Jazz em Agosto / Lisbon, August 1-10 (2/3)

By David Cristol 

Days 4 → 7  (see previous)

Próspero’s books

Luís Vicente Trio. Photo by Petra Cvelbar/Gulbenkian Musica

The Luís Vicente Trio is a fully Portuguese band for the trumpeter (who adds bells, whistle, kalimba, bottles and other toy-like instruments to his arsenal), after some time touring and recording with William Parker, Luke Stewart, Hamid Drake, John Dikeman, Mark Sanders, Onno Govaert and the Ceccaldi brothers. The trio with Gonçalo Almeida (b) and Pedro Melo Alves (dm, perc, objects) has two albums out on Clean Feed and was previously heard at the first edition of the neighboring Causa Efeito festival with Tony Malaby as their guest. The spirit and ideas of fire and open music innovators such as Don Cherry are an obvious influence. Several tunes promote hymn-like themes, followed by heated playing. Vicente alternates between elusive flurries and assertive, longer lines. He however doesn't try to be a virtuoso in either the Peter Evans or Wynton Marsalis molds. It’s about the music, not the trumpet. It’s about the people he plays with. It’s about interacting and sharing. Alves has a great sound (and his own albums come recommended). Almeida is on top form, propelling the jams, fully committed whether he holds a rhythm, soloes with a big strong tone or engages in wordless chanting. An elegiac melody soars over unruly and busy playing.

João Próspero Quartet. Photo by Petra Cvelbar/Gulbenkian Musica

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and some musicians find it in the works of painters, authors, activists as much as among their peers and mentors. Think of Myra Melford and her frequent references to artists unrelated to the music world, from writer Eduardo Galeano to painter, photographer and sculptor Cy Twombly. For the work titled Sopros, Porto’s composer and bassist João Próspero finds its muse in the writings of contemporary Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The quartet, made up of Joaquim Festas (elg), Miguel Meirinhos (p) and Gonçalo Ribeiro (dm) can be credited with original compositional ideas. The approach is definitely on the quiet side, the quartet unlikely to break a string or wake up the neighborhood. Prettily floating in the air, the light-as-a-feather music from the romantic four sounds unconcerned by the world’s commotion. On the encore, the combined influences of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Michael Nyman are felt.

MOPCUT with Moor Mother. Photo by Petra Cvelbar/Gulbenkian Musica

The international MOPCUT trio comes to Lisbon with the two guests from their latest effort, RYOK. Ace vocalist Audrey Chen's whimpers introduce the set in tune with the garden’s pond frogs, to which Moor Mother adds ruminations of her own. Drummer Lukas König initially opts for extremely peaceful playing, while Mother chugs into a harmonica with single notes bursts. This results in a kind of dark ambient, which transforms into another beast when Julien Desprez tumbles onstage spraying venomous drops from his Gatling gun guitar. Mother intones her first verses while shaking a rattle and dancing. Desprez kicks off a steady rhythm, MC Dälek throws irate rapping to the menacing bass notes from his synth, with König fleshing out the beat. The noise-meets-improv-meets-hip-hop fusion feels like a jam session, pleasant enough but rather stagnant and directionless between intermittent flashes of brilliance. A fine moment has Moor Mother delivering paranoid verses in her portentous voice, making more sense than Lee Scratch Perry.

Edward George. Photo by Petra Cvelbar/Gulbenkian Musica

After a series of relatively accessible acts from the finest protagonists of the era, the stakes are raised a few notches with artistic statements of a courageous, perhaps visionary nature. As the fest enters its final run, it throws uncompromising, hard to grasp music at the audience, more puzzling than it is immediately enjoyable. In particular, yet another meaningful, awe-inspiring project featuring pianist and electronics magus Pat Thomas in his fourth successive appearance at the festival, after being part of the Evan Parker ensemble, [Ahmed] and The Locals. The X-Ray Hex Tet has an album available, but listening to it doesn’t give a proper idea of the tense and stimulating experience it is to hear them live, with a superlative sound and no distraction. The sextet appears in the dimly lit auditorium and treats listeners to a considered but harrowing experience. It is somber, resorts to silence and hushed emissions, gets sonorous at times but never veers into overdrive. XT’s, [Ahmed]’s and jazz critic Seymour Wright favors short and coarse notes on the alto saxophone. Add two drummers, Crystabel Riley and Paul Abbott and, almost unseen, Billy Steiger on violin and the rare celesta. Finally and crucially, writer, broadcaster and spoken word artist Edward George reads excerpts from a pile of books and resorts to samples related to the politically aware and consciousness-raising subject matter : academic responsibility in the validation and perpetuation of mistreatments based on racial prejudice such as slavery, phrenology, hangings and colonization. It's not fun to listen to, but is for sure arresting, and the present-day implications give the listeners food for thought. The reader’s voice is clear and neutral, neither passionate nor angry, the facts dreadful enough without need for overstatement. The fragmentary display of the texts means that words are just one element of a patiently built whole. The gloomy tone doesn't lend itself to rapturous applause ; it leaves the audience stunned. An impressive work from a decidedly inspired group of artists from the UK.

Aleuchatistas 3. Photo by Petra Cvelbar/Gulbenkian Musica

Who needs categories when Aleuchatistas 3’s fast-moving music rocks at full steam, copious with ideas, twists and turns ? Odd time signature riffs are played at breakneck speed. The structures are tight and likely tricky to execute, but the delivery seems effortless. Of course Trevor Dunn (elb) and Shane Parish (erstwhile Shane Perlowin, on electric guitar and originator of the trio over 20 years ago) are no slouches when it comes to tackling difficult material. The discovery here is drummer Danny Piechocki. His contribution is central to building the inescapable architectures of the song-length compositions. Each track goes straight to the point. No fat around the edges. Parish appears as the most laid-back person to ever walk on a stage, his unfazed demeanor at odds with the somewhat obsessive-manic aesthetics of the music. I had lost track of Ahleuchatistas after their pair of albums on Tzadik – no wonder they pleased John Zorn’s ears, as the trio’s fierce focus and quick about-face have much in common with the New York manitou’s own leanings over the years. At one point, Parish plays alone, a preview of his solo set on the next day. He gives his regards to the full moon, looming behind the audience. The songs, lifted from the trio’s current album, are intricate yet engaging. On « What's your problem » Parish settles for high-pitched washes over an insane workout from the rhythm team, oddly reminiscent of the JB’s at their peak.

