I have been recently enjoying the latest Frd Frith & John Zorn duos: 50th Birthday Vol.5.

No

Well, depending on the release it would be yes...there are quite a few Zorn albums that could hardly be considered Jazz at all...

I went to a great majority of Zorn's shows at the month long Tonic stand in Sept of 2003 for his 50th Birthday. Of course, the Masada acoustic sets were all excellent.

There were several others beside the Masada quartet that were excellent and the duo with Fred Firth was one of them.


Of those already released beside this one and the acoustic Masada #7 in the series the others I enjoyed are

Milford Graves/John Zorn #2 (My favorite of the non-Masada Quartet sets.)

Electric Masada #4
Wadada Leo Smith/Susie Ibarra/John Zorn #8 ****
JThe Classic Guide To Strategy V. 3: The Fire Book #9 in the Birthday Series ****

I also recommend from the Masada Rectial from the Masada Anniversary series.



Yo!



One final Zorn related bit of information.

There is this from the newsletter from my favorite NYC store!

"SPEAKING WITH John Zorn, at the great What We Live (Larry Ochs Trio) gig at Tonic that Zorn sat in on.... Zorn says he is more inspired than ever and has nearly finished a second book of Masada songs, composing 206 songs in the past two months!!

There will be a 4 night Masada Festival at Tonic from December 8th - 11th, where different musicians will perform only the new Masada songs! We can hardly wait to hear this new material, so plan those vacations soon."



Now if I read that correctly and was willing to believe it, Zorn wrote 206 songs in 2 months.


Don't tell Roivas about this.



**** Most recent releases in the Birthday series.

It shows, too.

I'm going to have to break down and buy a couple Zorn CDs. Things here in Buffalo are not working out Library-wise. Nothing Masada-related available at the Public Library, and I have to be Alumni to use UB's media services. I'm so screwed. Why did I move to this miserable little town again?

BTW, supposedly, all public libraries in Erie Country will be shutting down in January (because of Medicaid!). Political terrorism (my belief is that they'll be open again once everyone votes for a hike in sales tax...anyway, one could hardly blame y'all for being disinterested in Buffalo's problems).