Downtown came uptown last week in New York City, when John Zorn, the lion of the downtown avant-garde, brought his Masada Chamber Ensembles to Symphony Space on the Upper West Side on June 21, as part of the JVC Jazz Festival. In a program devoted to Zorn’s book of “Masada” compositions, which draw their inspiration and musical modes from traditional Jewish music, Zorn conducted three separate groups, comprised of musicians who made up a kind of all-star team of the contemporary avant-garde. The Masada String Trio, including violinist Mark Feldman, cellist Erik Friedlander and bassist Greg Cohen, was first up. With Zorn seated on the stage in front of the musicians, the trio alternated elegant passages of melody with fiery improvisations that expanded the boundaries of their instruments as much as the music itself. Feldman, in particular, was an innovative instrumentalist, variously playing his violin like a guitar and a mandolin and just generally getting sounds and notes out of the strings in every conceivable fashion. Zorn moved into a chair and the trio was joined by percussionist Cyro Baptista, drummer Joey Baron and guitarist Marc Ribot, thus metamorphosing into the Bar Kokhba sextet. With an enhanced textural and rhythmic palette, the music took on wider dimensions, as the percussionists added Afro-Cuban pulses beneath the Balkan- and klezmer-flavored melodies and Ribot sprinkled bits of Greek-derived surf guitar into the mix. In the best fashion of the contemporary avant-garde, which if anything is about breaking down categories, both the trio and the sextet gave the lie to the divide between classical and jazz. Indeed, grounded in folk melodicism, drawing on a broad expanse of rhythmic possibilities, and approaching artful compositions with the expressive freedom of jazz players, the musicians, egged on by Zorn, stated loudly and clearly that such labels are moribund, at least as applied to creative music. The crowning achievement of the night, however, was an all-too-brief performance by Zorn’s Masada quartet, featuring Baron, Cohen, Zorn himself on alto saxophone and Dave Douglas on trumpet. The group alternated frenzied passages of furious free-jazz with unison melodies, and soloists were given plenty of room to make their individual statements. While they were all eloquent, it was Zorn’s evening, and he proved himself to be a witty and inventive player - indeed, with his carefully modulated and parceled squeaks and squeals, he reinvented the saxophone itself. His group’s interplay was dynamic, but just as it was ready to sail off into a transcendent plane the promoters pulled the plug, and a disheartened Zorn invited the assembled crowd to venture downtown sometime to catch him playing on his home turf. Contrary to the prevailing misconception, Zorn’s music, like much of the best of the current avant-garde, was not all atonal noise and inaccessible group improvisations. There was strong melodic content and a clearly stated grammar that Zorn introduced slowly and built upon throughout the evening, so that by the end of the night, when Masada was at its most adventurous, even novices could understand the language. As to why audiences won’t be able to hear Zorn or any of his like-minded - and growing - ilk here in the Berkshires or in the greater region at any of the so-called music or jazz festivals, this remains a mystery. Symphony Space was filled to the rafters with old jazz fans, cool kids, yuppies, bohemians, businessmen, and a smattering of diverse ethnic and religious types. By not cultivating an awareness of these musicians, by not supporting them, and by not building a new audience of serious music lovers based on music that speaks to a contemporary sensibility, we seriously threaten the long-term viability of music, to say nothing of not deserving the moniker, “the Cultural Berkshires.” Then again, New York City is just a short, three-hour drive or less from the Berkshires. Barbara Kessler: Motherhood and music Combine Shawn Colvin’s reedy, achy soprano, Sheryl Crow’s catchy pop-rock melodicism and a bit of Paula Cole’s white funk and you have an approximation of the sound on Barbara Kessler’s eponymous new CD. Kessler’s third full-length recording, “Barbara Kessler” simultaneously looks backwards and forward, with songs that dig deep for childhood and teen-age truths and others that reflect on the realities of juggling motherhood and a musical career. “Persephone” is one of several songs that address Kessler’s newfound motherhood. The Eastern-flavored rock ballad, a kind of prayer filled with her wishes and hopes for her daughter. “Angels Are Crying” is about the struggle to empathize with troubled friends and acquaintances without meddling where one doesn’t belong. The ballad “A Perfectly Good Way to Pray” reflects on Kessler’s Roman Catholic upbringing as does the upbeat rocker, “Confession,” which asks “How could I get into trouble when I never did anything?