Rolling Stone, Italia: JZ Marathon in Milan

Di Corrado Beldì

Centoundici angeli caduti, forse una reminescenza degli spiriti celesti dal libro di Salomone, una suite concepita non in forma di lavoro orchestrale ma come una processione di diversi progetti musicali: sono dodici ensemble, e rappresentano le correnti più vitali di Radical Jewish Culture, etichetta e cenacolo dei musicisti che a New York gravitano attorno a John Zorn, ormai mito (e per certi versi Prometeo incatenato) di chi cerca nelle radici ebraiche, e pure nell’arte di Ornette Coleman, il rinnovamento della musica d’oggi.

Serata sionista, dicevamo senza alcuna malizia, per di più realizzata coi soldi del padrone: roba da far tremare il terzomondismo nostrano. Eppure al direttore artistico Gianni Gualberto va riconosciuto il merito di continuare a progettare una rassegna che è quanto di meglio Milano sappia esprimere nell’area dell’improvvisazione. Da imprenditore mi verrebbe da dire che questa rassegna sia il miglior risultato di vent’anni di berlusconismo. E poi c’è un teatro pieno, chiaramente non solo di appassionati: signore, impiegati, vecchi pensionati d’azienda arrivano al secondo appuntamento di Aperitivo in Concerto, ben sapendo che li aspettano tre ore e mezza di musica e alla fine saranno quasi quattro, con gli Electric Masada richiamati sul palco dal pubblico in piedi.

Dodici gruppi uno di seguito all’altro, venti minuti ciascuno, cambi palco rapidissimi e qualche simpatico siparietto tra i musicisti. Si apre col classico Masada (il nome è di per sé un sunto della poetica di Zorn, ispirato all’ultimo rifugio degli Zeloti dopo la caduta di Gerusalemme, la fortezza assediata da settemila romani e penetrata dopo due anni per non trovare nulla, se non 967 ebrei morti degnamente: scelsero il suicidio collettivo piuttosto di ridursi in schiavitù), l’inizio è brillante con il fortissimo Joey Baron alla batteria, Greg Cohen al contrabbasso, un Dave Douglas molto cool col cappellino e John Zorn in mimetica, assatanato sin da subito (caduto da tempo tra le fiamme dell’inferno), spalle al pubblico e la solita mossa della gamba destra che sia alza ad angolo a fine battuta. Spalle al pubblico, ecco il tema della serata. Zorn conduce, Zorn deus-ex-machina, non solo improvvisatore ma anche demiurgo e direttore. Con i pro e i contro del caso. 

Non è un caso se i momenti migliori sono quelli in cui John resta dietro le scene: il duo Sylvie Carvoisier e Mark Feldmann (musica scritta, siamo seri; ma che magia) ed il quartetto Banquet of the Spirits con Brian Marsella (un pianista dalle tante risorse, da seguire), Tim Keiper alla batteria, Shanir Blumenkranz al contrabbasso ed uno scatenato Cyro Baptista alle percussioni; con lui iniziano le ovazioni, si sa che certi assoli tirano sempre.

Quattro ragazze ebree argentine Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, Basya Schecter e Malika Zarra, formano l’ensemble vocale Mycale, per la prima volta in Italia: vera novità della serata con uno strabiliante concerto a cappella. Poi Zorn si mette a condurre, non musicisti qualunque ma Friedlander, Feldman, Ribot, Coen, Baron e Baptista. Troppo ingabbiati, non ci siamo. Intervallo, pausa.
Erik Friedlander, la tradizione. Suona un solo di violoncello da brividi, tutto tradizione, nostalgia e diaspora. Dio mio, questi non sono decine ma centinaia, migliaia, forse milioni di angeli caduti. Viene all’uopo il libretto, le parole di Edmund Jabès: “All’età dichiarata di un ebreo bisogna sempre aggiungere cinquemila anni”. Ecco tutto.

