EM has a more electric Miles feel than the Gift. It sounds more improvised and stretched out as skip said. It may even, dare I say, have a more jam band feel at times, though with a Masada (Zorn) feel and considerably better musicianship all around. I enjoyed even the poor quality live recording I heard; making me really want to hear an album. I can't decide if I would rather have the polished sound of a studio album or the energy from a live recording from this band. The Gift is definitely Zorn that you can take home to mom (though my mom now plays Masada, quartet and chamber, at dinner parties). The Gift is very relaxed and has some very tasty playing by Ribot in particular. Very Martin Denney sounding, though with a darker Zorn vibe. I love exotica, but if you don't then you may not like this album. I play it for chill music or something to work with. It is suffciently relaxing, but I can tune it out need be. I can't say that about many Zorn albums, except for Redbird (which I enjoy). Zach ----- Original Message ----- From: skip Heller <velaires@earthlink.net> Date: Thursday, July 3, 2003 10:51 am Subject: Re: Electric Masada tomorrow night

on 7/3/03 7:27 AM, Paul Michael Sager at pms262@nyu.edu wrote:

...

I notice that the line-up (John Zorn (alto sax), Marc Ribot (guitar), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Kenny Wollesen (drums), Jamie Saft (keyboard / synthesizer / lap-steel guitar) & Trevor Dunn (bass)) is almost the same as "The Gift" except for Wollenson instead of Baron. Is this the normal line-up for Electric Masada? Does "The Gift" sound anything like Electric Masada? I haven't yet heard either.