Tzadik: Search & Destroy

hmm, i'll have to check out that one. i had an intense love affair with asa-chang & jun-ray a few years ago.

So has anyone heard the new Book of Angels? Mycale? It looks super amazing, it has Ayelet Rose Gottlieb and Basya Schecter (ie: Pharoah's Daughter) singing on it. I don't see any instruments on the personal list, so it might all be vocal, which is awesome. Too bad no Jewlia Eisenberg, tho :(

Saw Zorn tonight, bitchin show.

what kind of thing is he doing these days? The last time I saw him was a show at Tonic w/Ribot, Medeski, and ben perowsky and it unexpectedly turned out to be almost entirely straight gutbucket preachy soul jazz. I guess i have a hard time even imagining what Zorn 2010 plays out like

he seems to be enjoying his faux-naive easy-listening jazz these days (via his dreamers project), but it comes across as a bit too cynical to have he same charm as, say, vince guaraldi or bill wells.

it's probably the first phase of zorn's career to have zero appeal for me, tbh.

http://nyufasp.com/2012/10/watch-live-stream-of-save-the-village-starting-at-730pm/

anton brühin and koichi makigami's "electric eel" is a long time favourite. jaw harps & buzzing & gibbering. gets cosmic.
sajjanu's "pechiku!!" is tangled anti-rock slapstick beefhearty twang action with thee most intermittent rockingest stop start interludes if they go on a riff for 10 seconds it seems like an eternity, and it always seems like the best riff you never heard. goofy cross-eyed genius. monster tension release dialogue in this.

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0003/481/MI0003481561.jpg

gorgeous

holy crap this track "pale of settlement" is insanely good. total klezmer-riff blizzards

search: jacques coursil, minimal brass. fucking astounding.

^ this. Brilliant record, one of the best of the decade (and it comes after a 37-year recording hiatus!)

Metheny does Masada on its way ...

lotta tzadik reviews on freejazz-stef lately:

http://www.freejazzblog.org/

http://c3.cduniverse.ws/resized/250x500/music/145/8892145.jpg
Anthony Coleman - The End of Summer.
Listened to this a lot lately, very somber and sad music about loss, very beautifully performed and with lots of Morton Feldman and Scelsi influences, but Coleman's compositions have their own voice. Very much recommended.

http://c3.cduniverse.ws/resized/250x500/music/845/8837845.jpg
Phantom Orchard Orchestra - Trouble in Paradise
The duo of Zeena Parkins and Ikue Mori, augmented with five players (two of them are Parkins' sisters). Stand-out track is the 10-minute 'Red, Blue and Green', which sounds as a through-composed piece rather than improvised as most of the other material.

http://c3.cduniverse.ws/resized/250x500/music/317/7900317.jpg
Rob Burger - City of Strangers
Sounds like a Tin Hat album and as good as one.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZipYpex68tg/UZs78-OuFAI/AAAAAAAANlU/ehsLEG4mGgI/s200/cover.jpg
Pat Metheny - Book of Angels Volume 20: Tap
This will come as a surprise to PM's fans, but less so for those who know the BoA series, for whom this is just another cd in the series. There's nothing wrong with this cd, but I wish this was a group affair like his latest Quartet-cd, rather than an immensely overdubbed recording where Metheny plays almost every instrument (except for the drums).

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_250/MI0000/422/MI0000422055.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
Morton Feldman - Patterns in a Chromatic Field
Feldman goes jump-cut style! Ok, less radical than Zorn's own compositions, but still...new ideas are introduced and abandoned every few minutes, and the mood is always changing. Challenging music, and long...the disc is over 80 minutes but very enjoyable (ok I'm a Feldman fan, so I'm happy with everything he did).

http://www.israbox.com/uploads/posts/2013-03/1364677772_front.jpg
John Zorn - Filmworks XXV: City of Slaughter
As mentioned above, Zorn's latest Filmworks-cd, consisting of only solo piano music. Interesting not only for Zorn's own piano playing, but also for a beautiful version of 'Beyond the Infinite' by Rob Burger.

