Jew Jazz

[zhao]

who else loves some of this bad ass shit??? one of the most successful examples of modern adaptations of traditional music i reckon.

have just rinsed the FUCK out of this 2009 Borah Bergman Trio record. 10 minutes of intoxicating piano, bass, and drums and THEN the sax comes in...

what else in the lineage do you rate?

?

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???????

a shame that i never spent enough time in NYC to experience some of these musicians live.

 

[Chris]

I'm intrigued.

will have to a google blog-search for some of these albums...


are these along Free or Fusion lines?

 

[zhao]

I'm intrigued.

will have to a google blog-search for some of these albums...


are these along Free or Fusion lines?

some of it is wildly flailing wailing free, but the stuff that i love most are just amazing modern jazz on every level, but with traditional rhythmic elements (like middle eastern drums) and melodies in various states of deconstruction/reconstruction.

Zorn's masada is a quartet sound based on the blueprint of Ornette's power bands of the 60s, just so rich and so full of unstoppable energy, sometimes going into totally insane berserker extended free sections, sometimes sweet and mysterious... but all structured around jewish house-hold songs. most of the original studio albums are japanese import, and can be pretty pricey. i'll see about posting some or even all 10.

plenty of modern arabic jazz i love too, but that scene, far as i know, for whatever geo-economic reasons, never really came to fruition in quite the spectacular way that the jews managed.

i guess i love it because it is really mystical music at heart, the latest interpretation of ancient forms...

 

[viktorvaughn]

This is an amazing cover.

 

[vimothy]

I love this shit.

 

[Chris]

listening to some of the Zorn stuff on youtube, nice


Definitely will have to seek more of this stuff out. And Arabic Jazz... man. Been addicted to Turkish Psych for a while, good stuff. Those modes slay me.

 

[zhao]

yeah i've been enthralled with all things Masada since for ever... some of the freak free workouts can be a bit much, but have to respect Zorn's maniacal devotion.

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i guess when it comes down to it, old klezmer music is still the ruler, and PWNS this new shit in terms of mystical tripped out psychedelic mentalist vibes... but if you have a love for jazz this new stuff is so satisfying.

 

[zhao]

and that retarded pretentious crap of a movie π, if it wasn't so retarded, pretentious or crap, should have had some of this shit in the sound track instead of fucking Orbital

 

[Leo]

in slight contrast: the two masada double-cd sets (circle maker/masada string trio and bar kokhoba/masada chamber ensemble) are really great, some tracks sounding like cool, laidback riffing jazz (feat, marc ribot on guitar), other tracks sounding like cool variations of "fiddler on the roof"/"if i were a rich man" klez. saw them once live, really stellar...joey baron is such a great drummer.

 

[zhao]

oh yes. circle maker is a fine, fine recording. the electric stuff i have not too much use for tho... joey baron i think i met once but can't remember... never seen him or any of those cats play though. shame.

 

[zhao]

for the 0.03 dissensians who might be interested in exploring traditional jewish music, which i'm just getting started with myself, this i suppose is as good a place to start as any:

 

[Jonesy]

I really like Zorn's Masada stuff. Also good is Rashanim's 'Shalosh' and Steven Bernstein's 'Diaspora Hollywood'. All on Tzadik and part of the Radical Jewish Culture series.