Customer Reviews

Masada Rock

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Once the enfant terrible of new music, with his jump cut compositions and post-modern all inclusive sensibility, composer John Zorn has dedicated himself to the construction of the Masada song-book, a series of tunes that he hopes will eventually become Jazz standards. Based on traditional Yiddish scales and rhythms, Zorn's investigation of his own Jewish heritage has proven to be his most popular undertaking.

His initial forays into this song-book over a decade ago were documented by his own original Masada Quartet and later by chamber music ensembles, including his Masada String Trio. These infectious, tuneful pieces have now been handed over to a new generation to explore.

Rashanim is guitarist Jon Madof's power trio dedicated to exploring such Hassidic themed music and here delivers ten never before recorded Masada tunes for the first time. The trio proves worthy interpreters of such material with a winning combination of virtuosity and youthful abandon. Working its way from the atmospheric and sublime to the blisteringly intense, "Masada Rock" embodies all the best qualities of Zorn's songwriting potential.

Featuring guest soloist Marc Ribot on two cuts, "Masada Rock" never lacks in punch, but more surprising, is Madof's ability to find the subtleties and delicate nuance of Zorn's quieter pieces. The reverb laden surf inflection of the opening cut, "Bahir" is reminiscent of Zorn's own exotic tinged project "The Gift," while the album closer, "Terumah" features acoustic guitar arpeggios backed by the distinctive boing-boing of the Jew's harp, a sound found frequently on Ennio Morricone's Spaghetti Western soundtracks, one of Zorn's own favorite genres. In complete contrast is the thundering "Zemanim" and punkish "Arad" with their bone crushing power chords and stinging lead work. Overflowing with potential, "Masada Rock" is a brilliant reminder of John Zorn's compositional acumen and an indicator of even greater things to come from Jon Madof.

Jon Madof's Rashanim is a band that will probably never receive the recognition they deserve. The trio (Madof on guitar, Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on bass and oud and Matthias Kunzli on drums and percussion) is a sort of downtown answer to post-punk-- guitar driven rock music without the bombastic flair of commercial rock, but instead of a grinding sound, they've got a downtown air to them, a healthy dose of humor and daring to go along with the stunningly high level of musicianship. And while Madof is the leader of the band, all three are fantastic musicians, with both Blumenkranz and Kunzli stealing attention as much as the leader.

This recording, their second, "Masada Rock" features ten songs never before recorded from the first Masada songbook (note that this is NOT material from Masada Book II) and is released as part of the "Masada 10th Anniversary Series". The band is joined on two cuts by guitar genius Marc Ribot, who seemlessly integrates with them, providing color and luminescence in his own way-- Ribot excels at blending into whatever environment he works in, and he does so here, performing on the explosive and up-tempo opener "Bahir", which right away sets the feel for this album. It is definitely a Masada piece, its got that quality to it that is so hard to describe and goes beyond just the choice of scales. Kunzli is positively brilliant as Madof and Ribot take off, blazing through the theme and ending the piece with a dueling guitar solo that recalls the best Zorn/Douglas wars. Ribot also joins in on the acoustic "Shadrakh", which nicely contrasts the opener with its lovely, quiet playing, but again highlighted by the stellar work of Kunzli below a dueling solo by the two guitarists.

The balance of the record covers a number of different styles and feels, from the clean tone electric guitar sounds that dominated the first record ("Makom", featuring nice playing from the trio) to noisy, loud rock ("Chorek", with one of the best solos Madof takes on the record, drenched in feedback and distortion). Along the way, Madof covers Fantomas-esque metal (albeit vocalless "Zemanim", featuring a blistering distorted bass solo from Blumenkranz) , a Morricone-tinged piece ("Ahavah") and nearly straight post-punk ("Arad").

All in all, its a pretty exciting effort, and really a great addition to any collection. I waffled on the rating a bit, but certainly had I not been thinking of this in context of Zorn, I would have given it five stars. We'll call it four-and-a-half. Highly recommended.