(no subject)

[seekingferret]

My mother's out of the hospital now, which is great. I've been overscheduled, though, so I haven't seen her since she left the hospital, which is more frustrating. I won't get to see her until Shabbos, probably.



Saw the John Zorn Masada Marathon last night at New York City Opera. And... well, part of me wishes this review were different, because freeradical42 was really excited about going to see the show and had to miss it because of his great-aunt's funeral, so I'd like to say that he didn't miss much, but... it was amazing. I'm sorry, you missed something incredible.

Somehow looking through the names of the performers, I missed that Basya Schechter was going to be there, so there was even a lovely surprise. She sang as part of Mycale, an amazing 4 person female a cappella group whose album I'm going to be downloading ASAP. I was reading the program before the show and kind of squealed "Basya Schechter is going to be singing?" And then my very goyish companion said "Who's he?" And I laughed and laughed.

Oh man, the list of performers was incredible. 12 configurations of musicians, more than 30 players total, including guitar hero Marc Ribot, trumpet master Dave Douglas, jazz pianist Uri Caine, and so many others. Mark Feldman and Sylvie Courvoisier! Ikue Mori from DNA and Mike Patton from Mr. Bungle showing up for Electric Masada! Secret Chiefs 3 in all their mysterious rocking glory! Breathtaking solo cello from Erik Friedlander! Cyro Baptista's incredibly inventive percussion!

I've seen what I realized was a pretty high number of these musicians in other settings, but having them all together was amazing. Each group played a 3 song, 15 minute set and then rushed off to be replaced. The show started at 8:15 and ended near midnight. You really, really got your money's worth. I would have paid my 20 bucks to see a solo show from any of these groups. I would have paid my 20 bucks to see just the first half of this show. And yet unlikely a lot of sampler shows, where you enjoy the music but find yourself wishing the groups had more time to express themselves, I never felt shortchanged at the end of one the sets. I would have enjoyed more, but they gave me something new to listen to so quickly that I didn't think too much about it. And the sets themselves were musically satisfying and complete.

And Zorn was his usual mixture of disarmingly informal and awkwardly energetic. He reminisced about trips to the State Theater to see Nureyev dance and to see Wozzeck and Peter Grimes staged, and the implication beneath- "And somehow I've taken my own path and made it to the same stage" was sort of the theme of the night. Zorn worked hard to create a night of beautiful music and top class musicianship that was accessible both to the classic City Opera crowd and to his downtown music fans. And to people like me who are both. And he worked hard to emphasize the importance of community and communication to his music, which was incredibly inspiring. "The Masada family", he called it, and honestly I believed it. Everyone there played like they were happy to be there, happy to be part of the moment, happy to be talking to each other through music. There were a lot of hugs on stage- my favorites were Zorn/Caine and Zorn/Douglas.

Comments

[schemingreader]

Thanks for the update on your mom. My MIL had this surgery as well.

(The review was good too, I like it that you are in more than one of Zorn's fandoms.)

[kindness_says]

=) about your mom.