Kristallnacht and some other stuff
Timothy Worsley
Here's a report on some stuff I checked out in NYC during the past week or
so. I'll post this to both nm-list and rec.music.bluenote; sorry for any
annoyance that may cause!
* Tuesday, Dec 15: Went to SKEP, a SoHo performance space, to see "Hugh
Brown Shu" do a reading. He did a bunch of material from his album "Bomb
the Womb" (supposedly available at HMV and Tower). This was a spoken word
thing, but he also played some drums, mostly as punctuation between stories
or whatever. He did the Kojak homage which I like, and also "Miles Davis
Owes Me Ten Bucks", which is funny. But my favorite one was what he ended
with, not from the album, about a town where the people are plagued by
"Johnny cats" -- parasites, cats, living in one's stomach, which one can
endure in suffering, or rip out with great pain and disfigurement. Hugh's
story was about a guy who starved his out. It was cool, and I think it was
interesting metaphorically as well. Partly I'm just plugging this cuz Hugh
is a cool guy. Hey, he's even a Blind Idiot God fan!!
* Wednesday, Dec 16: John Zorn's composition "Kristallnacht" at the
Knitting Factory. This was fantastic. This was the US premiere of the
piece, first performed in Germany as part of Zorn's "Radical New Jewish
Culture" thing, I believe. There is a studio recording of it that was
broadcast on the radio in NY a while back, and I think this might be
released at some point but I'm not sure. Anyway, Kristallnacht is when the
Nazis went and smashed the windows of all Jew-owned stores in Germany or
something. The piece opened with a long (ten minutes or more?) section of
train-like music. This was very cool. The Knitting Factory is a long
narrow room, and it was packed, with everyone standing, and in almost
complete darkness, with this weird rhythmic train music, quite an
experience. After this, sounds of breaking glass were featured
prominently, I suppose Anthony Coleman was doing most of this with sampling
keyboards. There was also what must have been German folk music, some
relatively normal melodic lines on the violin, hardcore screaming and
guitar-torture (Marc Ribot on guitar I believe), etc. I hear that the
studio version of the piece is substantially different. The second set was
apparently better (and less crowded) than the first one, but I didn't stay
for it (too bad). I'm hoping to get a tape of both sets though. My
brother and I didn't get there early enough to get good "seats" but my
sinister web of spies tell me that the score Zorn was conducting from was
interesting, with a piece arranged on a big page, some written sections,
some blotches, some notations like "Enter the Nazis" and stuff. I think
someone should publish Zorn's scores, for his game pieces, for these
compositions like "Elegy" and "Kristallnacht", and for Naked City too, they
are all "art", no question about it...
* Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Dec 17-19: Paul Motian, Joe Lovano, Bill
Frisell at the Knitting Factory. They've got lots of albums out, I've seen
them before, but I just had to go all three nights. What a great band. I
can't really remember any tune names, but they did some of the tunes from
"Misterioso" and other albums. Frisell had a couple fantastic solos, with
him messing around with his 16-second digital delay, setting up some weird
pattern that would accompany him as he played his usual bluesy lines and
spare chords. Lovano had some good, powerful solos too, really tearing up
the keys on the tenor sax -- in particular on this one tune that I could
hum but I don't know the name, they played it two nights, he had a cool
motif going where he would end on this three note chromatic run, coming
into it from increasingly explosive phrases. Paul Motian was in great form
much of the time, really rocking along with Bill's solo on Thursday night
for example. One guy said that the second set on Friday was one of the
best Frisell performances he had ever seen. There were some real geeks in
the audience on Saturday for the first set. Really obnoxious and arrogant
kids, music students I think. Makes me a little disturbed -- because I'm
hoping to become a music student myself... :-/
* Sunday, Dec 20: Alien Planetscapes, Fire in the Kitchen, Borbetomagus,
Elliot Sharp & William Hooker, and some other band I can't remember at
CBGB. Actually this was next door to the "real" CBGBs, in the smaller,
more upscale-looking room at 313 Bowery. But this was a great deal, 5
bands for $7, including Elliot Sharp, and I'd always wanted to see
Borbetomagus, having heard a lot about them. Alien Planetscapes was first.
They are a big band, with bass, drums, violin, flute, keyboards, sax, and
probably some other instruments. They played long, heavily textured,
sometimes funky and driving, somtimes more mellow, tunes. I liked them.