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2025 Big Ears Festival Day 2: Friday, March 28

 

By Sarah Grosser 

Eno (film)

 

To Brian Eno, there seems to be an eternal sense of wonder about the world. An artist without even trying to be one, it's just something he was born to do. And a relatable artist at that. The packed cinema enjoyed frequent outbursts of laughter watching the famous innovator swearing "Fuck off" at YouTube while waiting for the ads to end. This generative film can be viewed over and over again as the segments are randomly selected for each individual screening. Some folks who viewed both screenings of Eno at Big Ears estimated that around 50% of the movie was different in the second version- a section about Eno's love of the omnichord was not in the first showing, for example. Another fan was overheard saying that the version they saw last year had a stronger focus on Roxy Music and vintage Eno.

Oblique Strategies are a deck of cards developed by Peter Schmidt and Eno, designed to prompt new, creative solutions to artistic conundrums. As a proud owner of my own deck, (fifth edition 2001), I was pleased to see the cards appearing in different segments. Learning that Eno and David Bowie used to take a card each and not tell each other its contents, and then try work on the same track in secret resulted in some terrifically creative dichotomies, especially when both cards worked in polar opposition to each other. These small vignettes were a joy to experience. I could have kept watching all day.

Nels Cline Singers at the Mill & Mine

 

Nels Cline

 

Nels Cline- guitar

Skerik- saxophone

Trevor Dunn- bass

Scott Amendola- drums

Cyro Baptista- percussion

A little sunburn was a small price to pay for a front row spot on the railing for Nels's spectacular experimental band. Not that there was any shortage of talent onstage. Keyboard player Brian Marsella was notably absent, but becoming a first-time father is a legitimate excuse. The crowd cheered when Nels announced this happy news. This psychedelic group explored a range of props and accessories with their instruments, resulting in an array of unique textural squonks amongst the grooves. Me and my friends had fun dancing and imitating the different wah-wah's, click-clacks, and more. Cyro Baptista was blowing into a tiny whistle, clanging one of his many gongs, rustling handmade shakers, or providing odd vocal accompaniment. His bag of bizarre percussive tricks seemed infinite. He was endlessly entertaining and brought a fun, trippy spice to the already eclectic group. Frontman Nels was just as fun to watch, cycling through different effects and jamming out on his git. Some passionate moments saw him go momentarily punk, ripping at his axe dramatically, as if momentarily possessed. Watching Nels's wild flashes was exciting. The sound in the front row was difficult and it was almost impossible to hear Skerik’s saxophone. It's a strange thing to be two meters away from a wailing sax and not to hear it. Thankfully there were a few quieter moments where the sax could be made out. I'm sure it sounded fantastic everywhere else in the hall. But standing directly under the truss speakers, for a great live view, I suppose this is the unfortunate price to pay.

Jeff Parker ETA IVtet at the Bijou Theatre

 

Jeff Parker - Bijou. Photo by Taryn Ferro

Jeff Parker- guitar

Josh Johnson- saxophone

Anna Butterss- bass

Jay Bellerose- drums

I only managed to catch a few songs from this set, but I really enjoyed Jeff Parker’s smooth, easy guitar grooves. After the busy freak-out with Nels, a funky loop with a minimalist vibe was the perfect way to calm back down and ease into the rest of the day. The infectious repetitions of “Freakadelic” had the audience grooving away, their heads nodding along to the beat in the darkness. Unpretentious, understated, and really easy to enjoy. I hadn’t previously heard the long jams from their 2024 release “The Way Out of Easy” but I can see this becoming my soundtrack to a hot, loungey summer’s day.

I had heard, however, great things about Australian bass player Anna Butterss, and they did not disappoint with their soulful approach to the upright bass (and super cool pink buzz-cut.) A true original in the scene today and – after a quick chat after the show – a lovely person too.

Thor Harris at the First Presbyterian Sanctuary

 

Thor Harris

Thor has his little keyboard right up front in the middle, in contrast to Kramer and Shahzad who were hidden behind the grand piano, stage left. I can't tell if its little speaker is busted or if it's meant to be subtly distorted like that. The slight buzzing is a little off-putting against the angel clarity of the keys. When Thor comes in on an equally bright and clear clarinet, the buzzing continues. I've come to the conclusion that it was just an added effect by choice, as it did fade out over time. The toy piano sound is much more pleasant. I'm not sure what I expected from a former Swans percussionist, but certainly a toy piano looped with live clarinet was not on my radar. Even though his live playing kept it interesting, for me the loops are a little repetitive. For others this is surely entrancing.

"What an honor to play in the best festival in the United States!" Thor seems like a really positive person, shouting out friends in the audience, giving people big warm hugs. He seems genuinely nice. It's hardly any wonder he has seven musician friends to invite, joining him for an ensemble piece. The band is Water Damage and they play a soft looping piece which is mellow, calm, and subtly evolving. The numerous stringed instruments swirl around each other as the plinky toy piano descends like tiny snowflakes. Thor joins in on a melodica, and adds a bassline. This time, when the loops are played by musicians, it has a less mechanical feel to it.

The jam eventually begins to lift into a crescendo which is quite loud. Several people in the audience are nodding along with the musicians. The intensity is welcomed after the long start. At the conclusion of the show, one man launches to his feet, clapping maniacally into the sky with pure elation.

In between shows our crew heads over to Good Golly Tamale for vegan tamales which we then took over to eat at Pretentious Beer Co. – perhaps the most creative brewery in town, widely known for their unbeatable selection of delicious and inventive craft beers. As an Australian based in Bavaria, the opportunity for me to experience a real Tamale had not yet presented itself in this lifetime, so I was thrilled to be experiencing one for the first time. Scrumptious, and highly recommended!

Bill Frisell "In My Dreams" at the Tennessee Theatre

 

Bill Frisell's In My Dreams. Photo by Eli Johnson

Bill Frisell- guitar

Jenny Scheinman- violin

Eyvind Kang- viola

Hank Roberts- cello

Tony Scherr- bass

Rudy Royston- drums

Greg Tardy- clarinet and tenor saxophone

Despite having six friends on stage alongside, Bill is given all the sonic space he needs to stand out as the feature of this very listenable ensemble. The addition of strings makes it magical. They take a good thing and make it even better. The songs waft along like a warm spring breeze- the ideal accompaniment to the unusually hot weather outside. Bill is all smiles jamming with this group: the groove is smooth and elite. It's classy.

