This happened 10 days ago, but it’s worth a look back: cellist Erik Friedlander brought his “Broken Arm Trio” to An Die Musik in Baltimore. This trio—Friedlander on his fancy carbon-fiber cello, Trevor Dunn on upright bass, and Michael Sarin on drums—was, as Friedlander explained during the set, conceived as a sort of tribute to famed jazz bassist Oscar Pettiford, who broke his arm and was unable to play bass afterwards. Pettiford took up cello and played the instrument like a bass, inspiring Friedlander’s almost entirely pizzicato playing with this trio.

Friedlander has recorded in the past for Cryptogramophone Records, and his music is a perfect fit for that label’s genre-bending tendencies, although this trio is more clearly rooted in jazz than anything else I’ve heard from him. Friedlander’s jaunty plucking makes the music here upbeat and fun, though the rare moments when he bows his instrument (as in the sublime “Pearls”) stand out as particularly gorgeous, in no small part due to the contrast in sounds.

There was one hint of Friedlander’s history of collaboration with John Zorn, a piece that sounded exactly like one of Zorn’s more chaotic Masada compositions. “Jim Zipper” (I think that’s what it was) was a nice show of versatility from a group of musicians who individually have played with groups as diverse as Mr. Bungle and Alanis Morissette. Still, it was the exception to the rule: Friedlander’s vision with this trio is a narrow one, but when the execution is this good that’s not really anything to complain about.

I recently flew across the country to watch a New York musician play a series of concerts in San Francisco. If that doesn’t seem to make much sense, consider that downtown legend John Zorn, a recent recipient of the half-a-million-bucks Macarthur “Genius” grant, almost never plays live except in New York City and Europe. But last week, he did a six-night residency at Yoshi’s in San Francisco, showcasing a different band each night, all but one playing material from his Masada songbook of tunes based on traditional Jewish scales and melodies.

I caught the last three shows: Bar Kokhba, The Dreamers and Electric Masada. Last Friday was Bar Kokhba, a sextet with violin, cello and guitar doing most of the melodic work with bass, drums and percussion backing. Two sets: the early set contained material from Zorn’s Masada Book 1 – the first 200 songs he wrote in the series – while the late set contained Book 2 material, drawing from some 300 songs Zorn wrote in a more recent burst of insane creativity. On record, I find the Book 1 material incredibly compelling (particularly as represented on the 3-disc set 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 11), while the Book 2 material is much more middle-of-the-road, the kind of the stuff you could play at a dinner party without offending anyone whatsoever. Live, though, it all got flipped.

My (very lengthy) full thoughts after the jump.

Read More “Excursion to the Left Coast: John Zorn @ Yoshi’s San Francisco” »