Bluetrain

Masada obsession

I just can’t understand it. Whenever I heard about Jewish music, I was never interested. What’s interesting in it anyway? Same melodies played in such a characteristic way, that you can’t recognize which band is playing. All those violin solos and similar rhythms — it’s just boring, isn’t it? Of course it is. Until you hear Masada playing.

It’s a project led by John Zorn, my beloved, noisy saxophonist, and it’s been playing since early 1990s. The idea is to create a “songbook”, consisting of a large number of simple melodies, which can be played by small bands. But that’s not good enough to claim Masada a special project to me. John Zorn puts it that way: “The idea with Masada is to produce a sort of radical Jewish music, a new Jewish music which is not the traditional one in a different arrangement, but music for the Jews of today. The idea is to put Ornette Coleman and the Jewish scales together.” So what we got? Tons of free-jazz-noise and beautiful Jewish melodies mixed up together. Sounds impossible? Not even it is possible, it’s amazing.

My first contact with the group was two years ago, when I heard the album by Electric Masada, a live record titled “50th birthday celebration, vol. 4”. The word “live” doesn’t give a proper impression of this record. I’d rather say: “wild”. Imagine a group of instrumentalists playing free-jazz music in Jewish scales, with an electric guitar (plus a strong distortion effect), bass guitar, drums and percussion, electric piano, electronic noises (awesome Ikue Mori), and Zorn with his screaming saxophone on top of all that. Sounds a bit terrible, but it’s more than marvelous. The effect they’re getting is something between trash metal and free jazz, with a lot of gorgeous melodies. So if you want to hear something really strong and weird, Electric Masada is your band. (Though if you’re really tough, and want something stronger, grab their second album: “At the mountains of madness”; everything that was said regarding their first record applies to the second one, only that it’s just more intense…)

Listening to Electric Masada brought me to the roots of this evil music, which is much more polite and a bit more chamber. Original Masada, or rather their first record “Alef” (which is unfortunately the only one I know) brings peaceful sounds, but it’s definitely not as dull as all those klezmer bands.

If you like dull klezmer guys though, you might get closer to them while listening to Masada String Trio. Three lads + a conductor sitting between them play Masada compositions in a more elegant and traditional way. Not as traditional as Cracow Klezmer Band of course, but you wouldn’t expect something conservative from Zorn now, would you?

Now, for the sake of completeness, let me link to some nice video, featuring Electric Masada playing “Tekufah”. Enjoy the noise and the harmony!

Bach

There’s nothing like a good Bach for goodnight. As we used to call him in music school: “The first jazz man. Ever.”

Sketches of Spain

I’m really amazed by Sketches of Spain these days. I’d compare Aranjuez Concerto to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture or Ellington’s Harlem (maybe also Isfahan).

But: greatly instrumented by Gil Evans masterpiece is… well, I’d say is worth to hear as much as original Rodrigo’s composition. Both are impressive and pleasant for ears. Btw, what do you think about additional bonus tracks added uppon reissue in 2000? When I’m starting to hear the other Aranjuez the very first thought is: “for God’s sake Miles, you’re out of tune! why did they put it here?!”. Hey, really. Hist first part is just wrong (yeah, maybe I’m oversensitive).

Let me put this straight: I really like this music but as music that is easy to reception.

Other thing (I’m really gonna be an ashole here) - for me the only sign of Spanish here are drums and the names of two great Spanish composers that originaly composed Aranjuez and Will o’ the Wisp (Rodrigo and de Falla).

Another reason to remeber this album: “Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there”. Had no idea it’s so hard to convince classical musicians to improvise.

Punk and Freud

I don’t know if Pink Freud is commonly known outside of Poland, but they’ve recently released a new album called “Punk Freud”, which happens to be the fourth in their career, and in my opinion, also happens to be the best. Why’s that? Becuase it’s the bravest one.

Their form of a simple trio (Ziętek — trumpet and electronic noises, Mazolewski — bass, Staruszkiewicz — drums) grew up, and shows a significant progress since their last album. Their music is still fresh and funny, but it got some lightness I wasn’t able to hear in their previous records. Mazolewski’s bass guitar still goes deeply down, but with their supporting musicians limited to a minimum (only some strings in one or two pieces) the group gained a new, a little more harsh and fast sound. They’re still transforming Ziętek’s trumpet electronically, they’re doing some experiments with free improvisations and they’re getting more and more characteristic with each composition we listen. I think they’ve managed to achieve somthing very difficult: they’ve taken what’s best in fusion and electronic jazz, and combined it with their yass roots. And that, my dear readers, puts them on top of my favourite young polish jazz musicians.

Have fun listening to “Dziwny jest ten kraj” (in Polish: “Strange is this country”, via Youtube), the first track of their newest album.

good day all

Hello,
this site, the Bluetrain, is yet another music weblog about jazz. It’s maintained by me (that is: king.pest) and my friend Leon, and we intend to present everything that is in our opinion somehow interesting, and somehow related to jazz. We are Polish so our level of English may vary (depending on the amount of alcohol in blood, amount of hours spent at work/school and the strength of cosmic radiation) — please be indulgent. Please also stay tuned, as there’s more stuff to come!