Rudy Royston's drum solo is a dynamic feast. Bill is clearly ecstatic at Rudy's immaculate demonstration and the joy is contagious. People are clapping before it's even over. Granted, it's after 8 pm on a Friday and beers are flowing. Everyone in the audience is loving it. Solo after solo elicits joyful applause. The composition has taken a turn for the ballad, and everyone is down for the ride.

The pieces are quite long, and have a typical Frisell groove to them, but they meander along with a relaxing, but not chill vibe- there is plenty of tension and suspense, but it's universally enjoyable.

(Turntable Trio) Miriam Rezaei, Maria Chàvez, Victoria Shen (aka Evicshen) at the Standard

 

Victoria Shen

The only downside to this incredible, provocative, electrifying performance is that there are no deck-cams to observe all the exciting, busy creativity happening atop the tables. A heavily male-dominated instrument, this all-female turntable noise trio is a miracle to behold. Maria to the right providing ambience and effects, physically dropping crumbled vinyl onto the deck to produce loud booms and manipulating her own voice via microphone. Miriam in the middle conjuring incredibly choppy beats and lightning-fast scratches and manipulations with speed and precision. And then there is Victoria Shen (Evicshen), unquestionably having the hottest theatrics of the festival, combined with a dominant stage outfit, and a mad-scientist’s collection of homemade noise instruments and devices. When she began combing her hair with a comb microphone, producing a loud gritty distortion, the guy next to me must have been tripping balls because he absolutely lost his shit. Contorting her body, using her mouth, nails, legs, squatting over her homemade turntable with a small trumpet, and finally cracking an actual whip, she had the enthralled audience in the palm of her hand. Or rather, under the heel of her boot. Exceptional.

Together, the three digital sirens interacted with each other, sometimes swapping places, constantly experimenting. The drum 'n' bass finale saw Maria excitedly jumping and smiling- in exuberance. It was contagious.

When the show ended, a man called out, "That's how you do it!" which I'm sure was meant well, but left me thinking, "Male confirmation not required." They clearly already know how it's done. 

 ---

Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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Sally gates, Trevor Dunn, Greg Fox – Deliriant Modifier (Riverworm Records, 2023)

By Matty Bannond

The human brain makes a lot of predictions. When life contradicts those forecasts, it unleashes a variety of physical and emotional responses. A trio of high-profile improvisors explores the depth and breadth of those reactions in this ten-track album. It’s improvised but controlled by hard parameters such as time limits. Like a spider trapped in a bathtub. Or three spiders.

Sally Gates is at the heart of most songs for most of that allotted time. The guitarist is a regular co-creator in New York’s experimental scene and leads the avant-rock trio Titan to Tachyons, who released their 2022 album Vonals on Tzadik. She adds piano to a couple of tracks too. Trevor Dunn plays contrabass, with Greg Fox on drums and synth. Both names are familiar to free jazz fans.

It’s a record with plenty of rock-ish moments. There’s emphatic drumwork in the opening for “Dissolve and Surveil”, for example, with string-bendy guitar. Occasional thumps from acoustic bass manage to rise to the surface, but it’s one of several tracks where Dunn sinks in the sonic quicksand.

There are places where his deep voice sings loudest, however. “Nobody, and Nothing” is a spacier thing with pattering percussion and droplets of guitar that disappear and reappear like suppressed memories. Thick strings from the contrabass buzz against the fretboard. Listeners with headphones will feel notes rush down to their boots and onwards toward the planet’s core. A sensory treat.

“Retinal States” kicks off with worried piano. There’s a stop-start sensation here with skittish drumming that builds with each trembling in-breath. Structures and patterns rise up and fall down. The instruments sprint into free space before slipping into deep ruts, then restarting.

Deliriant Modifier is album where impulses are let loose—but with bungee cords tugging at their shoulders. Three gifted spiders roam and race around the slippery landscape, climbing high and falling freely. It’s unpredictable music that bucks against the brain’s prophecies. How will your mind and body react?

The album is available as a digital download here.

Listen to "Nobody, and Nothing"

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“Give The Brummer Some” – An Encounter with Ches Smith

Ches Smith @ Festival Sons d’Hiver – Paris, January 2024. (c) Margaux Rodrigues

By Sarah "Flake" Grosser

Alas, fate had other plans for former-pizza-maker turned pro-brummer/congwriter, Ches Smith. When the pizza place relocated, the owners announced to their beloved employees that the moving process could take a while. If anyone wanted to pursue alternative career paths, “Perhaps now would be a good time.”


With a glint in his eye and a gentle smile, Ches speaks fondly of his time working at Escape from New York Pizza, recalling the good old days with waves of nostalgia. One might think he almost regretted his decision to follow the path of "professional musician."

An in-joke from this era, quoted from a colleague in the kitchen, inspired the very title of Laugh Ash, his latest album released February 2, 2024. 
With a similar fondness, he chats about the recording process with a different team of workmates, and the inspiration and gusto each band member brought to the project:

“Everyone was so great – really threw down with the music and all that. [The strings] would just sit there and shed their parts together. And when James [Brandon Lewis] would come over and look at stuff, where he’d call me, it felt good. Shahzad totally too. And he can be a bit of a wild card, but he just was like, 'Yeah, let's do this.' He really learned the music.” The full roster of Laugh Ash’s blockbuster lineup includes a total of ten extraordinarily talented musicians, the coordination and recording of which was indeed serious business. The recurring theme of catering for the massive ensemble, however, became something of a running gag.

“I ordered, like, WAY too much food each day. It kinda got funny when there was like 40,000 pounds of sushi one day. Then, seriously, like 20 pizzas. And people were like, 'I don't think we can eat all this, man.' I just like to make people have a good time.”

And that he does at the very least through the display of his extraordinary talent on the skins.

To watch Ches play live is nothing short of exhilarating. In the constellation of Marc Ribot’s rough and punky Ceramic Dog , cymbals adjusted sky high allow for harder hits, resulting in not only a louder crash, but a noodley spectacle of long flailing limbs. Over the course of the recent European tour, six snare heads were destroyed. He is also known for his "1000 faces" – animated, rubbery, and cartoony facial gestures amplified by the occasional tilting of his long neck. It’s always an endearing, passionate performance: professional, but with a goofy-twist. A bit like Napoleon Dynamite when he’s dancing.

