The sun has set and Yom Kippur draws to a close. I've been fasting all day and considering the past year, the good and the bad, the things I should've done and the things I should not have done. It is the holiest of Jewish holidays and it is time to repent and also to now rejoice. I have been listening to each Masada studio cd and thinking what a marvelous book of songs that John Zorn has given us. I am also thinking about the previous month in which John celebrated his 50th birthday by having his vast and diverse music played each night of September, 2003 and what an incredible experience it was for all who attended some of it, part of it or all of it. I caught some 27 nights myself, only missing three, contrary to what some might think. Many found it hard to imagine that I would/could attend thirty nights of music from one composer, but I have to admit that I am now even more amazed by the output of my main man.

I used to have no problem seeing gigs night after night, my old record is 45 days in a row. But as I am also approaching 50, it is not as easy as it used to be. Still, every night I went to the Zorn Fest, I was challenged and am certainly glad that I did it. There were a number of us that actually went (almost) every night. Gonda, Stephanie Stone, Carol White, Zuzu from LA plus many new friends from around the world - Belgium, Italy, Canada, Germany, Australia, bay area, Philly, the south and the midwest were all represented.

This month was an overwhelming experience since it showed the extreme diversity of Zorn's many gifts - his sax playing, his composing, his conducting, and his organizing skills were put to the test every night, he was under immense pressure to make this festival work and nothing came easy. The weekly schedule was broken up into five series, Sundays were classical or concerts works, Mondays were solo/duo/trio improv, Tuesdays were composed pieces (for films, etc.), Wednesdays were game pieces and Thursday - Saturday were Zorn's bands.

The first Monday was the popular Hemophiliac trio with Mike Patton, Ikue Mori and Zorn. It was packed and was a marvel of focused improv with Patton's bizarre manipulated vocals and noise, Ikue's ever intriguing world of samples and Zorn's provocative and distinctive sax playing.

The next Monday was the legendary avant-jazz drummer Milford Graves and Zorn, who've played as a duo on occasion and always charm those in attendance. There is mutual admiration going on here, although these cats are a generation apart, they blended their fire and resourcefulness into a well-matched singular force. Zorn seemed to be inspired to play some jazz and blues melodies and both players wove the ancient with the modern spirits. Near the end of their set, Milford leaped into the packed audience, doing his dance and speaking in tongues. Zorn let out an intense scream on his sax and Milford ran back to the stage. Milford crawled under Zorn's legs and lifted Zorn up as Zorn continued to wail on sax. It was a hilarious and striking sight that no one in attendance will ever forget.

The second set that night was a rare solo alto sax offering, which John hasn't done in NY in a decade. This was one of the special moments of the fest, since Zorn has such a unique approach to his sax playing - his signature tongue slapping antics, high end squeals and squawks and that phenomenal feat in which he plays two or three separate melodies at the same time, were all in evidence that night. And, towards the end of that set, he put a large cup of water on a chair and played with just the mouthpiece into the cup, both blowing out and sucking in, winking at Stephanie and me, since we go all the way back to the late 70's when he used to play like this much more often.

The second Monday featured two more outstanding duos with Fred Frith and Yamatsuka Eye. It seemed obvious that experimental guitarist extraordinaire Fred Frith and Zorn have been playing together for nearly a quarter century since they matched wits so well and pushed the boundaries of improv time and time again. This was the most daredevil and intense of duos, both Frith and Zorn hurling ideas back and forth and erupting together throughout. Tonic was packed again and Fred was warmly welcomed by the crowd. Since moving from NY (1980-1993), he comes back to NY all too rarely. Even more rare was the appearance of Boredoms (and Naked City) vocal and sonic extremist Eye, who hasn't been in NY in years. This was also a dynamic duo as Eye danced wildly with two hand-held light devices which triggered an odd array of sampled sounds. This was another bizarre and fascinating duo that often erupted into highly focused noise episodes. Eye recorded a new solo effort for Tzadik while he was in town.

The third Monday featured two more great duos with the marvelous drummer/percussionist Susie Ibarra and AACM trumpet hero Wadada Leo Smith. Susie and John first played at a festival I ran at Context Studios in the mid-nineties and have developed a unique bond, sometimes swinging, sometimes swirling between Susie's use of gongs and exotic percussion. Leo Smith is another elder statesman of avant jazz and new music and one of Zorn's mentors and inspirations. This was their first ever duo performance and once again, their mutual respect and mature talents blended together superbly. The last Monday was supposed to be a duo/trio with Derek Bailey who unfortunately was ill and recuperating in Barcelona. Rumor had it that both Bill Frisell and Anthony Braxton had been asked, but neither could make it. Zorn put together a last minute all-star improv night with Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander, Sylvie Courvoisier, Ike Mori, Trevor Dunn and Mark Dresser. This was an equally amazing night of dynamic improvisations from some of Zorn's closest musician friends.

