January 2003 - zorn-list - mailman.xmission.com

Re: Game Piece Theory
by Eyal Hareuveni 14 Jan '03

14 Jan '03

No secret at all. If you can see the sleeve note to the original cd on HatHut or the latest cobra version on Tzadik you'll find out how simple are the Cobra's rules. As Zorn is writing on the Tzadik version cobra at its best can be magic, at its worst it can be a psychotherapy. Each cobra 'character' is influenced by the musicians who are part of that gane. In the HatHat/Hatology, as well as the Knitting Factory, versions it has a more free jazz nature. In the Avant version, with traditional Japanese instruments, it is even more eccentric. In the Tzadik version it has a nature of 'new music'. But basically it is a game between very tallented musicians who challenge themselves and their fellow musicians. Zorn is supposed to conduct a new version of cobra this coming June in the Israel Festival in Jerusalem, with Israeli musicians. These days the Festival, with a little help of mine and another musicians, JeanClaude Jones (he's mentioned ob the sleeve notes of Masada in Jerusalem), are looking for musicians for this version of cobra. I'll keep you informed about this project. Eyal Hareuveni >From: Herb Levy <herb(a)eskimo.com> >To: zorn-list(a)mailman.xmission.com >Subject: Re: Game Piece Theory >Date: Mon, 13 Jan 2003 07:06:23 -0600 > >AJDinz1(a)aol.com wrote: > >>I just recently got hold of the new hatology release of 'Cobra'. This is >>only >>the second ever game piece I have purchased, but my original conclusion >>was >>the same. This music is just not interesting unless you have any idea of >>the >>theory behind the construction of the piece. It does give me the >>impression >>of eavsdropping on bunch of improv musos during a private joke. Does >>anyone >>know why this is kept a secret? Professional secret? or even better, what >>is >>the theory at work here? >> >>AJ _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Naked City reunion, anyone?
by Arthur Gadney 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Hi, Actually, what do you guys think about the Naked City reunion (if it's really true. Warsaw has claimed to have Naked City perform before...) Am I the only one who feels it's a bad bad idea? I'm absolutely not excited. I mean, we know what will happen. They will play, and it will not be half as good as the original band and Zorn will release a live CD of this "absolutely classic monumental concert by the most important band in the last 500 years". No matter what they play, it's going to be so corny. When they do their first "Napalm Death blast" (as if Frisell could still do that) people will clap and cheer like in the old days, if they play surf stuff people will smile and say "Oh, how Zorn" or if they do new stuff, then why reunite in the first place.....? It was already a bit shaky at their *first* reunion for the Zornfest, so what now ten years later...? Oh no, I think this will be embarrasing...... It's time for Zorn to come up with some cool NEW shit. _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM: Try the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Hawaiian Slack-Key Guitar? (NZC)
by William Crump 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Hey List, could someone in the know talk a little about Hawaiian slack-key guitar? I bought a $5 compilation a few years ago that claimed to be slack-key guitar, but it was horrible crap and I used it for target practice immediately. I mention this because of the middle section of Eno's "Some of Them Are Old" -- I love that sound, but I don't even know if it's representative of slack-key guitar. If it isn't, what is it an example of? Just something that popped out of Eno's head fully formed? Thankee, William Crump

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Re: Game Piece Theory
by AJDinz1＠aol.com 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

No, im a huge fan of alot of Zorn's work, and very receptive to hearing modern/avant garde music. I guess my problem with the game pieces is more out of frustration than an actual immediate dislike for the music, because some parts of it are fantastic, but with nearly all the other composers you mentioned (Baily, Cage, Cecil Taylor and even Merzbow!) the intention of the music was made quite clear, usually through an actual statement of intent. Which leaves me wondering if the game pieces are case of the emperors new clothes? AJ > While it's obviously true that Zorn's game pieces aren't like songs, > there's a lot of other music, much of which is frequently discussed > or at least name-checked on this list, which is no more or less > abstract when heard on a recording rather than a live performance. > > Do you listen to recordings of European free improvisation (Derek > Bailey, Instant Composers Pool, Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, etc)? > Or modern/contemporary avant garde classical music (John Cage, > Pauline Oliveros, Helmut Lachenmann, Iannis Xenakis, etc)? Or > American avant garde jazz-rooted music (Anthony Braxton, Cecil > Taylor, etc)? What about Japanese noise bands or more recent > electro-acoustic improvisation? Others on this list could add other > genres and categories to this list, but this list may be enough for > you to see what I mean. > > In other words, I guess, do you listen to other abstractly structured > music on recordings and you simply have problems listening to Zorn's > game pieces? If so, being more specific about what you have trouble > with may help. > > If, on another hand, you haven't heard a lot of recordings of music > that's fairly abstract, it may just be a matter of getting a comfort > level and/or finding works in this vein that you find immediately > attractive (or at least not uninteresting) and moving out from there. > That can be a very long term process, but in my experience, any > individual's response to works like these is fairly personal. > Suggestions can help point you in new directions, but you'll need to > find your path of artists and recordings that draw you further into > this area of music. > > Not sure if this will have helped, > > Herb > -- > Herb Levy > P O Box 9369 > Fort Worth, TX 76147 > > herb(a)eskimo.com >

