla & Jewlia play/sing together in the band Charming Hostess. I must check them out, as well as Jewlia’s Tzadik CD. Also notable is a dreamy number from Pachora, who feature downtown regulars Chris Speed, Brad Shepik and Jim Black…

Kicking off CD2 are the aforementioned Medeski, Martin & Wood, extremely groovey as ever. Davka are a beautiful combination of passionate violin, cello (playing the bass role like I do so often in FourPlay *grin*), bassoon (yep!) and percussion. It’s a strange combination of classical or even pre-baroque feel with improvisation.
Following Davka are the always-unbeatable Tin Hat Trio, with a beautiful version of a beautiful song. Check out Carla doing the pulling-a-bow-hair-tied-to-a-string thing a la Taraf de Haidouks!
Mike Patton (of Mr Bungle and Faith No More, kids!) does a very cool track on which he plays/sings everything except for percussion (supplied by William Winant). Meanwhile Anthony Coleman (familiar from various Tzadik releases and contributor of some wonderful piano playing on Bar Kohba) brings out the groove with his trio the Professionales.
Penultimately, violinist Jenny Scheinman is another discovery, combining her violin with guitar/bass/drums for some beautiful improvisatory explorations of the Jewish mode used. A websearch reveals that she too used to be in Charming Hostess, and has an album on Tzadik as well as a Django-inspired album, and appears on Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me. Someone else to check out soon.
Jamie Saft finishes of the comp with a slow digidubby track featuring his wife Vanessa on vocals. Saft has brought the sound of dub (and to a lesser extent drum’n'bass) to Tzadik recently with his solo albums and his remixes of David Gould. Even though I find there’s some kind of veridicality missing from his electronica, these ventures into that sound are a welcome addition for Tzadik, and I hope they continue to explore this area of music.

In summary, I can’t recommend this album enough. Whether you already know the Masada material backwards or are a newcomer, this will delight and enthrall.

One Response to “Zorn, John/Various - Voices in the Wilderness (Masada 10th Anniversary Edition)”

1. Jewlia Eisenberg says:
   February 4th, 2004 at 6:25 pm

   I’m writing about your information on our band, Charming Hostess, on your site “Stumblings in the dark” at
   http://www.frogworth.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=915

   I’m happy to say that Charming Hostess has a website now. In an effort to help the band’s site (www.charminghostess.us)
   list higher on Google, I’m encouraging people who have links for Charming Hostess update the link on their site to the band’s official website.

   You probably know that one way Google decides the importantance of a site is by counting the links from other sites to it. Therefore, I was wondering if you could update the links on your Balkans site to help?

   Your site currently goes to Balkans w/o Borders website which is a compliation/benefit CD that is not directly linked to the band.

   If you could change this link to our home page http://www.charminghostess.us it would be great.

   Although the Balkans CD came out awhile ago, it still ranks highest on Google when searching for Charming Hostess.

   This year the band hopes to put out 3 new CD’s this year and links on your site would be very helpful for us. Please let me know if you can help.

   Jewlia
   http://www.charminghostess.us