rock

Yesterday night though I had to act spontaneous as Marc Ribot was in town with his Spiritual Unity project playing Albert Ayler pieces.

I was searching for videos of the NYC avant jazz rock power trio Rashanim on the net for some time to no avail. A few days ago I saw that they announced a live video on their myspace page. Quickly checking it revealed not one but 4 complete Rashanim pieces played live at Bowery Poetry Club!!.

Rashanim is guitarist Jon Madof, bassist Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (who was also playing the upright bass on the awesome Filmworks XVIII CD by Zorn this year.) and drummer Mathias Kunzli. They’re a highly electric and rocking trio unlike some of their Tzadik buddies, that’s why they were given the chance to do the 5th Masada Anniversary title : Masada Rock, where I first heard their name.

The first one you should get is Passage by Liberation Prophecy. A chaotic orchestra of 9 musicians led by Jacob Duncan. Lots of orchestration beautiful vocals by Amber Estes who replaced the now forld famous Norah Jones. Many influences can be listed like Zappa’s orchestra, free jazz, world music and 50s vocals.

Multinstrumentalist href=”http:w//www.koby.info/”>Koby Israelite’s new album on Tzadik’s Radical Jewish Series is a genre breaker. In his bio he mentions that he likes music that incorporate different sounds and genres in his music, and who else but Mr. Zorn would like that.