JOHN ZORN/MASADA STRING TRIO

JOHN ZORN
MASADA STRING TRIO
AZAZEL:
THE BOOK OF ANGELS VOLUME 2 (2005)

320KBPS

"Azazel" is the second in the series of releases for John Zorn's Masada Book Two. In the early '90s, Zorn wrote about two hundred pieces for his Masada project-- a songbook of melodies that could serve as springboards for improvisation all written using the "Jewish scales"-- this lent a slight klezmer bent to the music. In the second half of 2004, Zorn took it upon himself to compose a new book of Masada pieces-- all told he composed some three hundred melodies, naming each after an angel and titling the songbook "The Book of Angels". "Azazel" is performed by the Masada String Trio-- violinist Mark Feldman, cellist Eric Friedlander and bassist Greg Cohen.
One thing immediately notable about the pieces is the diversity of moods on them-- it seems as a composer Zorn seemed to also challenge himself to repeat little ground and avoid sounding, for lack of better term, Jewish. The pieces cover such diverse styles as frantic cartoon music ("Mibi", "Gurid"), lush and romantic ("Mastema", "Garzanal"), patient yet foreceful ("Tabaet"), moody ("Symnay"), dramatic ("Bethor") and just plain exciting and fantastic ("Uriel", "Aheil"). Of course, this is all helped by having just purely virtuoso performances-- these guys have been playing together (and playing Zorn's compositions) for nearly a decade and it shows-- they approach the material with an unusual sensitivity and vigor-- really digging deep inside the pieces. At times, each receives a spotlight and performs admirably, but its really the collective play that pans out, whether it be cartoon explosions and frantic improvs ("Mibi") or one outdoing the other as they trade solos ("Symnay", "Azazel", "Garzanal"), it seems that every time you think they've reached a peak, someone brings it just a bit higher.
When I first listened to this, I thought to myself that it really isn't quite as good as the live performances, but the more I listened to this the less I can find anything bad to say about it-- this album is just utterly fantastic-- its not so simple as to say it's "chamber music" or "jazz on strings" or any other label, its just fantastic music performed admirably. Highly recommended.

1. Tufiel
2. Mibi
3. Tabaet
4. Symnay
5. Mastema
6. Betboz
7. Uziel
8. Gurid
9. Gazriel
10. Azazel
11. Rssasiel
12. Garzanal
13. Abiel