I have to say that my favorite Masada disc is "The Circle Maker," which is actually not the quartet but Zorn's "chamber ensemble" interpretations of his Masada tunes. One disc features the Masada String Trio (cello, bass violyn, violyn) and the other is the Barkokbha Sextet (string trio + guitar, percussion & drum kit).

All of the Masada Quartet features John Zorn (alto), Joey Baron (dr), Greg Cohen (bass), and Dave Douglas (trumpet)---with the exception of some live recordings. Out of the ten studio albums that they released, my favorite albums are probably Beit & Gimel (for the "free jazz" stuff) and Vav and Zayin (which seem a bit more "in" to me, especially Vav). In my opinion, Joey Baron ALWAYS steals the show.

Anyhoo, I hope that was helpful.

Matt Garrington

 zorn-list-request@mailman.xmission.com wrote:

To: Artur Nowak
cc: zorn-list@mailman.xmission.com
Subject: Zorn/Douglas Masada discs


well, i have to confess im not the largest zorn fan but i was blown
away by one of the masada discs i heard. it was a quartet of him and
dave douglas and two other gents. cant remmeber the title, those
sessions all have similar covers and theres so many. but the session
was high intensity free jazz which i dig. will anyone recommend their
favorite masada disc to me?

thanks!