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Prince Rec's
by Michael Brooker 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Hello- I'd just like to say thanks to those that provided useful info regarding Princes better output. It may also be of some interest to those on this group that Prince released an instrumental CD earlier this year called "Xpectations", albeit, only as a download to members of the NPG Music Club. It has caused quite a stir in the Prince community, as the hardcore fans either dismiss it since it can't be categorized, or adore it because it seems to be a very new direction for him. The concensus I've seen is that most feel comfortable by calling it "Jazz-Classical-Fusion". I am listening to a CDR of it right now and it is pretty amazing. Also, One Night Alive-Live! is worth every penny, if not for the after show jams alone. And Rainbow Children, religion or not, is still a brilliant album. To Steve-I found Crucial from a collector in Ohio. Let me know if you'd like a copy. Thanks again, Mike _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

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LOUD/QUIET on BOXmedia
by Patrice L. Roussel 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

I never heard about the initial release of LOUD/QUIET (BOXmedia). For that reason I was surprised when I learnt recently that this record was reissued. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *** - LOUD/QUIET: various artists This record features MSBR, Voice Crack, TV POW, Otomo Yoshihide, Shifts, Pita, Plotkin/Gutzeit, Kazumoto Endo, Akiyama/Sugimoto, Kevin Drumm, Kapotte Muziek, Wheaton Research : Lasse Marhaug. 1999 - BOXmedia (USA), 009 (2xCD) 2002 - BOXmedia (USA), 009 (2xCD) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Was the record really released in 1999 as initially planned? Could it have been a limited edition release (which might explain why it got such low publicity). In short, any info explaining why the 1999 release was so confi- dential is welcome. Patrice (who might have slept during the week of its release).

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Sale update
by Samerivertwice＠aol.com 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Just wanted to let you know that a bunch of the discs I listed for sale yesterday have been sold. Below is a list of the discs still available. Not surprisingly, no one has enquired about the books. Cheers, Tom As for prices, please send me an offer off-list and I'll respond with either an acceptance or a counter-offer. Peter Case -- Six-Pack of Love Johnny Society -- Clairvoyance Johnny Society -- Wood Johnny Society -- It Don't Matter Red Hot Chili Peppers -- Californication Red Hot Chili Peppers -- By The Way Beastie Boys -- Root Down ep (sealed) Elvis Costello -- Spike (Warner Bros.) Elvis Costello -- All This Useless Beauty (Warner Bros.) Eric Clapton -- From The Cradle Bob Dylan -- Desire Bruce Springsteen -- Greetings From Asbury Park (sealed) Johnny Cash -- Live at Folsom Prison and San Quentin Phil Lee -- You Shouldn't Have Known Me Then Marc Ribot -- Shoe String Symphonettes Bruce Robison -- Country Sunshine Milt Jackson & John Coltrane -- Bags & Trane Steve Lacy Double Sextet -- Clangs (Hatart) Kazuo Fukushima -- Works for Flute and Piano (Hatart) Steffen Schleiermacher -- Soviet Avant-Garde (Hatart) Paul Motian -- Flight of the Bluejay (W&W) Ensemble Modern/Fred Frith -- Traffic Continues (W&W) David Shea -- An Eastern Western Collected Works (w/Dave Douglas) David Shea -- Hsi-Yu Chi (Tzadik) Whit Dickey Trio -- Transonic (AUM) Ehran Elisha/Roy Campbell/Wilber Morris -- Suite Empathy Dominic Duval's String Ensemble -- State of the Art (CIMP) L. Grassi/T. Varner/R. Horton/T. Ulrich -- Neo Neo (CIMP) Ehran Elisha Ensemble -- The Lowdown (CIMP) Juhn Gunther's Axis Mundi -- Gone Fishin' (CIMP) Oh, and here are a few books that I have doubles of or have read and probably won't read again: Stephen Jay Gould -- The Lying Stones of Marrakech Daniel J. Boorstin -- The Seekers Thomas Keneally -- Schindler's List The Letters of John Keats John Steinbeck -- The Pearl John Steinbeck -- Of Mice and Men John Casey -- Spartina Thomas Pynchon -- V. Will Kymlicka -- Contemporary Political Philosophy Cheers, Tom ______________________________________________________ Discs I'm listening to at work: Jason Moran -- Modernistic John Coltrane -- A Love Supreme (Delux Edition) Wayne Shorter -- Footprints Live! Elvis Costello -- Breaking Radio Silence

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Faves 2002
by K. Scott Handley 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

