Unknown Masada - 10th Anniversary Volume 3

The third in a series celebrating John Zorn's 10 year anniversary of his Masada ensemble, The Unknown Masada may go the furthest afield yet. Where the previous tribute CD, Voices in the Wilderness, made an attempt to expand the sonic possibilities of previously documented Masada tunes, this album reveals both unrecorded compositions and drastically different ensembles.Where Voices in the Wilderness utilized a variety of groups to perform Zorn's klezmer tinged jazz pieces, most of those ensembles were either primarily acoustic in nature or more overtly improvisational in their execution. This album, on the other hand, features tunes that have been rarely performed by any of Zorn's various Masada ensembles, if only because most of these pieces are more compositionally intricate.Dave Douglas' piece is exemplary of the albums best features. Not only does it feature an expanded variation on the classic Masada group (including Zorn himself no less) it has enough tricky time changes and stellar solo spots to make the album worth owning for this cut alone. Interpretations by the likes of Erik Friedlander, Naftule's Dream, and Eyvind Kang mingle with lesser known, but equally talented artists.The only weak spots lie in the more rock oriented material, which comes of as overly arranged and less freewheeling. Both Fantomas and Yoshida Tatsuya (from the Ruins) contribute tracks that often sound merely like distorted Middle-Eastern chord changes pounding away into oblivion. These however are the exception to a highly varied album whose merits outweigh its flaws.

"The Unknown Masada" is the third in the Masada Tenth Anniversary series of releases, and like the previous volume ("Voices in the Wilderness") is an anthology of different performers doing Masada tunes. The difference here is that whereas that last volume consisted of performances of previously recorded songs from the Masada songbook, this volume consists of previously unrecorded pieces.Like "Voices in the Wilderness", this record suffers from a sort of inconsistency induced upon it by having a dozen tracks by a dozen different artists-- the material is all at worse listenable and at best highly enjoyable. Several of the cuts really impressed me, Yoshida Tatsua's "Shofetim" is a sort of prog rock meets Masada sound, with overblown organs and a great synth solo. Julian Kytasty's solo bandura perforamnce ("Kadmut") is quite impressive (although its an instrument I'm largely unfamiliar with, so I can't speak to specifics about the performance), its a delicate an quiet arrangement that recalls the best of the "Masada Guitars" sort of sound, plus it contrasts nicely with the followup-- the Fantomas arrangement "Zemaraim"-- sludgy death metal take on a Masada theme. Its certainly destined not to be everyone's cup of tea, but I loved it.And there's a couple pieces where some element stands out-- Rashanim's "Olamin" is a pretty standard performance by the, but is saved by Matthias Kunzli's inspired and superb drumming, and Jamie Saft's "Zarach" is full of interesting ideas, finding a home between trance, dub, and jazz, but is mangled for me by an irritating sample. And as one would suspect, some of the performances were a bit disappointing-- I found Erik Friedlander's "Kinyan" a bit overarranged and busy, and while Dave Douglas and John Zorn sound to be having a good deal of fun on "Veheul", its not a particularly inspired take and seems to work hard to avoid falling into a Masada (the band) cliche.In the end, this isn't a really essential compilation. The standout tracks make it worth having for anyone who exlores Masada's music, but its not one that comes off my racks very often.

