Electric Masada – “John Zorn 50TH Birthday Celabr ” – [Tzadik]

Daryl Licht   10/2/2004   CD, Jazz

Electric Masada is a new variant of Zorn’s long running and
multi-facted Masada project. The group, which may be Zorn’s
most exciting and creative project ever, features many of the
top players in the Downtown NYC scene such as, Marc Ribot
(the big star of this CD, IMHO) and Ikue Mori. On this disc,
they are captured live in September 2003 as part of Zorn’s
incredible month long series of concerts at Tonic (NYC) to
celebrate his 50th birthday. Rocking riffs, free jazz skronk,
hard swinging grooves, and atmospheric electronic exoctica
are all blended together to create the unique and incredible
Electric Masada sonic attack. Powerful, yet lyrical; this is
improvisational music at its finest. Genre blurring; this casts
a light down the path of the future of music and beautifully
represents the forward thinking aesthetic of KFJC. One of
the top releases this year – don’t miss out! DL