b r a n d o n

The 50th Birthday Celebration series on Tzadik has been something of an embarrassment of riches for fans of John Zorn's extensive and diverse body of work. This release, however, might be the crown jewel of the series so far. Featuring the three members of the Masada String Trio (violin, cello, bass) augmented by electric guitar, drums, and percussion, the Bar Kokhba Sextet is one of the most versatile bands to tackle Zorn's extensive Masada songbook — a collection of literally hundreds of jazz compositions based on Jewish scales, combining modern free-jazz with more traditional jazz idioms and a distinct ethnic flavor. In the hands of this ensemble, this already diverse songbook is dressed up with non-jazz influences from Western classical music to psychedelic space rock, and the result is surprisingly accessible and endlessly fascinating. Thanks to the presence of Joey Baron, here playing an unusually aggressive style on drums, and Marc Ribot, contributing his usual oblique guitar work, the music here bears more resemblance to the noisy, controlled chaos of Electric Masada than to the aforementioned Masada String Trio. Yet the sextet plays through the material at hand with a remarkable, breezy confidence, sounding completely at ease with each other, to the extent that what could sound chaotic never really does. The rhythm section in particular is propulsive and energetic, driving the development of these pieces, but always with an ear for space and pace. Indeed, the pacing throughout is virtually perfect, with intense and occasionally dissonant and noisy jammy sections seeming to grow naturally out of hypnotic grooves and melodic heads. This album consists of three discs of music representing, in their entirety, three of the four sets that this band played over two nights for Zorn's month-long 50th birthday celebration. With nearly three and a half hours of music, covering many Masada songs multiple times, one would expect this to become rather tiring, but remarkably the opposite is true: the three hours flies by; the music is so pleasing, avoiding the fatiguing effect that the regular Masada band can have at times, that I can easily listen to all three discs in one sitting. With three separate lead soloists in Ribot, Feldman on violin, and Friedlander on cello (and a few rip-roaring solos from Baron), there's ample timbral diversity to go with the stylistic diversity already inherent in the compositions. In terms of individual song performances, I have too many favorites to list, but there are a few definite highlights. "Idalah-abal" on the last disc is a slow-moving, dirgelike affair with a beautiful, lyrical melody — a startling contrast to the dissonant, frenzied version performed by Electric Masada on 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 4. The two takes on "Teli" are fantastic; this Bar Kokhba original, not performed by any other Masada-related group, consists of a searing violin solo followed by an extended section in which the rhythm and solo sections are reversed, with Baron's drums leading the charge and the stringed instruments plucking out a rhythmic accompaniment. "Jachin" on the second disc has less in common with jazz than with psychedelic space-rock a la the Ozric Tentacles et al — its second half consists of raucus rock-like drumming overlaid with Ribot's abstract guitar squigglings. "Khebar," the only piece present in all three sets here, is more traditionally head-solos-head structured, kicking off with pizzicato violin and seguing into a middle section in which all three soloists trade off beautiful, melodic solos. Surely one of the most accessible pieces here. The briefer songs range from goofily joyous to lyrically gorgeous, all with that familiar Jewish flavor. Make no mistake, this band grooves, it rocks, it chills, it burns; and most impressively, it knows when to do each. Through it all, its music is always extremely approachable, rarely delving into the skronk and abrasiveness common to experimental jazz. This is my favorite release of 2005 thus far, and I don't make such judgments casually. Moreover, it's an excellent place to begin exploring the vast world of Zorn's Masada songbook, or the world of modern jazz in general. My highest recommendation. review by Brandon Wu — 8-31-05 —