He’s looking remarkably youthful and healthy. Perhaps this can be traced to a relatively clean, mostly vegetarian/pescatarian lifestyle, and a tendency to avoid drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol, especially on tour. After performances, however, open Red Bulls and half-drunk coffee cups can be found scattered around the drum kit. Ches’s energy levels are always somewhere on the border between falling asleep on his feet and hyper focused, almost certainly as a result of over-caffeination. “I’m just gonna fill this up,” he commentates at breakfast while placing a mug under the coffee machine, and hitting the double-espresso button a grand total of three times. Maybe this is the secret to his success.

And if it’s any measure of that success to name his collaborators, here are just a few: Tim Berne, Mary Halvorson, Bill Frisell, Trey Spruance, Jamie Stewart, Sean Ono Lennon, John Zorn … Regardless, It is pointless to try and list all the prominent musicians Ches has worked with. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to suggest that he has worked with them all. Suffice to say, he does not experience the sensation of being “star struck,” or at least he hasn’t done so since 1999.

“I didn’t expect it, but when I talked to Ian MacKaye [Fugazi], I was super weird, because I had that feeling… I guess starstruck for someone I had admired from afar, but I didn’t realise it until I came into contact with him. That’s the last time I remember, it’s possible there was another, because that’s a long time ago.”

The Haitian drumming scene however, still causes him some degree of intimidation: “These master drummers that I’m playing with grew up in the tradition, and I’m coming at it from the outside… I don’t do it enough, I think. I wish I could spend a lot more time, but I really have to do all this other music too.“ 

Ches fell into the Haitian scene by accident, after a stand-in was required at a graduate school dance class. His paleness, thankfully overlooked, Ches describes the moment as something like: “Hang on - we can work with this.” It was love at first thump, and ever since that day, his passion has developed into a borderline addiction, sometimes catching himself making up excuses to cover up his sneaking out to go “Vodou” drumming. Never a man to do things by halves, Ches’s study of Haitian culture has even gone as far as learning the language of Haitian Creole – this effort of assimilation in turn earning him a deep level of respect and trust from Haitians worldwide, multiple true friendships, and even a god-daughter. But for someone as committed as Smith, it’s never quite enough: “Last week, I almost gave up Haitian drumming forever. The amount of practice and commitment required to be at the level I want to be at… [but] I’m not going to quit. It's been a while since I played [a ceremony]… It’s something you have to be in shape for, for sure.”

It’s quite a unique situation: one minute performing a Zorn-composed opera piece alongside Barbara Hannigan at the packed out Paris Philharmonic, the next minute immediately Ubering across town, sneaking out to go Haitian drumming (again) in a private, seven-person, Vodou ceremony in a Paris basement. The Haitian preoccupation manifests across the spectrum of Ches’s work, notably his We All Break project, (featuring Matt Mitchell, Nick Duston, and Markus Schwartz to name a few). The compositions draw heavily from traditional Haitian instrumentation, vocals, and rhythms, but are tastefully blended with piano and other "western" accompaniments.

Ches finds ways of incorporating diversity wherever possible, even amongst the rapid-fire genre switching pieces by John Zorn: the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it, minute long, machine gun works, for example: “In those small bursts, I try to include that [the Haitian influences] as much as I can.” Taking part in a huge number of eclectic collaborations, and never one to shy away from the role of frontman, some of his most notable projects include the percussive Congs For Brums , the experimental These Arches, and the impressive post-covid combo of Bill Frisell, Craig Taborn, Matt Mineri on Interpret it Well. The cover art for which is a sketch by none other than artist Raymond Pettibon, famous for his work with Black Flag, and his almost comically iconic Sonic Youth’s “Goo” album cover. Ches humbly remarks: “We couldn’t believe we were allowed to use it.”

Matt Hollenberg once stated his theory that drummers can take on more projects because they "don’t have to worry about notes." “Oh yeah, that's true,” agrees Ches, “I think you can memorise more music – I find it easier to memorise music when I'm playing drums than vibes, for instance, but there are other challenges. I think it all ends up being the same.” Once declaring that he was “looking forward to playing more jazz and less of that classical shit,” he now officially retracts this statement. Ches Smith would like to clarify that he believes classical music is not shit: ”I think I was talking about the amount of dense music I had to have in my head [at the time]. I think after concert after concert of that, it's nice to just kind of swing. That's what I felt I probably meant. Sometimes I say things in a ham-fisted kind of way.”

Further traces of Ches’ ham-fisting can be found scattered around his discography, with songs and album titles such as: “Hammered”, “My Motherfuckin Roda!”, or “Speak Up If You Hate This”. So what is it that drives a man to label a serious tune “The Most Fucked”? “[It was] a kind of version of what I was trying to do, like there were versions where it was super streamlined. You know, without all that shit going on… [That title] just stuck.”

Festival Sons d’Hiver – Paris, January 2024. (c) Margaux Rodrigues

With the Big Ears Festival on the horizon, the brummer can be found playing in no less than four supergroups: Ceramic Dog, Laugh Ash, Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant avec Folie à Quatre, and Secret Chiefs 3.

On reuniting with Secret Chiefs 3: “I’m looking forward to it. I was just relearning the music today and it kind of all came back really fast, and it's a lot of tunes I've played a lot, but it's just been a long time. I'm glad Shahzad’s back in it, too. And Shanir [Ezra Blumenkranz] together. There's like two on every instrument: Kenny Grohowski and myself, Shahzad and Shanir, Matt [Hollenberg] and Trey [Spruance]... It's fun. It’s really a fun band to play in.“

According to Ches, there’s two things in life that he was born to do: play the drums and be a dad. A devoted husband and father of one, he can often be found juggling meetings and commitments abroad with simultaneous phone calls back home. His passion for his little family clearly runs deep, as he frequently recalls family-related anecdotes amongst his everyday conversations. Although he relishes the natural excitement of touring, the underlying desire to return home and be with them is omnipresent. In terms of priority, “family” always dominates.

