{"id":6648,"date":"2018-05-03T14:51:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T14:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/?p=6648"},"modified":"2018-05-18T15:30:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-18T15:30:41","slug":"with-the-book-beriah-john-zorn-closes-the-book-on-masada-with-force-and-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/03\/with-the-book-beriah-john-zorn-closes-the-book-on-masada-with-force-and-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"With The Book Beriah, John Zorn Closes the Book on Masada with Force and Feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

In the third-floor East Village walkup apartment John Zorn has called home since 1977\u2014\u201cmy device to enable creativity,\u201d the alto saxophonist and composer\u00a0calls the place\u2014he reflected recently on his Masada project, now 25 years running.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt began as my personal answer to what new Jewish music is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was a musical challenge. After writing so much conceptual music, I wanted to just write a book of tunes\u2014the way Irving Berlin had a book of tunes, the way Thelonious Monk had a book of tunes.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was 1993. He set about to mine the scales associated with Jewish music\u2014 a minor scale with a sharp 4th and a major scale with a flatted 2nd\u2014and to serve the needs of modern improvisers like himself. He named the project Masada,\u00a0for the ancient Judean fortress subjected to a deadly siege by troops of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

That book kept growing, as did its implications for Zorn and an ever-widening community of musicians. By 1996, Zorn had written 205 Masada pieces, which gave rise to several important bands, not least his celebrated quartet with trumpeter Dave Douglas, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Joey Baron. In the space of three months in 2004, he composed another 316 songs, to form a second Masada collection, \u201cThe Book of Angels,\u201d this time distributing them to a wide range of musicians, and leading to more than two dozen recordings by 20 musicians and bands for his Tzadik<\/a> label.<\/p>\n

The Book Beriah<\/strong>, Zorn\u2019s third installment of 92 compositions, brings Zorn\u2019s total number of Masada compositions to 613 (the number of mitzvot, or commandments, contained in the Jewish Torah). He\u2019s celebrated The Book Beriah<\/strong> with sprawling concerts at Manhattan\u2019s Symphony Space in 2014 and earlier this year, displaying the range of expression it invites.<\/p>\n

This time, rather than release the music in a an extended series of recordings, he\u2019s making all the music available in one gorgeous, limited-edition 11-CD box set. Zorn is offering The Book Beriah<\/strong> in a variety of formats\u2014CDs, autographed sets, bundles with T-shirts, LPs featuring highlights only\u2014for pre-order through PledgeMusic<\/a>, a crowd-funded, community-building web retailer.<\/p>\n

You’ll find sample tracks at the site!<\/em><\/p>\n

This boxed set begins with the singer Sofia Rei in duo with JC Maillard (on bass and saz) and ends with an another duo, of pianists Craig Taborn and Vadim Neselovski. In between, the music ranges wildly in style and feel, from ethereal to slamming, playful to intense.<\/p>\n

When Zorn began his Masada project 25 years ago, he was a forceful presence on a then-nascent Downtown scene. Now, at 64, his music is played and honored at cultural institutions of all stripes around the world, and deservedly so. (Here’s a link<\/a> to a 2014 piece of mine about Zorn that lends some perpsective.) \u00a0Masada is just one strand of his achievements, and yet it is a world unto itself.<\/p>\n

Is Zorn really done with Masada? He’s hinted that there may be one more iteration to come.<\/p>\n

Yet this wondrous boxed set feels complete.<\/p>\n

(The Book Beriah contents below:)<\/p>\n

CD1 Keter\u00a0<\/em>(crown) \u2013 Sofia Rei
\nCD2 Chokhma\u00a0<\/em>(wisdom) \u2013 Cleric
\nCD3 Binah\u00a0<\/em>(understanding) \u2013 Spike Orchestra
\nCD4 Chesed\u00a0<\/em>(loving kindness) Julian Lage\/Gyan Riley
\nCD5 Gevurah<\/em> (severity) \u2013 Abraxas
\nCD6 Tiferet<\/em>\u00a0(beauty) \u2013 Klezmerson
\nCD7 Netzach<\/em>\u00a0(eternity) \u2013 Gnostic Trio
\nCD8 Hod<\/em>\u00a0(splendor) \u2013 Zion80
\nCD9 Yesod<\/em>\u00a0(foundation) \u2013 Banquet of the Spirits
\nCD10 Malkhut<\/em>\u00a0(kingship) \u2013 Secret Chiefs 3
\nBONUS CD
\nCD11 Da\u2019at<\/em>\u00a0(knowledge) \u2013 Craig Taborn-Vadim Neselovskyi<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the third-floor East Village walkup apartment John Zorn has called home since 1977\u2014\u201cmy device to enable creativity,\u201d the alto saxophonist and composer\u00a0calls the place\u2014he reflected recently on his Masada project, now 25 years running. \u201cIt began as my personal answer to what new Jewish music is,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it was a musical challenge. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “With The Book Beriah, John Zorn Closes the Book on Masada with Force and Feeling”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[25,10,14,479,478,480],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6648"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6680,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6648\/revisions\/6680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/larryblumenfeld.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}