The Sunday night series were for some of Zorn's more serious classical works and most had just one set per Sunday. Zorn's four string quartet works on the first Sunday showed an immense diversity of his composing abilities. Each piece dealt with different themes, dynamics, ideas, densities, textures, quotes and surprises. It ended with "Kol Nidre", which is the Jewish prayer for the dead and one of Zorn's most transcendent and beautiful pieces and was the perfect way to end the evening. I heard the premiere of Zorn's most recently recorded classical work "Chimeras" at Cooper Union last year, but hearing it in Tonic was a truly intimate experience. The eight piece ensemble sounded more magical this time, especially the singing of Ilana Davidson and Elizabeth Farnum, who used to no microphones.

Stephen Drury, modern classical piano marvel and longtime Zorn supporter, put together ensembles to perform three of Zorn's more challenging pieces. "Music for Children" spun quickly through a variety of different shapes and changes. The rarely performed "Shibboleth" featured a clavichord, which is a harpsichord-like instrument that could barely be heard, even though I was sitting only a few feet away. This was one of the most delicate and fragile works I've ever heard and complete silence was needed in order to hear it's ultra-subtle sounds. "Angellus Novus" is for a woodwind octet and Zorn was able to translate the unique reed explorations he has long worked on and have the eight members play many of these difficult sonic sounds.

The final Sunday featured "Goetia" for solo violin performed by Jennifer Choi and this was another dynamic display of Jenny's incredible playing and Zorn's difficult music. The final work was the as yet unrecorded Zorn masterwork "Necronomicon" for string quartet, which was an immensely powerful work and perhaps Zorn's finest classical work yet. The first and last movements of this piece intense and quick moving, the mid movements slower, more lyrical and completely enchanting. Let's hope that John records this piece soon, so everyone can hear it.

Besides Zorn, two other musicians stood out played magnificently throughout the month - guitar great Marc Ribot and drum wiz Joey Baron, who hasn't been back in NY is well over a year. Ribot performed the challenging early solo guitar work "Book of Heads" which was written as a tribute to the enigmatic way that early Zorn collaborator Eugene Chadbourne played his guitar. Ribot has been struggling to make this idiosyncratic piece come to life for years and finally he sounds as if he's got it down.

The second set on 9/17 featured Ribot and (new guitar hero) Jon Madof performing pieces from the 'Masada Guitars' tribute in both solos and duos, both guitarists did impressive renditions of Zorn's most memorable and haunting Masada melodies. 'The Gift' was appropriately performed on 9/11 and is one of Zorn's most misunderstood works. It is a tribute to the lounge/surf music of Les Baxter and Martin Denny and some feel it is too lightweight for the Zorn's more demanding listeners. I find it immensely charming. It was performed by a slightly different version of the Bar Kokhba Chamber Masada and live, it was much better, much more intense. Ribot played one of the most extraordinary and intense el. guitar solos I've ever witnessed and Zorn kept pushing him to go even further. Most hilarious moment of the month was a theremin solo by Zorn in which he used his tongue and eyeballs to trigger this ancient electronic instrument.

Wednesday nights were for Zorn's different game pieces, 25 of which were composed in a quarter century, but only 'Cobra' is performed regularly today both by Zorn's all-star crew at Tonic and around the world by other ensembles. 'Cobra' seems to get better and better as Zorn now has a solid cast of great improvisers that know how the piece works and enjoy the challenge of playing it. An all-star version was performed on Sept. 3rd and it was fucking brilliant! Powerful, extreme yet focused, dynamic group and sub-group interaction, at times ultra-subtle, sometimes explosive, bursts of chaos and then abruptly transformed into controlled segments, a balance of densities and exciting edge-of-your seat thrills.

Two sections of 'New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands' were done on 9/10 and these also haven't been performed in a decade. The guitar duo of Ribot and Jon Madof worked well with narrator Min Xiao-Fen, the three weaving their inventive lines together. The drum duo of Joey Baron and Kenny Wollesen also worked intricately with narrator Okkyung Lee, who had showed her rambunctious spirit interjecting her words amongst the double drum thunder. Okkyung was also marvelous playing her cello on the difficult trio piece 'Hockey' with Zorn on duck calls and Jim Pugliese on percussion.

'Locus Solus' hasn't been done in an even longer period of time and was a marvel of post-punk wit and invention by Arto Lindsay (skronk guitar & oddball vocalist), Anton Fier (original downtown drum hero) and John Zorn on that wacky alto sax. This set was both hilarious and enchanting and great surprise for a trio that hasn't worked together in a couple of decades.