Having said that, he did maybe tell a teeny tiny fib to the love of his life about buying a full octave-and-a-half set of orchestral bells. “I told her I was not gonna buy them. And then suddenly there were just…” he trails off. “[John] Zorn was using them more than once. I kept having to borrow them from Kenny Wollesen and I found a set that I could afford, and I was like, ’I'm just doing this.’ But everyone thinks it's completely ridiculous. It’s like the heaviest instrument I own, easily. It’s like metal bars and a huge frame with a pedal.”

In this all-too serious world, it’s refreshing to know that artists like Ches are out there keeping it fun. God knows, the scene could certainly benefit from an occasional injection of humour. But what does the future hold, and where does he see himself in 5 years time?

“I wanna be the first legacy artist on Bandcamp'… I said that? That was a joke, man.

… but I do see myself as a legacy artist on Bandcamp.”

Additional Bandcamp links:

https://chriscorsano.bandcamp.com/album/libra-rising

https://screwgunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/decay

https://daveholland.bandcamp.com/album/uncharted-territories

https://screwgunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/candid

https://screwgunrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mystic

https://timberneintakt.bandcamp.com/album/the-fantastic-mrs-10

https://michaelformanekintakt.bandcamp.com/album/as-things-do

https://jasonrobinson.bandcamp.com/album/harmonic-constituent

https://carlabozulichofficial.bandcamp.com/album/ches-smith-carla-bozulich-run

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More Soul and Fire

By Lee Rice Epstein

Another in a loose, completely unpredictable series of round-ups, featuring three more albums of high-wire, fiery music that falls somewhere in the wide and expansive realm of this blog’s readership’s listening habits. (See the first Soul and Fire round-up here)

Editrix - Editrix II: Editrix Goes To Hell (Exploding In Sound Records, 2022)

Editrix is a sharp-edged, hooky trio with guitarist (and blog-fan-fave) Wendy Eisenberg, bassist Steve Cameron, and drummer Josh Daniel. The second album from Editrix sends the band to hell in name only, the music is as fun as the debut, if not more so. Eisenberg’s guitar shimmers on the opening title track, like a spiky remnant lifted from eight tracks of shoegaze noise. As they sing, “Don’t stop, don’t look away, I’ll run away from you,” Cameron and Daniel lay down a sinewy punk groove that immediately pivots to metal madness on “The Hunt.” The songs are catchy as, well, hell? “Queering Ska” mashes up a ska-punk backbeat with Eisenberg’s pointed, melancholy lyrics, while “Two Questions” is a dub-inflected headbanger. One of many of the album’s highlights, “I Can Hear It” rises and falls in crashing waves, Cameron surfing right through alongside Eisenberg. Where, on previous albums, the rising and falling melodic lines from guitar and bass hinted at Eisenberg’s jazz bona fides, their Editrix compositions thrash and romp unexpectedly.

Ahleuchatistas - Expansion (Riverworm Records, 2022)

Ahleuchatistas is a trio, sometimes duo, that’s been going so long it’s probably old enough to drink by now. Most recently, guitarist Shane Parish pulled together a trio with bassist Trevor Dunn and drummer Danny Piechocki. Ahleuchatistas has long occupied an intersection of arch wit, punchy drums, and swinging up-tempo guitar that, to reference one track, keeps on giving. After Parish spent some time with this band as a duo, Dunn and Piechocki are brilliant additions to the Ahleuchatistas extended family. Titles like “Megamegalopolis” and “End Times Careerism” give an idea of the sense of humor, and both also feature Parish laying down remarkably layered riffs that play delightedly off of Dunn’s mind-blowing bass lines. For the impatient listener, the trio rarely (if ever) stop moving; for the patient listener, the hallmarks of Parish’s other albums are present and accounted for: folk and blues colliding with punk and classical. And where is the jazz, per se? Well, what’s not jazz about it, says I.

 The group is on tour in June to support Expansion... http://www.shaneparish.com/tour

Max Kutner - High Flavors (self-released, 2022)

 
Max Kutner is something like a guitarist-plus on High Flavors, an album recorded just around the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic with trumpet player Eli Asher, saxophonist Michael Eaton, bassist Kurt Kotheimer, and drummer Colin Hinton. As usual for Kutner, the music pulls from his deep well of jazz, synth funk, and prog rock, with a warm humor that shaves away any pretense associated with those genres (for the purposes of this review, assume genre is a thing—for the purposes of enjoyment, there is no genre only music). Throughout the album, layers of overdubs and samples slot in and out of the tracks (with, as the liner notes mention, “A High Point of Low Culture” highlighting Kutner’s grandfather on saxophone). Around the halfway mark of opener “Deramping,” Kutner, Asher, and Eaton start in on collectively melting faces. The group has more surface jazz markers than Editrix or Ahleuchatistas, occasionally dropping into all-out swing or gutbucket blues territory. Like Eisenberg and Parish, Kutner has a kind of infectious, fearless joy that comes blazingly through.

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John Zorn-Bagatelles Vols 9 - 12 (Tzadik 2023)

By Gary Chapin

In his third Bagatelles studio set, John Zorn gives us a set of four CDs focused on guitar, much the way the second set focused on piano. Matt Hollenberg and Daniel Ephraim Kennedy (of Cleric, playing volume 12) gave an interview about working with Zorn a few years back on the Masada project, The Book of Beriah. He explained Zorn’s rules, and it feels like they might have some bearing on the Bagatelles process.

Daniel : [Zorn] has a kind of rule that you have to set the idea the way he wrote it just once in the tune, but then you can develop from there.

Matt : There were a couple of arrangements we made where we did his thing in the middle or something and we kind of made our own weird intro. Because if you just write what he wrote down, there’s maybe thirty seconds to a minute, tops.

The guitar genres go all over the place in terms of approach and the set is a great object lesson/reminder of how broadly the guitar inhabits that downtown music aesthetic.

Volume 9 features the trio Azmodeus—Marc Ribot, guitar; Trevor Dunn, bass; Kenny Grohowski, drums—a cooperative trio, but it is really Ribot’s opportunity to spread and our opportunity to bask in it. The general tone of things is built on a ground of rock-ish, surf-ish delights, with Grohowski playing a driving, abundant kit. I can imagine Zorn sitting there conducting this, “Move! Move! Move!” Noise is never that far away, and thank God for that.

In a profoundly effective act of programming, Zorn puts Julian Lage and Gyan Riley into the Volume 10 slot. The acoustic guitar duo uses classical techniques to produce an hour that is intense and sublime. I imagine the process, Lage and Riley, given 32 bars of melody and figuring out, “What are we going to do with this?” It’s knotty music, with turns and roundabouts, complex and immersive.

