{"id":3661,"date":"2014-03-17T18:19:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T18:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.artinfo.com\/blunotes\/?p=3661"},"modified":"2014-03-17T18:19:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T18:19:35","slug":"john-zorn-closes-the-book-on-masada-with-the-book-beriah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/17\/john-zorn-closes-the-book-on-masada-with-the-book-beriah\/","title":{"rendered":"John Zorn Closes the Book on Masada with "The Book Beriah""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
John Zorn, last July, during the Lincoln Center Festival, after an a capella vocal-quintet performance of his piece \u201cThe Holy Visions\u201d, sitting down at Alice Tully Hall\u2019s magnificent pipe organ to play \u201cThe Hermetic Organ, Office No. 8\u201d, stirring up a glorious din with childlike glee. Photo: Stephanie Berger<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nWere I in New York City on March 19, I\u2019d head to Town Hall for the world premiere of John Zorn\u2019s \u201cMasada Book Three: The Book Beriah<\/a>.\u201d It’s the final installment in a 20-year project, bringing Zorn’s total number of Masada compositions to 613 (the number of mitzvot<\/em>, or commandments, contained in the Jewish Torah).
\nMasada is just one element of Zorn\u2019s musical identity, one frame within his composite portrait. Taken as a whole, it has made profound suggestions about both Jewish identity and musical possibility.\u00a0Zorn will present this third book in a marathon \u201cshuffle\u201d concert at Town Hall, featuring 20 different bands and more than 50 musicians from wildly divergent backgrounds.
\nHere are some relevant excerpts from a feature story I did for The Saturday Paper, an Australian newsweekly, pegged to the last of Zorn\u2019s 60th-birthday events, and his first-ever trip Down Under.
\n(You can find that story, which includes some of Zorn\u2019s reflections on turning 60, on inane interview questions, and on General George S. Patton, here<\/a>.)
\n….By the time Mike Patton\u2019s trademark screams punctuated the high-voltage tremors of John Zorn\u2019s Electric Masada group at Lincoln Centre\u2019s David H. Koch Theater in Manhattan, it was past 11pm. A Masada Marathon<\/em>, drawn from Zorn\u2019s immense body of compositions employing the often-mournful sounding scales characteristic of Jewish music, had lasted more than three hours, with 12 bands delivering an equal number of musical styles and ensemble configurations. Among other things, we\u2019d heard the Bar Kokhba sextet\u2019s singular blend of violin, cello and guitar; surf-rock grooves as conjured by the guitar, vibraphone and electric keyboard of The Dreamers; a devastatingly elegant String Trio; and the Masada Quartet, which includes Zorn on his customary alto saxophone, trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron, and stands among the most expressive and cohesive small ensembles in modern jazz.\u00a0That was 2011, when Zorn, an American composer of restless energy, had just completed his second book of Masada works. He recently finished Book Three, bringing the total of these compositions alone to more than 600, and culminating some 20 years of musical and personal discovery. And the Masada project is just one strand of Zorn\u2019s story\u2026.
\nThe massive Masada project began as simply \u201can attempt to write new tunes that I could play\u201d. Yet it was also his \u201cpersonal answer to what new Jewish music is\u201d.\u00a0 At that 2011 Masada Marathon<\/em>, I felt a genuine sense of ritual enacted. When Zorn sat onstage directing (conducting isn\u2019t quite the right word), his hand movements fleetingly reminded me of my grandmother kindling Sabbath candles on Friday evenings. It dawned on me that each half of the concert presented six bands playing three pieces each: That\u2019s 18, a number that, in Jewish tradition, carries life-affirming mystical properties.<\/p>\n

Zorn addressed his audience: \u201cSo what are these tunes? A book of 316 pieces that musicians have made beautiful. They take six lines of melody and turn it into magic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Zorn hinted to me that there will likely be one more Masada piece, on a grand scale (some believe in a 614th commandment<\/a>). But for now, we get \u201cMasada Book Three: The Book Beriah.” Book One gave rise to a new chapter in Zorn’s career, and to several group’s including the Masada Quartet. Book Two spawned 20 recordings by 20 musicians and bands, including last year’s wonderful \u201cTap: John Zorn\u2019s Book of Angels, Vol. 20,\u201d <\/a>(Nonesuch\/Tzadik).
\nI what wonder secrets this new book will hold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Were I in New York City on March 19, I\u2019d head to Town Hall for the world premiere of John Zorn\u2019s \u201cMasada Book Three: The Book Beriah.\u201d It’s the final installment in a 20-year project, bringing Zorn’s total number of Masada compositions to 613 (the number of mitzvot, or commandments, contained in the Jewish Torah). … <\/p>\n

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