Search - Bar Kokhba Sextet :: 50th Birthday Celebration 11

Fantastic.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 07/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In September of 2003, John Zorn celebrated his fiftieth birthday through a series of performances at Tonic in Manhattan. During this series, two days worth of performances (four sets) were done by the Bar Kokhba Sextet-- the Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman- violin, Erik Friedlander- cello, Greg Cohen- bass) augmented by guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista. This set devotes one of each of its three CDs to a set (for anyone curious, the second set is the one thats omitted).



The first set, running about an hour, finds the group in an excited mood, in particular drummer Joey Baron. I've often found that Baron's strength is in his subtlety, but this performance would never let you know that-- he's ferocious and relentless, his playing far more explosive than usual-- solos on "Karet" and "Teli" are significantly up front and his playing on "Khebar" (as well as that of Baptista) is nothing short of astounding.



But Baron is still a master of taste-- his playing on "Lilin" demonstrates this, as he interweaves with Baptista underneath a fantastic, building arrangement before the piece eventually moves into the head and solos (of which Friedlander's is nothing short of astonishing). As the set progresses, it becomes clear that the arrangements by John Zorn are brilliant-- check "Ner Tamid" with Ribot's theme statement countered by Friedlander and Feldman or the alternating theme statement by the violinist and cellist on "Yatzar".



The third set, running about 65 minutes, is quite a bit more varied than the first, with subtlety being far more key to the performance. Like the best performances by the Masada quartet, this set is filled with stunning accompaniment behind brilliant soloing-- take Ribot's accompaniment of Joey Baron's boiling solo on "Jachin"-- his guitar swells and pulses and seems to egg on the drummer who builds to higher and higher heights. The drummer returns the favor on Ribot's absolutely brilliant solo on "Hazor"-- a nice midtempo piece with a great theme statement on guitar with response on pizzicato cello, the guitarist and cellist both solo brilliantly, with Baron and Baptista encouraging them so brilliantly that both end up putting together power and driven solos. And just in case this sympathetic playing wasn't enough to make your jaw drop, the entire ensemble gets behind Feldman's violin solo, in particular Cohen is brilliant and Feldman's solo sits on the edge of coming unhinged but stays totally under control and ends up trumping both Ribot and Friedlander (oh and by the way, the best solo on the piece is Cohen's bass solo). But "Hazor" is just one example, the set moves through a number of moods, from cartoony ("Lachish") to patient ("Kisofim") to downright melancholy ("Avelut"). Really the whole performance is nothing short of astounding and I could discuss any of the pieces in this light.



The last set is a bit different-- clocking in at 77 minutes with an extra piece (nine instead of eight), the band sounds to be quite a bit looser-- the themes are still exectued with the precision and detail as always, and certainly the playing is at a much higher level, but the solos feel to be reaching out further-- look no further than bluesy "Hadasha" to hear this-- Ribot's playing is totally absorbed and wrapped up in the theme and Baron and Baptista sound like they're having a blast. This pervades the entire show, with personal favorites including the explosive "Karet" and a positively joyous closer in "Bith Aneth".



Like the rest of the 50th Birthday Celebration series, this disc is wrapped in a digipack with pretty minimalist artwork, track listings and band lineups on the back of the package. A lot of folks don't like this artwork, though I find it somewhat charming, but then again, I do love a matching set [like the birthday CDs].



Certainly for the relatively low cost (for three CDs) and the extraordinary quality of these performances, this is a worthwhile investment for any fan of the Masada songbook. My only complaint is that Zorn didn't make this four CDs and put the second set on here as well. Highly recommended."