The Jim Black Quartet—with Black on drums, Jonathan Goldberger and Keisuke Matsuno on guitar, and Simon Jermyn on bass—is the “jazziest” of the four volumes, primarily because Black’s drums seem as melodically motivated as rhythm. It is striking how in this “guitar” set, the drums are so determinate. Even in the Lage/Riley set, the absence of drums is a presence. For the Black quartet, the two guitars are in separate channels. On headphones the sense of overlapping dialogue is powerful.

Finally, Volume 12, features the aforementioned Cleric doing their hardcore overwhelm. These apparently divergent genres being phenomenologically related is an argument that has defined Zorn’s career, and the fact that in Clerics work, you can hear the germ of the Bagatelle surrounded by the emergence of the performers is just another piece of evidence.

The real joy of sorting the tune from the arrangements—which I admit is my own side-obsession—could only happen if we heard two or more bands playing the same tunes. Zorn frustrates this nerdy desire of mine. So far, every tune on the set is played only once. Which makes sense if Zorn since wants to hear all the Bagatelles realized. And also, so do I. I want to hear every single one of these 300 gems.

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Three Overlooked Gems

By Gary Chapin

I was surprised to see that we had not reviewed these gems, but not surprised to see that I was the one who’d promised to review them. Mea maxima culpa. There’s tons of music I’ve not reviewed this year, but only these three have I been listening to with incessant fascination. I think I have been reluctant to wrap my thoughts around them. One of the joys of This Kind of Music is the way it can evoke things without having to articulate them. Sometimes, in a review, I find myself trying to articulate things, and thereby diminishing them. Perhaps I’m over thinking this.

Nate Wooley - Ancient Songs of Burlap Heroes (Pyroclastic Records 2022)

Wooley sets his theme in the accompanying text. His own words:

This album is dedicated to those who recognize living as a heroic act: the occupiers of sunup barstools; the cubicle-planted; the ghosts of Greyhounds; the reasonably sketchy. A burlap hero is one who marches—consciously or not—back to the sea in hopes of making no splash, who understands and embraces the imperfection of being, and in that way, stretches the definition of sainthood to fit.

Wooley and crew—himself, trumpet; Susan Alcorn pedal steel; Mary Halvorson, guitar; Ryan Sawyer, drums; Trevor Dunn, bass on track 4; Mat Maneri, viola track 2—present us with what I’m interpreting as three movements. These are punctuated (beginning, middle, and end) with transitions named as extended ellipses (……………), or they could be many many periods.

Wooley celebrates quotidian heroism as Homeric. Beginning and ending at the sea, with a “catastrophic legend” at the center. This is earnest music, without an ounce of irony, evoking the sea in all of its dark, menacing, comforting, brooding power. The structure of the legend is such that the voices build slowly, layering chronically, and finally break loose. Wooley’s trumpet is anthemically clear at points. Halvorson and Alcorn are uncannily good, woven throughout like indispensable threads.

Julie Tippetts and Martin Archer - Illusion (Discus 2022)

Every track on this long two CD set is immediately discernible as great and engaging, but the sprawling majesty of the two suites is something that reveals itself over ime. In those moments when I stop thinking about what I want to listen to, and start feelingbehaving what I want to listen to I have been reaching for Illusion.

There’s an abundant creativity to the lyricism, here. So many ideas come out so effortlessly. It’s like a Jack Kirby drawing, bursting with intrigue and spectacle. Everything Tippetts is great at is encompassed here, couched in British free jazz progressive music, art song, aleatoric music, electronica, and the sort of singer/songwriter eccentricity that led to Joni Mitchell or Robin Holcomb. Tippett’s, among other things, is an extraordinarily facile vocalist.

“Circle of Whispers” is a set of contrasting smaller pieces, illuminating each other in relief. “Illusion” is a genuine suite, seven parts of continuous music. The ensembles are recombinated into various small groups, and the overall structure is guided by chance procedures. The mixture of intent and emergence is striking.

Thumbscrew - Multicolored Midnight (Cuneiform 2022)

Mike Formanek is the kind of the freebop hard swinging, hip walking, “goin’ down the street and passing out wolf tickets” kind of bass line, and I don’t even know if it’s close. That’s the vibe this disc starts on, and it proceeds as it begins. If there’s a story here, it’s kind of dark and also funny.

Thumbscrew is Formanek, Mary Halvorson (guitar), and Tomas Fujiwara (drums, vibes). They ran into each other by accident seven albums ago and have been a genuinely cooperative trio ever since. They share composing duties, and cover a wide repertoire of “others” work. 2020’s Anthony Braxton Project pretty much destroyed me. The shifting relationships and pairings mean every player is rhythm and lead, in turns and simultaneously.

Multicolored Midnight features eleven originals, varying levels of composition and improvisation. Mary Halvorson’s guitar again shines. Between this and the Nate Wooley I just talked about—and every other thing she’s done this year—would make her my free jazz MVP, if we had such a thing. Fuliwara’s drums are fleet and unexpected, but his vibes really stick out, for me. I’m actually obsessed with his vibes.

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Zoh Amba - Bhakti (Mahakala Music, 2022)

By Martin Schray

In a short documentary, Zoh Amba says that she thought music was an escape from the world, but she realized that it was rather a gateway to a universe of beauty. With it, she says, she can create a world of friends and sunshine, even when the circumstances around you aren’t the best. Amba grew up in rural Tennessee, her mother raising her and her twin brother alone, with which she was occasionally overwhelmed (she was only 18 when the children were born). As a teenager, Amba was sometimes so sad that she would have preferred to leave the world - but then she got a saxophone. Later on she has found some support in Hinduism. It was then when she realized that music is everything and everything is simultaneously in music. God and music are one for her. When she sometimes found herself lost in worldly sadness, she remembered the truth of music and sound and could then lose herself in it instead. Still, she felt like a stranger in Tennessee. In the fall of 2020, at the invitation of a mutual acquaintance, she drove from Tennessee to Harlem a few times to meet and eventually study with David Murray. “We were playing really high together and just screaming on the horn in class, and he said, 'Come on, give me more’“, Amba said in an interview with The New York Times. “He was the one who encouraged me, 'Don't stop, keep going, let me hear it, keep going.’" Murray said Amba reminded him of himself when he was her age. “She’s trying to find her voice now, like I was trying to find my voice when I came to New York when I was 20 years old“, he said. “And finding your voice early is a rare thing. And Amba has a voice of her own."