Simultaneously solves two difficult problems . . .. . . That of the limited range of klezmer music, and that of the stylistic incoherence of anthologies. The first by employing the widest possible variety of performers--everything from The Fantomas purveying klezmer thrash to Julian Kytasty playing solo bandura; from the Medieval-sounding "Shagal," performed on oud, fiddle, ceterina d'amore, and accordion with vocals, to "Demai," featuring Wadada Leo Smith and Ikue Mori. The second by performing all John Zorn compositions. Thus, the annoying sameness of much of klezmer is overcome by such a shocking variety of musicians, while the problem of anthological diffuseness is conquered by focusing on the music of a single composer. The results, it must be admitted, are pretty spectacular: a huge range of aural soundscapes, mercurial, constantly shifting sonic palettes, top-notch artists bridging what would seem like impossibly variegated musical styles. The closest comparison I can think of is that wonderful disc Africa Straight Ahead, which does something similar for African acoustic jazz (though the two disc, of course, sound nothing alike).Let me come clean for a moment. Although I've come to greatly respect and admire John Zorn's Tzadik label, with such fabulous discs as Susie Ibarra's Songbird Suite, Mephista's Entomological Reflections, Jenny Scheinman's Shalagaster, Tim Sparks's At the Rebbe's Table, Cyro Baptista's Vira Loucas, Marc Ribot's Scelsi Morning, R. J. Rodriguez's El Danzon de Moises, I haven't much cared for Zorn's music in the past. My main objection has been that I detect too much of the mannered and ironic about him. For jazz music to succeed, it needs to operate out of genuine appreciation and appropriation, not cool distance. It's ironic that the artists on his label often seem to do a better job of pulling this off than he himself does.Bottom line: I guess Tzadik's kinda like ECM; it doesn't always work, but when it does, it works wonders. As it does here. Eminently worth picking up.

Suite logique du Volume 2, The Unknown Masada propose une douzaine de compositions de John Zorn conçues pour l'Acoustic Masada encore jamais exploitées. Un volume 3 tout en surprise, donc, sauf pour la qualité, présente comme toujours.Comme sur  le volume précédent , donc, la somme de ces diverses formations offre un panorama aussi varié que chamarré des possibles d'adaptation, de transformation de l'écriture zornienne par un panel d'artistes plus ou moins familiers à l'œuvre du new yorkais.Côté habitués, on notera les belle performances d'Erik Friedlander pour un exercice en groupe tout simplement brillant, du  Rashanim  de Jon Madof qui ne surprend pas en transformant le klezmer en rock avec talent et énergie, de Dave Douhlas sans son habituel Acoustic Masada donnant présentement dans un hard-bop à la Mingus tout à fait délectable, ou de  Jamie Saft  et  Koby Israelite  qu'on retrouvera bientôt pour chacun sur son Livre des Anges à lui (le premier poussant l'enveloppe vers le metal oriental, le second vers une fusion tous azimuts qui ne surprendra pas ses familiers).Côté "on est bien content qu'ils soient venus", on citera Tatsuya Yoshida venu apporter un peu de "japonofolie" à une solide fusion électrique, le Fantômas de Mike Patton et Dave Lombardo brutalisant avec un plaisir sadique nos oreilles (complices) et la partition, le jazzman avant-gardiste  Wadada Leo Smith  présentement tout en prenant trip éthéré, ou un Eyvind Kang tout récemment retrouvé (son  Livre des Anges  est d'ailleurs toujours aussi recommandé) donnant des accents dramatiques à des cordes qui ne le sont pas moins.Au bout du compte, prolongation aussi agréable que le gros double le précédant, The Unknown Masada est une addition supplémentaire plus qu'utile à ceux qui aiment Zorn et son Masada jusque dans les interprétations des autres, vu le succès du Book of Angels et de ses déjà 25 volumes, ils sont nombreux.1. Kinyan (Erik Friedlander) 4:502. Olamim (Rashanim) 3:483. Vehuel (Dave Douglas) 5:324. Shofetim (Tatsuya Yoshida) 3:025. Partzuf (Naftule's Dream) 4:226. Zarach (Jamie Saft) 6:577. Shagal (Zahava Seewald) 6:468. Herem (Koby Israelite) 5:069. Kadmut (Julian Kytasty) 4:4410. Zemaraim (Fantômas) 3:3411. Demai (Wadada Leo Smith) 6:2212. Belimah (Eyvind Kang) 4:09 le volume précédentRashanimJamie SaftKoby IsraeliteWadada Leo SmithLivre des Anges