Bladerunner

This 2000 concert might be of interest. Note that it will be only be there
for a week or so. It came from Dime originally

The following extract/review by John Fordham appeared in The Guardian, July
6, 2000. Tip of the hat to Alastair Wilson at zornithology.com.

*When John Zorn, the volcanically productive new-music alchemist, picked up
his alto sax at the Barbican this week, the audience braced itself for a
ride to the brink of migraine. The American saxophonist and composer had
appeared on this stage twice in the previous nine months. But while those
occasions featured first chamber music, then a blend of jazz and
traditional Jewish music, this time Zorn brought a heavyweight improvising
band featuring former Henry Cow guitarist Fred Frith, drummer David
Lombardo and bassist Bill Laswell.*

***Lombardo’s sinister tappings heightened expectations at the opening, and
sure enough Zorn opened with probably the loudest and longest overblown
alto-sax note heard on that stage. The pieces were urgent and succinct,
frequently winding up on abrupt crash-stops or circituitous but logical
decelerations.*

***With barely perceptible nods and gestures, Zorn determined who payed
with whom, and when. While some improv purists might describe this as
cheating, the framework kept the audience insured against everything that
Zorn and Frith cold hurl at it. Nor was it all white-heat improvising. A
scrambled, lopsidedly swinging Frith intro brought Zorn to a spine-tingling
sax lament, which ended in a trance-like fluttering of the instrument’s
pads alone. A whirling, repeated Ornette Coleman-like figure brought an
exquisite solo of glinting sounds from Frith.*

***A barrage of squalling between Frith and Zorn gaveway to an episode of
movie soundtrack atmospherics between Laswell and Lombardo. Zorn made a
motorbike sound way below the alto’s range and Frith detuned to follow him,
but then the saxophonist turned to breezy, dancing figures. It was fluid,
restless, wild, and rich in contrast. The audience reaction was ecstatic,
despite the mugging of its eardrums by Zorn’s ferocious music.*

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