She has released three albums this year as a bandleader, she has been playing with almost all the New York luminaries - such as John Zorn, who produced her album O, Sun and is also featured on it, and William Parker, who plays bass on O Life, O Light, Vol. 1, another of Amba’s albums from 2022. Live, she has a quartet with a rotating lineup, from Cecil-Taylor-veteran Marc Edwards (drums) to Mike-Patton-pal Trevor Dunn (bass), drummer Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin & Wood) and Thomas Morgan (bass), who plays with Bill Frisell. On Bhakti, her new album, she collaborates with young pianist Micah Thomas and Tyshawn Sorey, possibly the best drummer around at the moment. On the last track they are joined by guitarist Matt Hollenberg, who’s also from John Zorn’s musical universe. The result is an early opus magnum that captures the full range of Amba’s expression, from fervent outbursts to wistful blues.

Although very often Amba’s inspiration by the music of Albert Ayler is mentioned (which is there, of course), to me the influence of David S. Ware’s sound is even more obvious. Amba takes on Ware’s spirituality and his fondness of playing a melody here and there, which makes her trio/quartet’s music very accessible, even by free jazz standards. Although by no means traditional, the music’s combination of ecstasy, minimalist repetition and a penchant for drama create an almost incredible dynamic musical entity. “Altar Flowers“, the opener, begins with harsh, torn, massive and wild notes. However, Amba’s lines are also breathy and playful, while Sorey and Thomas segue into a wry, droning gospel sound (you’d pay good money if William Parker had been on bass - that probably would have been icing on the cake). What follows is an interesting tension between Amba’s vibrato-rich sound and the intricate chord voicings that Thomas uses. Sorey’s drumming is so precise, so clear, and so bright that he alone could light up the sonic space. One can imagine what this does in combination with Amba’s saxophone and Thomas’s exploding arpeggios: it’s like a bunch of sparklers burning at all ends. In the first two tracks, Amba, Sorey and Thomas keep these sparkler ends burning in a constant game of readjustment between consonance and dissonance, clustering and purposeful dissolution, especially at the end of “Altar Flowers“, when Amba mercilessly overblows her tenor using polyphonic squeals, only to have it all mound into a very tender piano/drums phase. Flitting tenor section lines combined with spiky guitar notes open “Awaiting Thee“, the 20-minute closing track. Ringing piano chords, condensed tenor screams and chopped chords are the main ingredients for the piece. Matt Hollenberg has a jazz metal background, which he definitely brings in here. The hell that the trio has unleashed in the first track is amplified by Hollenberg’s presence. What actually sounds like an impossibility is an amazing gain in timbres and dynamics, in structure with simultaneous emotionality. A worthy conclusion to a great record.

Listening to this music, I guess hardly anybody would believe that Zoh Amba is only 22 years old. The day on which the free jazz community lost Jaimie Branch so tragically, friends and fellow musicians gathered a few blocks from her apartment. Some in the crowd tapped out beats on drums, others banged tambourines and sleigh bells. Zoh Amba played melancholic funereal blasts. It was a day of sadness, as she would put it. Nevertheless, she gives hope that there are new voices that carry the torch. Because music is everything and everything is in music.

Bhakti is available as a CD and as a download.

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Jazz em Agosto 2022 (Part 4)

By Paul Acquaro

Saturday, August 6th and Sunday August 7th

Heading south east on Av. Alvares Cabral, a mere kilometer over a hill from the Reservatório da Mãe d'Água das Amoreiras (see part 3), is another neighborhood park, the Guerra Junqueiro Garden. It's similar to the other park with plenty of wonderful old trees, like the giant Ficus macrophylla behind the bandstand and that has an old bench sinking into its enormous root system. There is also a small pond, waterfall, cactus garden, and multiple cafes. It also turned out that the first Sunday, which it just happened to be, there is a crafts fair. In fact, crafts-folks were setting up alongside one of the many walking paths and a quick glance at the first couple of stands left a good impression. A seller who builds small boxes featuring vintage comic book characters, explained that the market only accepts vendors who make their own products - everything handmade - ever drawings, photograph, article of clothing, bar of soap, jewelry and the like. It was a nice discovery for an early Sunday morning.

In previous years, I have described the Gulbenkian Foundation's impressive mid-century modern gardens (see here, for example) but not their first class art museums. There are in fact two, one for modern art (which is currently undergoing a multi-year renovation), and the main Gulbenkian building which holds the classics, a collection that spans an impressive range of work from ancient Egypt, the Islamic world, Asia and Europe. A visit to the collection takes time as there is simply so much to take in, beginning with Egyptian pieces, to the impressive Islamic carpets and tiles, to the Rembrandt paintings, up through the Art Nouveau jewelry of René Lalique. Additionally, an excellent temporary exhibition is currently displaying a selection of the work of the haunted Armenian born abstract artist Arshile Gorky alongside the contemporary work of Lisbon painter Jorge Queiroz. The artist curated exhibition (by Queiroz) explores connections and similarities between the works, and it serves as a good introduction to both artists.

These were two very different art experiences, one crafts that you can touch, hold, and buy, and the other, priceless works that you can marvel at, both enjoyable. 

Saturday, August 6th

Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano, 6:30 p.m.

Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo

In the small auditorium, behind the drum kit, sat New York based drummer Chris Corsano, whose career spans the rock and free improvisation and includes work with saxophonist Paul Flathery, the band Harry Pussy (with his partner tonight, Blll Orcutt) as well as Bjork. To his right sat guitarist Bill Orcutt, of Harry Pussy fame and collaborator to folks such as Peter Brotzmann and Loren Mazzacane Connors.

Orcutt's set up was a Telecaster directly connected to a Fender amp, no pedals, no electronics, and the sound from the guitar was like a fresh breeze. Orcutt began with some jangling notes followed by an array of Americana-flavored riffs, rife with dissonance. Corsano played expertly along with the intense folk-like lines coming from his partner, together building a rich tapestry of pulse and texture. For the second tune, Orcutt dropped the capo and strummed an open and somewhat warbly chord, at first basking in the reverb and then rapidly strumming, from time to time allowing single notes to pop out from the wash of chords. Corsano, a supportive and guiding collaborator, helped bring the churning riffs to a boiling point. By the third song, they went immediately for the jugular with a tough piece made from overdriven shards of sound. Then, they dialed back the energy and Orcutt played some open, twangy chords, sounding a bit like an overheating John Fahey. 

