Zornfest @ Knitting Factory 9/4-6/93
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Originally received via email from the highly esteemed
proussel@ichips.intel.com (Patrice Roussel), Tue, 21 Sep
1993 08:01:45 -0700. Thanks to Patrice for contributing this material!
This was my the first concert I attended at the Knitting Factory. It was a
real surprise to see how small the concert room and the stage are (although
I got the same impression four years ago at my first concert at CBGB).
Painkiller started out this night as a trio (the regular lineup) and within
the first seconds the audience immediately realized that the show would be
great. With such an incredible rhythmic section, you understand that the
only way for an alto player to be heard is to stick to the high pitch
register of his instrument; that's what Zorn did and the result was
incredible of energy: long screaming and shrill steady sounds. After only
five minutes, Mick took off his t-shirt, revealing a torso covered with
tattoos. This, in combination with his teenage-like face (he looks so
young -- Zorn could be his father), made it difficult to avoid comparing
him to Henry Rollins. The summer heat was merciless and everybody started
to feel like greasy sausages sizzling in a frying pan :-). Surprisingly,
Laswell was wearing a hunting vest, the kind you invest in only for cold
winters (not to mention his legendary beret and his hair which make you
wonder if revolutions in South America are really over :-); I don't think
anybody figured out how he could bear it!!! About mid-show, Buckethead
joined the trio on stage, taking a place to the left of the rest of the
group, against an amplifier. He was wearing the type of white mask made
famous by the Venice festival and his hat was a paper popcorn bucket -- the
kind you get in the movie theatres (the explanation for his moniker, I
guess). Immediately I started to have trouble with the extreme sound level
put out by his guitar. I was on the first row and the level was so high
that many times I felt I might lose my balance and faint. Steady waves
were throbbing alternatively between my left and right ears. By moving to
the side I could temporarily reduce the pain, but never for long. I
realized then that most of the people were wearing earplugs, something I
refuse to do (although it may be time to change my mind about them...).
Albeit, ignoring the painful level of Buckethead's feedback, I have to say
that he was fairly amazing. Although he played mainly with fuzz,
distorsion and feedback, I noticed he had an unusual way of playing guitar
(at least in a "rock" context) -- the thumb of the left hand was invisible,
he never used it to pinch the bass string, in much the same way you are
asked to position it when you learn to play classical guitar. Even if I
know that good guitar playing does not equal velocity, it is a difficult
fact for me to discard, and Buckethead was playing *fast*. He was a
revelation for me (I knew the other musicians). From the instance that he
joined the trio, I was incapable of really appreciating the music anymore
-- because of the unbearable level of the sound. I decided to move to the
back of the room but my ears were definitely damaged, at least for the
evening (I remember hearing people talking as if their voices were coming
from distorted audio equipment!). Just before the end of the show, the
singer of Brutal Truth joined the quartet and I can't even say in what
pitch he sang (although I could guess :-). I only started to recover my
hearing capabilities around noon of the following day. Nonetheless, this
was an incredible concert and I would be ready to see them again (that says
a lot about human capacity to masochist tendencies...).
Sunday, 5 September 1993, 11pm (second set)
Surprisingly, there was not a band present to play the music of Elegy.
Instead, we watched a B&W movie with the music from the record (it sounded
a little bit different sometimes -- but I am not adamant about that, it
could have been just a different cut of the different parts). What can I
tell you about the movie? It began with a scene of a woman masturbating,
and this scene was used as a "leitmotive" throughout the entire movie (at
some moments it was so blurred that it was barely possible to recognize
it). The music of Elegy fits the atmosphere of Genet's work so well that I
always thought it would be the perfect soundtrack for a movie or a play
based on Genet's writings. The movie was definitely "sex oriented", but
was it is enough to fit Genet's atmosphere, the way the music does it so
well? I wouldn't go so far. My feeling is that the movie was not as
convincing as the music to create/convey the unhealthy ambience so
characteristic of Genet's work. Showing sex is a good (and natural) start,
fast sampling of sequences where you can barely guess what happens (but you
have your ideas) helps, but my last impression was that the music was much
stronger that the images. There was definitely an "arty" edge to the
movie, even if the fellatio sequences are distracting... The main quality
of Elegy is its capability of suggestion, and Zorn reaches that without any
of his usual tricks (no pejorative meaning). The music makes you feel
uncomfortable just by its serene power. There is something sneaky in the
music of Elegy and that is what makes it believable as a wonderful vehicle
to convey Genet's tortured and politically incorrect world. In my opinion
the movie lacked this suggestive power. Zorn has a great fascination for
pornographic Asian movies; this one is not the kind which will fill the
"experimental" theaters of 42nd street (no way!), but it was not satisfying
as an illustration of the wonderful and fascinating music of Elegy (for a
change, let's think about images destined to illustrate the music). Elegy
is an enigma and the movie did not help pull up the curtain.
John sat next to a VCR on the stage and played some short videos. There
were two sets:
I missed the first two (I was talking at the bar). I think that he played
four of them. It was, as expected, fairly short and fun but easily
forgetable.
