OK, by now everyone familiar with
John Zorn's
Masada project should realize that it's actually a songbook, and not a band per se.
Unknown Masada is the third installment in the Masada 10th Anniversary series, presenting tunes from the book that had not been recorded to this point. As you might expect, there is a tremendous amount of stylistic diversity here, from the very traditional sound of
Julian Kytasty to the very untraditional sounds of
Fantomas. In fact, listeners more familiar with
The Circle Maker or
Bar Kokhba might not be prepared for some of the
hard rock treatments of some of these tunes.
Zahava Seewald,
Erik Friedlander's Topaz, and
Kytasty represent the more traditional end of the spectrum, while
Koby Israelite,
Jon Madof, and
Jamie Saft give more of a
hard rock sound to their tracks.
Wadada Leo Smith's track features a very spare trumpet melody over a queasy soundscape supplied by
Ikue Mori.
Fantomas takes the hard edge a step further (to be expected), but the
prog rock feel of both
Tatsuya Yoshida and
Eyvind Kang is somewhat unexpected. In fact,
Kang's treatment of
"Belimah" almost sounds like a lost early-'70s
King Crimson outtake! Track highlights include
"Kinyan" (
Friedlander),
"Vehuel" (
Dave Douglas, featuring
Greg Tardy and
Zorn himself),
"Zarach" (
Saft), and
"Belimah" (
Kang). The
Zorn crowd tends to follow his every move and usually know what to expect; the uninitiated should probably approach this one with some caution. ~ Sean Westergaard