Orcutt's use of the naked guitar and amp brought to mind the idea of a secret guitar festival inside the main festival. We had heard the feedback driven work of Tashi Dorji (See #2), the electric psychedelia of Jorge Nuno (Voltaic Trio), the rich stylistic pallet of Ava Mendoza, the acoustic drive of Marcelo dos Reis (with the Turquoise Trio), the contrasting styles of André Fernandes and Pedro Branco (in Joao Lencastre's Communion), Susan Alcorn's pedal steel and the explosive Julien Desprez (with Seven Storey Mountain), and still to come, the dizzying fretwork of Julian Lage. What a cross section of styles, and for a guitar fan, a real treat. If one were to ask Jazz em Agosto's artistic director Rui Neves if this was on purpose, his reply likely would come wrapped with a sly smile, neither completely confirming nor denying. So, even if not purposeful, it was a delightful accident.

(Corsano and Orcutt released Made Out Of Sound on Palilalia Records last year)

Borderlands Trio, 9:30 p.m.

Borderlands Trio. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo

"It's really good to be here," said the trio's bassist Stephan Crump before the trio began their bequiling set, "one reason is that it is one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and another is that I can be here playing with Eric McPherson on drums and Kris Davis on piano."

The generous ensuing set from the Borderlands Trio in the outdoor amphitheater, was, judging by the enthusiastic response of the audience, a fest-goer favorite. To pinpoint a standout from the standout, Crump, with his exquisite bass work and who, aside from taking on the role of the MC, also seemed to be more than one-third of the band on stage this evening.

The music began with a soft, slightly askew introduction from Davis. Crump and McPherson hit on the off-beats, or maybe there were no real beats at all, just a gentle breath. A slow accumulation of sound followed, Davis locking into a questioning pattern of chords, McPherson upping the pulsations and Crump's bowing, building the base of sound. Davis' simple chord progression held the center while Crump stretched the tempos elastically. McPherson's touch was light but driving, as he held the tempo steady with even-handed mix of straight ahead grooves and coloring outside the lines.

Crump's first solo did not go for virtuosity (at first), but rather texture. He played a slowly devolving line until picking up the bow and diving deep into an emotional solo. Davis began by adding light accompaniment. Picking up on something, Crump found the right notes between the piano's, and played light glissandos over the fretboard. McPherson, who had stepped away from the drums, came back and began to ratchet up the energy. 

The set cascaded through sections of prepared piano (which Davis prepared as the other two played) and which caused the acoustic piano to sound almost like a synthesizer, to a long passage that sounded like a classic piano trio, and finally, to a drum solo in which McPherson methodically explored each of the instruments in his kit. The final moments of the performance found the trio escalating the intensity to a more than satisfactory end. Their short encore was like the whole set in miniature, with the trio building from scratch to another tasteful groove.

(Borderlands Trio last released Wandersphere on Intakt)

Sunday, August 7th

Matt Mitchell and Sara Schoenbeck, 6:30 p.m.

  

Matt Mitchell and Sara Schoenbeck. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo

Pianist Matt Mitchell and bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck musical careers and interests straddle many worlds. Mitchell's collaboration with Tim Berne's music is bordering on legendary and Schoenbeck has taken her classical instrument into new and unusual territory with Anthony Braxton’s 12+1(tet) and the Tri-Centric Orchestra, the Gravitas Quartet with Wayne Horvitz, and beyond.

Their duo set in the small auditorium was contemporary classical nature, with many delicate moments, fragile and beautiful in their austerity and quirkiness. A highlight of the set was multi-part suite, written by Mitchell, which featured some very compelling piano work. The last song they played was the most accessible, cinematic in sound and scope, with Schoenbeck playing a distinct melody that flowed through Mitchell's undulating chords. Overall, the music seemed to be constructed from tenuous connections and parallel play that came together only to drift apart again.

(A duo collaboration appears on Sara Schoenbeck's self-titled album on Pyroclastic Records)

John Zorn's New Masada Quartet, 9:30 p.m.

John Zorn's New Masada Quartet. Photo: Gulbenkian Música – Vera Marmelo

Back on the outdoor stage, John Zorn's New Masada Quartet played the closing show of the festival. John Zorn on sax, Julian Lage on guitar, Kenny Wollesen on drums, and tonight, Trevor Dunn on bass, sounded looser and more charged than ever. Perhaps it had something to do with the last minute substitution of bass players (Dunn for Jorge Roeder), or perhaps it something to do with Zorn's relationship with Jazz em Agosto (he had special edition of the festival dedicated to his music in 2018) but whatever it was, even the ever cool guitarist seemed stirred up.

They hit with full force, Wollesen kicked things off with a fast tempo and Zorn erupted quickly into a full throated squall. Then, after a sudden and brief pause, the group launched into a tune with a distinct Ornette Coleman like melodic hook. Throughout the set, Zorn directed the band through hand gestures given between his own playing, imbuing the set with something both visually as well as musically exciting. Lage was particularly fierce. Coming in after a quick drum break, his solo was angular and punchy, his typical mind-bending fluid lines becoming darting fists.

Lage kicked off the second tune with a sweeping arpeggio and over the rustle of drum and the thrust of the bass, Zorn played a forlorn, yearning melody. Dunn and Lage then introduced a vamp over a straight forward beat over which Zorn played arching scales and dynamic figures. The band picked up the pulse and moved to on top of the beat and reached a peak of energy that carried them to the next tune. Here, Dunn pulled off a magnificent solo, wrenching brilliance from his fingerboard. Wollesen too gave an urgent performance as Lage and Zorn seem to be colluding to the side of the stage.

The New Masada Quartet offers a new take on the beloved book of Masada and in this closing concert, the quartet took these new interpretations to a higher level. The tune's heads are familiar to fans of the various Masada bands, and even if one wasn't known, the tunes are so infectious that they instantly feel familiar. It would have been pretty difficult to find a disappointed listener in the audience.

(John Zorn released the New Masada Quartet recently on Tzadic)

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See: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

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