John presented them as his attempt to make videos for MTV and smirked when
he described thinking about the MTV staff reviewing them... (and after
seeing them we can understand why :-)
As short as the song and really outrageous!!! A woman is on all fours with
her behind in the air. A man arrives and starts probing her anus with an
enema. After awhile, he takes it out and, in perfect synchronism, starts
the "igneous ejaculation" and the song... This got great laughs in the
room :-) Zorn seemed fairly proud of the impact of his video... Definitely
not for tight asses (pun intended).
A video about bondage, as you can guess from the title. Although I am not
sure, it seems like this video was a collage of old B&W Asian porno movies
(nothing like I.E.), and the type that Zorn is particularly fond of. It
was outrageous as well, but after the previous one, it seemed suitable for
mass consumption -- maybe not quite ready for the MTV public, but, in a
couple of years, who knows.
He played (I guess) the entire cartoon (it lasted about half an hour). The
cartoon was in Japanese without (you can guess) subtitles. To get an
idea of the graphic quality, get the record Cobra: exactly the same
characters and illustrations (the same artist made the cover of Cobra and
this cartoon). I was not too crazy about the cartoon, and the fact that
it was in Japaneese is not the only reason. Because the entire cartoon
seemed to be extremely kid-oriented I found it rather boring. The other
factor that lent itself to my disinterest was the style of the drawings,
which I found to be rather simplistic. Anyway, it was more to quench my
curiosity about it and to just listen to the music (because I am losing
hope that I will find the record one day). The music sounded very
interesting and worth listening to (without the cartoon -- although the
possibility of getting both on a video CD would be perfect!!!). I have
to mention something funny about this cartoon. There is only one sequence
in the cartoon which is taken from "real life": the main character (a kid)
is looking for an interesting show on TV and, on one channel, Zorn is
playing some wild saxophone!!! It was kind of funny and unexpected.
This night was a small disappointment because there was no live music (I
mean musicians on stage with their instruments playing for you). After
coming all the way from Portland (Oregon) to NYC, I had expected to see
live music every night. Anyway, this was not a bad evening, just a curious
one.
Lineup (clockwise from the left):
- Vicky Bodner: oboe
- Jill Jaffee: violin
- Zeena Parkins: electric harp
- David Weinstein: keyboards
- ???: bass {according to the program it was Hideki Kato}
- Willie Winant: percussion
- Marc Ribot: guitar
- David Shea: keyboards, samplers (?)
- Anthony Coleman: keyboards
- Carol Emanuel: harp
Plus, in the center, three Chinese narrators (all women), and in front,
John Zorn as prompter.
Originally announced for nine players but presented with ten.
Ruan Lingyu is one of the numerous game pieces by John Zorn. As far as I
know, this piece, dedicated to a Chinese actress, has never been released
on record.
This was the first time that I saw a game piece presented. My experience
had been limited to listening to such pieces as Cobra and Xu Feng with the
feeling that I must be missing something -- and that the music must be dry
and fairly abstract (not to say more :-). To my surprise, I was amazed at
how playful such a priori intellectual pieces can be, not only for the
performers, but also for the audience. I would not say that I understood
everything, but I left the Knitting Factory with the urge to listen to
Cobra and Xu Feng ... with a more literate ear.
>From what Ed Price wrote about Xu
Feng, I do not think that any description of the rules would allow any
reader of this review to get a different impression of that piece than from
any other one. Anyway, let's just give a basic description. In short: the
prompter (Zorn) rules the piece by allowing musicians to play (or to keep
silent). He also defines the "parameters" of the different sections --
fast/slow, loud/low, etc. -- and the atmosphere -- classical, blues,
etc. (sorry, but I don't remember exactly all of them). All of these
"parameters" (should I call them "variables?") are displayed by using signs
attached to small boards with ... velcro! Any musician who wants to play
in the next section has to ask the permission of the prompter. Once in
awhile, a musician can take control of the rules (Willie Winant and Anthony
Coleman), for that he wears a (green) headband. There are also numbers
utilized (from 1 to 10) to tag certain sequences in such a way that they
can be called again (the reason being that Zorn and the performers, once in
a while, take notes, in order not to forget them). After awhile, I
realized how wonderful the idea was behind the structure of a game piece:
it organizes and channels improvisation. Zorn started in the late 70s and
beginning 80s to play a lot of pure improvised jazz (mainly represented at
that time by Europeans such as Derek Bailey). I am ready to bet that he
tried to find a way to use all the energy of individual improvisers in a
more efficient way (especially true when too many of them are playing
together). It was out of the question to score everything, and it was also
out of the question for him to do what had been doing extensively in Europe
in the 70s: collective improvisation. The problem he had to face was how to
deal with a large number of performers in a pure improvised environment
without ending up with total anarchy or chaos? Contemporary classical
music has brought answers to this well known problem (Cage, Pousseur,
Stockhausen), though in a slightly different context. Zorn provided what I
think as being an original and very convincing one: the idea of game piece.
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Last modified 18 March 1994.