/I was innocent, those were other people’s sins.” “Soundtrack” is a funky bit of nostalgia, a paean for ‘70s radio aptly cloaked in a pulsing bit of jazz-rock that recalls Steely Dan. “Happy” is a Sheryl Crow-style rocker about the disparity between ambition and reality. The album was produced by guitarist Adam Steinberg (Laurie Sargent, Patty Griffin), who also plays sitar, keyboards, bass and percussion. Other musicians include pianist/accordionist Bob Malone and husband/drummer Phil Antoniades. Vocalist Jennifer Kimball lends her harmonies to “Baby.” The Long Island native, whose previous recordings include “Stranger to This Land” and “Notion,” kept in touch with her fans over the past few years through her “CD Single of the Month Club,” an innovative solution to the dilemma of how to be a stay-at-home mom while maintaining one’s viability in the music marketplace. Subscribers received a CD single of new music from Kessler (www.barbarakessler.com) every four to six weeks over the course of a year. The Boston-based singer-songwriter is now ready to head back out on the road, with her new batch of songs and new CD to promote. That road leads to the Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, this Saturday at 8. Also at the Guthrie Center on Friday night is Berkshire artist Michael Haynes. (528-1955 or 445-6403) Punk’s last stand? In the early-‘90s, while Seattle spewed forth a host of bands that grew out of that city’s independent or “punk” rock scene, the Berkshires also played host to a punk scene of sorts. At the forefront of the scene, based in Central Berkshire, was Rebel Sound, a fanzine, a record label, and a front for the spotlight-avoiding Andre Duguay to hide behind. The Dalton native also led a band, the Poncherellos, one of the funnest, funniest and at times best bands in the Berkshires. Duguay frequently organized all-day festivals that brought regional and national acts to the Berkshires, including Ena Kostabi’s Youth Gone Mad, and local bands, including Lampstand, another group that stands out from that period. The Berkshires long ago lost Duguay to the lure of Los Angeles (gee, why would a talented and ambitious guy like him leave the Berkshires for L.A.?), and thus lost one of its more colorful cultural figures. The Dalton native himself, however, lost both his parents last year. To honor their memory, Duguay has planned one final splash in their memory. He’s convinced his former bandmates in the Poncherellos, plus the guys from Lampstand, to regroup for one final concert in memory of Richard “Doc” Duguay and Nancy Duguay Duguay says that in typical fashion, he had great difficulty arranging the benefit concert. “I just don’t get it,” he said. “No one seems to care what we are trying to do. I almost had to have the event in a one-car garage. I called a couple of places to inquire about having the concert there and I was told from one place that they ‘don’t do that kind of thing here.’ Unbelievable! I am trying to do something for the good of the community and the lack of energy the business owners have in Pittsfield is shameful. Here I am, trying to organize a benefit concert from Los Angeles, and no one will talk to me or return my calls. I had almost given up.” Duguay didn’t give up. The show is going to be held on Sunday, July 2, at 5, at the American Legion in Dalton. Proceeds will benefit the Legion, which Duguay calls his father’s “home away from home,” the Christian Center in Pittsfield, his mother’s favorite charitable organization, and Hospice of Berkshire County, which helped his mother in her final days. Also on the bill are current local punk bands Thought Crime and People’s Choice, and Duguay’s old friends from Youth Gone Mad. Blanks ’77, a nationally-known punk band that plays vintage punk in the style of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, headlines the bill. Admission to the benefit concert is $6 plus three cans of food. [This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 29, 2000. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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