I have actually been postponing this into irrelevancer, hoping to assemble some halfway comprehensive list of everything that has knocked me down over the past year-plus. I can't do it. I needed a headstart in early December and I slipped up. The profusion of remarkable listening experiences this past year has been staggering. So... A noncomprehensive small clutch of favorites from 2002 or thereabouts: 1. Jack Rose: RED HORSE, WHITE MULE (Eclipse) (gorgeous fingerstyle guitar stylings) 2. Andrea Neumann and B. Beins: LIDINGO (Erstwhile) (after the slight disappointement, for me, of the Fennesz/Polwechsel, this actually knocked me out...it might not be either's best work, but it's a doozy) 3. Cee Lo: CEE LO GREEN AND HIS PERFECT IMPERFECTIONS (a real freak, assured me that my dislike of Missy Elliott's music is probably a dislike of the styles she's mining and working with; Cee Lo's appearance on Letterman [?] in 2002 was unreal: gritty, freaky, gospel) 4. Hate Eternal: KING OF ALL KINGS ("no editing"? huh? powerful, intense, and perhaps unfortunately, militaristically sympathetic...but fucking bad) 5. Steffen Basho-Junghans: WATERS IN AZURE (Strange Audio Attractors) (see #1, albeit completely different; universes inside an acoustic guitar) 6. Luc Ferrari: CYCLE DES SOUVENIRS (Blue Chopsticks/Drag City) 7. El-P: FANTASTIC DAMAGE (Definitive Jux) 8. Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, IMPULSION (Empreintes Digitales) (more intensely great concret; MCSM does a track or two here that almost sound like cutups of some of the new school of improvising trumpeters---Doerner, Kelley, Hautinger, etc., by way of Dixon and McPhee of course---totally cut-up and multitracked. That isn't wholly accurate, but it's remarkable, esp. considering these pieces are from '70-'81) 9. Darkane: EXPANDING SENSES (the fucking baddest; intense and churning) Shaken, not stirred: DJ/Rupture: GOLD TEETH THIEF (Violent Turd, reissue) Madlib: BLUNTED IN THE BOMB SHELTER 2 Many DJs: AS HEARD ON RADIO SOULWAX, PT. 2 Reissue heaven: Sam Cooke with the Soul Stirrers: THE COMPLETE SPECIALTY RECORDINGS (Specialty) Trevor Wishart: JOURNEY INTO SPACE (Paradigm) SMAK 1 + 2 (Skam) Nagisa Ni Te, ON THE LOVE BEACH (JagJaguwar) Fennesz: FIELD RECORDINGS (Touch) Charley Patton: SCREAMIN' AND HOLLERIN' THE BLUES (Revenant, 2001) Giacinto Scelsi: STRING QUARTETS and other pieces (Naive-Montaigne) H.N.A.S. reissues on Dom-America, esp. IM SCATTEN DER MOEHRE THU20: NANCY/HET ARCHIEF (Alluvial, cdr reissue) Disappointments: Flaming Lips: YOSHIMI BATTLES THE PINK ROBOTS (Warner) Missy Elliott: UNDER CONSTRUCTION Primal Scream: EVIL HEAT Ekkehard Ehlers: PLAYS Late to the punch: Alfred Schnittke's String Quartets Lou Reed: METAL MACHINE MUSIC High Rise: LIVE Helmut Lachenmann Kaffe Matthews Yes, I did: Finally dropped load of cash at Stockhausen-Verlag. Hoping for that "Om" moment. God! This list has nothing to do with me. I have skiploads of lists. I need to make another lists. I'll make three more lists. Dammit! I would really enjoy seeing others' lists, if you haven't posted yet. One last gasp of OCD listmaking, please? -----s np: Luc Ferrari nr: Mary Ann Doane, THE EMERGENCE OF CINEMATIC TIME

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Merzbow redux: A DAY OF SEALS, plus Prins plus J.Schuller
by K. Scott Handley 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

Before all traces of Merzdiscussion evaporate from listmemory, has anyone heard the recent Merzbow release 24 HOURS: A DAY OF SEALS on Dirter Productions? It's a 4-disc set, marketed as a unified whole of sorts, but other than Edwin Pouncey's complimentary words in the January issue of WIRE, I hae onyl been able to find a couple hedgy/iffy/tepid responses to it. I ended up hearing HARD LOVIN' MAN and AMLUX, and really enjoyed both, though with hesitations (the loops). Just wondered where DAY OF SEALS and TASTE OF MERZBOW (Mego) stood in comparison to these two other recent records. Second, thx to Jese for the synth recs, and I'd like to second his recommedation of Gert-Jan Prins. I would recommend PRINS LIVE (Grob) much more ethusiastically than any digital Merzbow I've heard; to me it's warmer, colder, tougher, mroe chaotic, less reigned in, and a worthy descendent of Akita's work. Great noise. Finally, I don't know if anyone's done this already, but congrats to list member John Schuller on a FULL-PAGE feature review of his latest (?) album in the January WIRE. ----s

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Stanley and Sam
by Parry Gettelman 13 Jan '03

13 Jan '03

I heard that story of Sam Rivers decking Stanley Crouch was true, not from Sam but from an associate of his in Orlando. They must've made up eventually -- Stanley was having a grand old time hanging out at one of Sam's 75th birthday shows at Sweet Basil's a few years ago. He was a lot more amusing than his writing. Has anyone else heard the story of Stanley, back in the day, announcing that as a writer, he could make a star out of anyone, and selecting the young David Murray for this display of potency? Parry

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