The most exciting, often riveting and rarely heard game piece of the month was 'Xu Feng' which featured Fred Frith & Marc Ribot on guitars, Yuka Honda & Jamie Saft on keyboards and Susie Ibarra and Joey Baron on drums. This piece featured incredibly intense and near violent eruptions with duos throwing ideas back and forth at a fast pace. It was a first to hear Frith and Ribot working together and both were incredibly inventive throughout. It was also rare to hear Joey and Susie working together and they spun their percussive magic well.

The weekends were for Zorn's different bands and were the most well-attended. The Masada String Trio (Mark Feldman, Erik Friedlander & Greg Cohen) played the first Thursday and were outstanding, another of this month's best moments. Both Mark on violin and Erik on cello played a number of magnificent solos, which showed that it doesn't get any better than this! Contrabass great Greg Cohen was the constant rhythmic glue that held the trio together and took a couple of wonderful solos as well.

The return of (the new) Painkiller performed in their glory on the first weekend. The new version featured Bill Laswell on electric bass, John Zorn on alto sax and Hamid Drake on drums with special guest vocalist Mike Patton sitting in for half the set on each of the four sets. Painkiller is one of Zorn's more extreme projects and hasn't played in NY in many years. Although their sets are mainly improvised, they do a great job of getting into some deep grooves thanks to Bill's powerful and inventive el. bass playing. This was the first time that Zorn had played with Chicago wonder drummer Hamid Drake, who also is immensely talented and diverse, blending jazz, dub, funk, rock and world beats into his various grooves. Each set was much different and Zorn played a number of incredible solos, often pushed by Hamid's slamming drums. Mike Patton knew when to lay out and also added some well placed vocal and sampled textures. Bill was having some problems with his right hand, but still kept the thick groove churning. On the last set, Laswell really laid down some incredible lines and also pulled off some amazing solos. Nothing could hold him back.

Many folks have asked what my favorite night was of this amazing month. No doubt it was the return of the original Masada Quartet - JZ, Dave Douglas, Greg Cohen & Joey Baron! They hadn't played together in a year and a half and just rehearsed the day of the shows. I have seen this incredible quartet dozens of times since their first performance in September of 1993 and they are still the finest modern jazz quartet of the new century. They were in truly triumphant form, all four players were/are at their best. They played six sets over three nights and completely blew away the sold out crowds! Right from the opening tune, Zorn played one of those long, incredible solos that will go down as one of his finest moments. He constantly pushed the other three to play harder than ever. Dave Douglas would take up the challenge and also play a number of extraordinary solos. This was also some of the hottest playing I've ever heard from Greg Cohen who was in fine form throughout. Still, it was the well-needed smiling spirit of the perfect Masada drummer Joey Baron that really had the entire room levitating! Joey moved from NY over a year ago and is sorely missed. Zorn kept introducing each member of the band throughout the nights and the crowd kept roaring with their approval. There is a true group dynamic and magic spirit here, they are the perfect quartet. As Joey has moved away for possibly for good, these might just be the final Masada sets - ever? No one knows, but everyone who witnessed those sets knew that this the finest band in the land. Since Joey was in town for a couple of weeks, Zorn asked him to sit on a number of other sets, another great thing.

The last weekend featured the Electric Masada, which is about a year or so old in this version, but has evolved personnel wise a couple of times. As John Medeski has now left the fold, the current version includes Marc Ribot on guitar, Jamie Saft on electric piano & effects, Trevor Dunn on basses, Cyro Baptista on percussion and Kenny Wollesen on drums. For these performances, Ikue Mori sat in on sampler and on Friday and Saturday nights, they added Joey Baron to their double drum fury. This band seems to be consistently evolving as Zorn brings more Masada tunes into their repertoire. In this version of Masada, Zorn boths plays some rip-roaring alto sax and also directs the energy in his own unique way. The Electric Masada play their version of jazz/rock with some Brazilian percussion as added spice and spirit. These Masada tunes are pushed and stretched out with incredible results. Colossal solos erupt from Ribot, Zorn and Saft, while the rhythm team slam and rock harder than anyone would believe. Zorn pushed both drummers harder and harder and there were a number of incredible double drum solos that completely rocked the house. Zorn also directed Ikue to sample some of the soloists and then manipulate their solos, spinning them into a web of sonic soup. Electric Masada are about to do a short tour in Europe soon, so you had best catch them if you can!!

I am still recovering from the incredible Month of Zorn. It was by far the most intense and certainly the longest festival I have ever attended. A very special thanks to our favorite bubby - JOHN ZORN for an outstanding month that many of will never forget. Zorn and Heung-Heung Chin designed a marvelous program booklet that was given away at the festival. DMG has a box of these souvenirs to give away for the asking and will be included in any future order, until we run out.

--- Bruce Lee Gallanter,
Downtown Music Gallery Founder