They were selling a painting too, as well as cassettes. If I could have
afforded it I would have bought a tape. Fire in the Kitchen was a trio I
think, I don't remember them too well. I wasn't that impressed. Now,
Borbetomagus... I had been led to believe that this was some sort of
"difficult-listening music", avant-garde baritone saxes with guitar. Turns
out, these freaks are not so much a trio of two sax players and a
guitarist, as three guys playing ONE instrument -- this big amplifier that
they all plugged into. I should have brought earplugs. It was LOUD. The
two sax players at one point were both playing baritone, standing facing
each other, both with microphones in the bell of their instrument, and had
the bells pressed against each other, presumably because this is the most
effective way to make the most painful sound possible. Meanwhile their
guitarist was sawing away at the strings with a file, and every now and
then would fool with the knobs on the amp. After a while, he would just
turn it off, and this echoing would remain, either from the sound system,
or from my ears ringing, I'm not sure which. Anyway, I'm glad I saw them.
I would just like to say to all those Borbetomagus fans out there -- YOU
ARE SICK! SICK! SICK! SICK!!! Last on the program was a duo performance
with William Hooker on drums (does anyone know who this guy is??) and
Elliot Sharp on his double-necked guitar-thing (it looks like it must be
custom-made, or homde-made, or something). They played for a long time,
just one "tune", I assume it was improvised. It was good. No big
surprises is you're familiar with Sharp's style.
Recent acquisitions:
The Molecules: "Steel Toe" -- They're sort of vaguely like the Boredoms,
maybe? I don't like them as much at this point, but I've only listened to
the CD once. Oh, that reminds me, they have a song called "Fuck New York"
where they say "Sonic Youth makes me sick"; I think Thurston Moore was at
CB's on Sunday, taping some of the music in fact. I could be wrong though,
I only recognize him from seeing him play with Zorn and Haino Kenji et al.
last summer. I've never even heard Sonic Youth, believe it or not...
John McCracken: "Outloud" (MuWorks) -- I hope I got the name and title
right. My brother likes this CD a lot, so he has it in NYC... Anyway,
this guy is a guitarist. He's good. The tunes are mostly (all?)
improvised. Not as crazy as Elliot Sharp, or (need I say) Borbetomagus or
whatever, perhaps this leans a little closer to jazz than rock or
something? Anyway, I recommend it.
OLD: "Lo Flux Tube" (Earache/Relativity) -- Zorn was involved with this,
and plays on the title track (they credit him with "turbo sax"). It's a
good album, sort of industrial/metal or something like that.
Elliot Sharp: the second "Bootstrappers" album -- I highly recommend the
first "Bootstrappers" album, with Elliot Sharp, George Hurley, and Mike
Watt, which was almost entirely live improvisations. This, the second one,
is Sharp with different people, a studio recording. It's good but I don't
like it as much as the first one (but I've only listened to this one once
too so far).
Naked City: "Leng Tch'e" (Toy's Factory) -- Tower does indeed have it, at
least the Tower in Boston does, or at least they did this afternoon.
Anyway, this is the 31-minute studio version of that insane Zorn
composition apparently "dedicated to the erotic splatter theatre of
turn-of-the-century Paris", according to a blurb about "Grand Guignol", the
forthcoming Naked City album on Avant. I have raved about it to everyone
who will listen since seeing them perform this piece live last April at the
Marquee. Nice to hear it again, although I have to admit that it was ten
times better live. But hey, everything is better live!! I wish I could
read Japanese, because the CD appears to have a small (three-line) blurb
that may have something to do with the "subject" of the piece, or at least
the cover art -- which is fairly hideous but not as bad as I had expected.
In any case, if you do get it, BLAST THE HELL OUT OF IT. It was *intense*
to see them play this at the Marquee, with the waves of Frisell's power
chords rolling over you, the thunder-drumming from Baron, Frith reinforcing
the bass, and Zorn screeching and conducting like the freak he is. (Thanks
to Mason for offering to special-order this item before its availability
was established!)
BTW, I was talking to Bruce Galanter at the Downtown Music Gallery about
Zorn recordings, and apparently he has compiled a Zorn discography -- and
of course, it's a much more impressive one than mine!! The one item he
does't have is apparently some sax trio record. Anyway, if I get a copy of
his discography and he says it's ok to distribute, I'll post it.
Someone told me that Blind Idiot God is one the Knitting Factory's "What Is
Jazz?" CD compilation. Anyone have this? Is it from their Town Hall
performance or from their Knitting Factory gig? Or what??
The Knitting Factory also sells a video with clips and interviews with a
highly intriguing lineup -- Zorn, Elliot Sharp, Naked City, etc. -- but
it's apparently only 7 minutes (intended as a promotional thing), so not
not really worth $15... Shees. If they're gonna do something like that,
why not do it right???
You know what really sucks? This whole time, I had borrowed a DAT deck (a
nice one too -- TEAC DA-P20) to hopefully tape some of this stuff, but I
couldn't find anyone who could lend me a decent pair of mics!! :-( :-( :-(
Oh well.
That's enough from me. Hope this wasn't a complete waste of time.
Ciao,
PS Just listened to "Leng Tch'e" again. Awe-inspiring.