It’s probably a pretty rare occurrence that New York City residents turn to D.C. for help, advice, or anything else when it comes to cutting-edge culture. But lo and behold, I just got word that Silver Spring’s Cuneiform Records has been asked by John Zorn to curate two weeks of concerts at that nonprofit haven for experimental music in NYC, The Stone.

The really shocking part is this: Cuneiform’s stint as curator will be from November 15-30, 2011. That’s right… Zorn and The Stone are planning two and a half years in advance. Hopefully the ridiculously long lead time will let some of Cuneiform’s overseas artists secure funding for travel so they can make a stateside appearance.

Congrats to Cuneiform for scoring what seems to be a pretty prestigious gig.

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” »