John Zorn and his dark little secrets...a review of two CDs

Masada Book 2: Book of Angels vol.3
That's quite a recording made by Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier. I always liked the recording "Masada Recital" (Mark gave this recording to me, believe it or not! Mark, you are the man!!). The unbelievable co-existence of rawness and sophistication that they created couldn't be explained in words ---- at least I couldn't explain it in words, TOEFL problem maybe? ;)

Mark and Sylvie are back in business in this recording, exactly like what I expected, it is terrific!

Before buying this recording (online, 2 days ago), I already checked out their performance of these new Masada materials at the Stone, NYC. It was an in-your-face kinda feeling when I sat in the first row when Mark started to fire you with musical bullets while Sylvie bombarded you with her explosive cannon-like bangs!! The result: an over-one-hour non-stop emotional rollercoaster ride. When I listened to this recording, I couldn't believe that I still have fresh memories of all the melodies I heard from that night! You could see how catchy were Zorn's melodies.

Of course, you could argue that things gets easier to be remembered when he quoted all the famous melodies from traditional and classical music; but the fact is, I could even remember the other tunes he wrote that came without the quotations.


The String Quartets

I always wanted to check out Mr Zorn's string quartets. Whenever I know about a new name, I would always try to check out his/her quartets first. I dunno what is the real reason, but I guess it's because I'm a string player who loves to play in a quartet. The sound of string quartet, to me is the ultimate representation of "balance" --- the balance of sound, human relationship, personal characters, spirituality, ideas and cosmic elements (hope it's not too exaggerated).

I just feel so comfortable and stable whenever I listen to the string quartet sound.

Now of course, you can't expect too much of the "standard" quartet sound from people like Zorn. I wouldn't want to listen to them if he ever wrote it like Schoenberg or Bartok.

Freaky and scratchy effects of the string instruments had become his "trademark" in compositions, and with people like Mark Feldman and Erik Friedlander playing in the quartet, it becomes more effective, since this two gentlemen are so used to making them it almost became their personal vocabularies.

The combination of spontaneity (improvisations) and structured writing is perhaps Zorn's way of presenting "balance".

Content wise, man, Zorn's got some serious dirty little secrets in his music! Yet I like those S/M ideas that he applies into music. Not that I'm an S/M fan --- I think it's gross --- but all I want to say is, when you only listen to the sound, it actually allows you to imagine things beyond the S/M theme. On the other hand, his "Kol Nidre" (track 16) was so spiritually inspired. Does that reflect the extreme sides personality? Or does it simply reflects every people's potential of having a slight split personality?