Is that Metheny very new? I've never seen it before, but I haven't checked in with Tzadik for a while. Thanks for the updates.

yes, the Metheny-cd was released this month.

i love the city of slaughter - also of new stuff i really like the carlebach/fela kuti crossover zion80 album from jon madoff, and i'm greatly anticipating the metal album from deveykus coming out soonish

I have to review the Metheny disc for Jazziz, even though from what I've heard it is not in any way a jazz album.

PM's fans will know not to be too surprised by anything, surely.

Anyway, "Metheny plays Zorn" is basically the ultimate bait for me. (I LOVE The Gnostic Preludes feat Frisell and expect this will be every bit as good.) The iTunes clips sound promising. This is definitely going to be my next purchase.

have to review the Metheny disc for Jazziz, even though from what I've heard it is not in any way a jazz album.

Predictably, I love it, except for the last track. I can see it becoming my favourite album from this year. (Colin Stetson's the other contender right now.)

i'm working on one of the Zorn @ 60 shows; he's doing a "purely improvisational" session with Ryuichi Sakamoto in October.

Is he doing as big a series of shows as the @50 series?

yeah, internationally.
http://www.lincolncenterfestival.org/zorn-60/
https://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=14834
http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/event_attributes/zorn60/
http://fimav.qc.ca/en/edition/john-zorn-60/

i mean i dunno how it stacks up against the @50 honestly, but he's doing a lotta shows through september.

Really want to see that Moonchild show - that's my favorite thing he's done since the Painkiller albums.

Eyvind Kang's new interpretations of Book of Angels songs album is as dazzling and exquisite as could be expected.

ooh, cool. i was looking forward to that.

yes, exciting!!

kind of amazing that Tzadik is still doing their thing, almost 20 years on.

They truly release what the hell they want from Guerilla Toss to Haggai Cohen-Milo, long may they continue.

looking forward to this Haggai Cohen-Milo debut on Tzadik as well.

Hailing from Israel and currently living in Brooklyn, Haggai Cohen-Milo is a gifted bassist and composer exploring the nexus of Jazz and Jewish music. His Tzadik debut features a tight and exciting band of young virtuosos who passionately perform Haggai’s beautiful and lyrical compositions. Brilliant improvisations, poignant melodies and driving rhythms all come together in this exciting program of New Jewish music at its best.
(Release date: May 2014)

yea I also wonder how the label keeps going sometimes. so many releases and only cds!

big grant for Zorn helped. Plus these days they often don't pay anything to artists (other than giving them copies of CDs). They rarely reprint CDs, and have a built-in market of experimental music buyers, so can afford to do lots of small run new releases.

Another case of a Genius grant supporting old media tsk tsk

ah, yes. forgot about that grant.

Well fuck whoever is losing out in this Genius grant deal because I doubt they are as worthwhile and unique as Tzadik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga3E-70u4g0

the grant all went to the Stone if i'm not mistaken

that could well be, i would imagine it didn't hurt the long term financial health of tzadik tho'

the stone is great, I'm ok with that too

tho they should use the remaining genius grant funds to add an rss feed to the stone's website because I never remember to check it and always miss out on cool stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB4HfSRq3fw

It's always been my understanding that the "big-name" releases (Zorn's own stuff, Laswell, others) pay for the really off-the-wall ones destined to sell in the dozens of copies. Plus they never do publicity or anything, so expenses are low.

I wonder who the pianist is on that Eyvind Kang track. Sounds like Anthony Coleman's style.

Kang himself is the only pianist listed in the album credits.

the kang album is so good. thanks for the recommendation xelab

also liking zorn's 'fragmentations, prayers and interjections" release

"sakriel" on the kang album is shocking + beautiful

Missed the Bladerunner tour (Zorn/Laswell/Lombardo), but I could get down with Zorn releasing something from this nu-Painkiller project.