Hi, Well, I don't know what I expected from the Masada Guitars project, but the results certainly didn't match my expectations. I felt Frisell was a surprising choice in some sense but this time I found his approach slightly more original than that of Ribot or Sparks. Some of his tracks are electric and although I generally dismiss his sometimes over-the-top use of pedal effects, it provides a new edge to the Masada compositions. Sparks is just himself: traditional and perfectionist with clean sound on the acoustic, nothing better or worse than the covers from his other three Tzadik albums (which I love, btw). And Ribot (my favorite guitarist by far) hasn't really succeeded this time. First of all, I'd had loved to hear him on electric on some tunes; secondly, his interpretations seem a bit dispersed. OK, I've seen him live and I've listened to his three solo albums a lot, so that should come as no surprise but somehow it doesn't seem to work this time. I've heard Masada Guitars four or five times only, and perhaps I'll learn to listen to it without the "high expectancies" factor in-between. I could change my mind but this reminds me of the feeling I had after listening to the so-awaited "The Gift". And maybe if the album had been divided into three different sections, one for each player, instead of alternating tracks, it would have resulted into something much more pleasurable and cohesioned. It's not difficult to discern who's playing on each track, but the overall "order" is a bit messy. Just an opinion. All the best, Efrén del Valle n.p: Teiji Ito "King Ubu" (Tzadik)
Having not heard the masada guitars, could you (and anyone else who feels like it) elaborate? i was thinking of picking it up, mostly for the frisell, but have no idea what to expect.
I thoroughly enjoyed Masada guitars. It was exactly as I expected, with maybe the exception of the predominance of acoustic over electric. I expected solo guitar renditions of the tunes in the style of each guitarist. That's what it was--nothing more, nothing less. This is definitely the most organic Masada release I've heard--more in touch with the "new traditional" music Zorn said he was going for. The tunes are sparse, but new beauty emerges in the spare milieu. Frisell and Ribot touched me more than Sparks; I listened without looking and found that most of the tracks I enjoyed were not Sparks. Zach ___________________________________________________ Yahoo! Móviles Personaliza tu móvil con tu logo y melodÃa favorito en http://moviles.yahoo.es