Seguono il New Kletzmer Trio con Ben Goldberg (un Goodman zingarello), Cohen e Wollesen, il Bester Quartet (Bester, Tyrala, Dyyak, Pospieszalski) ed il Masada String Trio (Feldman, Friedlander, Cohen), prima della conclusione, potentissima, di Electric Masada.
Dove vuole arrivare Zorn? E dove andranno i suoi adepti? Certo il progetto è ambizioso, del finale trionfale abbiamo già detto. Eppure resta un’immagine artefatta, che ci fa rimpiangere il maestro di Kristallnacht, del primo Masada e dei tentativo di suonare Charlie Parker all’incontrario.

Condurre Feldmann, Friedlander e Ribot è un po’ ridicolo e proprio a quest’ultimo, favoloso chitarrista americano che già ha accettato troppi progetti commerciali con pessimi cantautori (anche italiani), dovrebbe esser dato solo d’improvvisare ed esser libero: se dissimula la scocciatura è forse solo perché Zorn, per lui e per tutti gli altri, è un sacerdote cui tutto è concesso. Forse troppo, come a Sun Ra nell’Arkestra.
Cosa desiderare? Forse che il suo percorso si divaricasse come le acque del Mar Rosso: da una parte il tema radicale, non dubitiamo di trovarlo nel prossimo futuro, dall’altro un coraggio più consapevole e colto, orchestrale. Quante orchestre ci sono in America? Quante in Europa? A sufficienza e con maestri concertatori in grado di aiutarti. Abbi il coraggio di farlo John. Scrivi tutto, fino in fondo. Dirigi su serio. Non avere paura. 
Vedrai, sarà bellissimo.

AJL - Album Review

It is striking that in John Zorn’s long and varied career as a musician, he has never set text to music. While he has worked with many singers, they have sung vocalise (without words) and when he does work with text, it is spoken. Bearing this in mind, it is a rare treat to hear his tunes, all from his second Masada book of tunes, adapted to texts.

Mycale, a vocal quartet made up of four of the most highly individualistic and creative singers working today, more than does justice to the material. Basya Schechter has been making waves in the Jewish music world with her group Pharaoh’s Daughter. Ayelet Rose Gottlieb is an accomplished jazz singer and composer (her recording Mayim Rabim has been previously reviewed). Sofia Rei is one of the new leading voices in South American Jazz. Malika Zarra’s work combines North and Central African musics with jazz and European popular music. The combination of their diverse voices and stylistic inflections is constantly captivating; it is also striking to hear the counterpoint of Hebrew being sung in different lines with such different accents. The texts are from a variety of languages and sources, with Hebrew Bible being the focus and fit perfectly, as if the melodies were written for them. My only complaint is that this disc is full price for barely over half hour of music. Nonetheless, a must have.

Daniel Scheide, Librarian, Wimberly Library, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL; RAS Vice President, AJL; Chair Bibliography and Reference Book Award, AJL

— “Examiner” review of John Zorn’s Masada Marathon, NYC Opera, March 2011

Examiner Review - JZ Marathon @ NYCO

Last night, the New York City Opera held John Zorn’s Masada Marathon - The Book of Angels at the David H. Koch Theater. Seventeen albums - to today’s date - represent Masada Book Two, or The Book of Angels, which are each arranged by a different musician or group after being given lines of music written by John Zorn. Twelve performances, each playing about three or four songs, took to the stage - including: the Masada Quartet; Malphas (Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier); Cyro Baptista’s Banquet of the Spirits; Mycale; Medeski, Martin and Dunn; Bar Kokhba; Secret Chiefs 3; Erik Friedlander; The Dreamers; Uri Caine; Masada String Trio; and Electric Masada with special guest Mike Patton.

