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John Zorn: Masada Marathon review – 'free jazz at full power' John Zorn: Masada Marathon review – 'free jazz at full power'
(6 months later)
John Zorn has never been to Australia before and, according to Adelaide festival director David Sefton, he’s never coming back again, so these concerts mark the rarest of opportunities for Australian audiences to see the 60-year-old avant garde legend in the flesh. Tuesday saw the first of four concerts designed as a retrospective of Zorn’s long and eclectic career, the whole of which will involve some 40 musicians including Mike Patton, and Dave Lombardo, formerly of Slayer, plus the Adelaide Symphony orchestra. John Zorn has never been to Australia before and, according to Adelaide festival director David Sefton, he’s never coming back again, so these concerts mark the rarest of opportunities for Australian audiences to see the 60-year-old avant garde legend in the flesh. Tuesday saw the first of four concerts designed as a retrospective of Zorn’s long and eclectic career, the whole of which will involve some 40 musicians including Mike Patton, and Dave Lombardo, formerly of Slayer, plus the Adelaide Symphony orchestra.
Masada Marathon is a four-hour taster of Zorn’s sprawling Masada project. Taking in some 500 tunes, one tranche written in the 90s and another in 2004, Masada is Zorn’s bid to fuse jazz with klezmer, the music made by Jewish musicians as they travelled through eastern Europe and America, the result being, Zorn hopes, “a sort of radical Jewish music ... music for the Jews of today.”Masada Marathon is a four-hour taster of Zorn’s sprawling Masada project. Taking in some 500 tunes, one tranche written in the 90s and another in 2004, Masada is Zorn’s bid to fuse jazz with klezmer, the music made by Jewish musicians as they travelled through eastern Europe and America, the result being, Zorn hopes, “a sort of radical Jewish music ... music for the Jews of today.”
In concert, this meant a succession of 12 crack ensembles or soloists paying three or four tunes each. In the first and last ensembles, Masada Quartet and Electric Masada, Zorn played saxophone in a style so furiously exuberant it could have stripped the paint off the back wall of the theatre. The rest of the time, Zorn – dressed down in combat trousers and a red T-shirt – was either a guiding spirit somewhere in the wings; back onstage, dancing along and conducting the musicians with slashing hand gestures; or else offering encouragement that was touching to see – the percussionist Cyro Baptista even got his belly rubbed.In concert, this meant a succession of 12 crack ensembles or soloists paying three or four tunes each. In the first and last ensembles, Masada Quartet and Electric Masada, Zorn played saxophone in a style so furiously exuberant it could have stripped the paint off the back wall of the theatre. The rest of the time, Zorn – dressed down in combat trousers and a red T-shirt – was either a guiding spirit somewhere in the wings; back onstage, dancing along and conducting the musicians with slashing hand gestures; or else offering encouragement that was touching to see – the percussionist Cyro Baptista even got his belly rubbed.
While the music never cut itself off from its klezmer roots – beguiling, mournful and ancient-sounding, a musical distillation of Yiddish culture – it ranged far and wide, from Fender Rhodes-infused cocktail jazz to full-blown psychedelic rock. Highlights included the all-female vocal quartet Mycale (the only women, bar one playing a laptop at the end, on the stage) whose complex, Spanish-inflected songs were elegant and breezy. Shanir Blumenkranz’s earth-shaking bass made the set by Banquet of the Spirits a viscerally funky experience. Both solo and as part of the Masada string trio, cellist Erik Friedlander matched technical precision with emotion to heart-tugging effect.While the music never cut itself off from its klezmer roots – beguiling, mournful and ancient-sounding, a musical distillation of Yiddish culture – it ranged far and wide, from Fender Rhodes-infused cocktail jazz to full-blown psychedelic rock. Highlights included the all-female vocal quartet Mycale (the only women, bar one playing a laptop at the end, on the stage) whose complex, Spanish-inflected songs were elegant and breezy. Shanir Blumenkranz’s earth-shaking bass made the set by Banquet of the Spirits a viscerally funky experience. Both solo and as part of the Masada string trio, cellist Erik Friedlander matched technical precision with emotion to heart-tugging effect.
Yet it was in the loudest moments that Masada Marathon was at its most intense, and judging by the whoops of the audience, that was what Zorn’s fans had come to experience – free jazz at full power, with the sound pinning you to your seat. After four hours, we were drained, but more than satisfied.Yet it was in the loudest moments that Masada Marathon was at its most intense, and judging by the whoops of the audience, that was what Zorn’s fans had come to experience – free jazz at full power, with the sound pinning you to your seat. After four hours, we were drained, but more than satisfied.