The marathon in its entirety continually offered the theater its most masterful musicianship. It appeared that everybody performed with their instrument way beyond its physical capacity. And while non-stop string shredding, piano hypnosis, and wild percussions could eventually become too much, the organization of the acts took advantage of their variety so that nothing ever went on for too long. Sure, some Zorn fan’s date shook her head in disbelief when, yes, this act was also going to make cartoonish noise with their instruments for a few minutes - but even then, though it might not always be fun to listen to noise, one can tell how fun it is to play and receive pleasure from that - and for many, the nosier moments were also just pleasurable in themselves.
One of the early mind-blowers of the Masada Marathon was easily Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier performing “Labariel” from Malphas. That mixture of violin and piano nearly melted the stage. The a cappella group of Mycale - Basya Schechter, Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Malika Zarra, and Sofia Rei - made the most out of their vocals alone and, for a moment, people may have been able to imagine the magical lure of the sirens - but without evil and the danger of drowning, naturally. Another amazing moment came from Erik Friedlander’s solo cello performance of Volac, specifically the song “Yeruel,” proving that The Book of Angels is certainly worthy of the angels. But the true moment of music came at the very end, when Mr. Bungle’s Mike Patton joined John Zorn, Trevor Dunn (also from Mr. Bungle), and the rest of Electric Masada for a shrieking, screaming, and extremely loud climax that ended the Masada Marathon in the best way possible.

“Feast of Music” Review of JZ’s Marathon @NYCO

John Zorn Marathon at City Opera, 3/30/11

“I’ve been coming to this theater since I was 14. Used to stand right over there, back when standing room was $1.25 in, what, 1968? Yeah, I saw everything here.” - John Zorn

Well, not everything. For that, you would have had to show up at NY City Opera last night, where composer/musician/downtown hero John Zorn hijacked the the State Theater for nearly four hours with a marathon concert led by various groups he’s been associated with over the past 20 years. Zorn, whose La Machine de l’être is currently being performed by as part of City Opera’s Monodramas, has spent most of his career south of Houston Street, so witnessing him onstage at City Opera - wearing his standard uni of floppy t-shirt and camo pants - was like seeing a three-legged mongrel compete at the Westminster Dog Show. Or something. 

Last night’s show consisted of excerpts from Zorn’s The Book of Angels: a massive tome of over 300 pieces Zorn wrote during a ridiculously prolific three months in 2004. As he put it: 

“After 10 years of performing the first Masada book, I thought ‘Maybe it’d be nice to write some more tunes’ So in the first month, I popped out a hundred tunes; the second month, another hundred; in the third month, a third 100 tunes. I had no idea that was going to happen.” 

Kicking things off was Zorn’s longtime ensemble, the Masada Quartet: with Dave Douglas (trumpet) and Zorn (alto sax) blasting way while Greg Cohen (bass) and Joey Baron (drums) kept them on the ground. Violinist Mark Feldman and pianist Sylvie Courvoisier were soft and melodic. Banquet of the Spirits, an electric quintet led by the irrepressible Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista, were wild and freewheeling. A cappella vocal quartet Mycale sounded like the children of Meredith Monk, singing a mix of Latin, Hebrew and Arabic music. Medeski, Martin and (Trevor) Dunn - bassist Chris Wood is out on tour with the Wood Brothers - lifted the roof a few inches with their explosive jams. And Bar Kokhba (Marc Ribot, Eric Friedlander, Baptista, Cohen, Baron) played a concerto-of-sorts that vacillated between lounge music and industrial proto-punk.

And that was just the first half.

I would have loved to have heard Uri Caine, the Masada String Trio and, most of all, Electric Masada, but, hey, it’s a long way home from uptown on a Wednesday night. As Zorn himself would agree.

— “Feast of Music” about John Zorn’s Masada Marathon @NYC Opera, March 2011

Aural Addict review of John Zorn Masada Marathon at the New York City Opera

“One of the more unique performances was by the all female acappella ensemble Mycale.  They used words, sounds and vocal beats to bring the tunes to life.  There’s something pure about a single voice filling a large room like that… it sends chills down my spine.”

Aural addict

— http://www.musicajazz.it/reviews/565