THE SPIKE ORCHESTRA - Cerberus – Masada Book Two, Book of Angels volume 26
Tzadik, TZ3883
Mike Wilkins: alto saxopohone, clarinet; Vasilis Xenopoulos: alto saxophone, flute; Paul Booth: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Stewart Curtis: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Erica Clarke: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet; Noel Langley: trumpet, flugelhorn; Karen Straw: trumpet, flugelhorn; George Hogg: trumpet, flugelhorn; Ben Greenslade-Stanton: trombone; Ashley Slater: trombone; Dave Powell: tuba; Mike Guy: accordion; Sam Leak: piano, keyboards; Sam Eastmond: trumpet; Moss Freed: guitar; Chris Nickolls: drums; Otto Willberg: bass; Nikki Franklin: voice.
This is definitely a contender for jazz albums of the year. It is a rollicking, confident explosion of music from an 18 piece orchestra. The sound that The Spike Orchestra produces range the tones and enthusiasm of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band to pieces more reminiscent of Carla Bley’s Big Band or Loose Tubes, but always with a uniqueness and swing that shows a surety of touch from its leaders, Sam Eastmond and Nikki Franklin.
The tunes are taken from the Masada songbooks that John Zorn has been developing since the early 90s. There are now three books, comprising 613 tunes. This total corresponds to the number of commandments in the Torah and gives a hint as to the source of many of the pieces in Jewish folk-music and Klezmer, but also points to the importance of numerology and the attendant notions of ‘rules’ for Zorn’s composing. In the Masada songbook, pieces follow rules limiting the maximum number of staves, modes, scales that can be employed. While this might sound overly cerebral, on the one hand, or overly constraining of the other, it often provides a liberating framework in which players can operate. The basis of this framework is the combination of Zorn’s musical heritage with Ornette Coleman’s notion of harmolodics. The original recordings of Zorn’s Masada books were by small groups. Moving these pieces from the dynamics of the small improvising group to a larger band feels challenging, but the Spike Orchestra have achieved this beautifully, adding richness to the pieces through the interplay of the instruments.
What is really intriguing on this album, is the way in which Eastmond and Franklin have Zorn’s rules, the source melodies and the freedom implied by harmolodics and put these into a composed structure for a large band. I don’t know whether Zorn’s agreement to allow the Spike Orchestra to record these pieces was influenced by one of their previous albums (the marvellous Ghetto, which depicted the Warsaw Ghetto uprising) but you can see parallels between the orchestration and playing between those pieces and the way in which these Masada pieces have been interpreted.
I particularly loved the way that the soloists were given space to explore and develop the feel of each piece, with some superb work on tenor, alto and guitar across the pieces, but with the whole ensemble working so closely together that there was no sense of the solos simply show-boating but all players working to produce a complete and marvellous experience.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Tzadik, TZ3883
Mike Wilkins: alto saxopohone, clarinet; Vasilis Xenopoulos: alto saxophone, flute; Paul Booth: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Stewart Curtis: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Erica Clarke: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet; Noel Langley: trumpet, flugelhorn; Karen Straw: trumpet, flugelhorn; George Hogg: trumpet, flugelhorn; Ben Greenslade-Stanton: trombone; Ashley Slater: trombone; Dave Powell: tuba; Mike Guy: accordion; Sam Leak: piano, keyboards; Sam Eastmond: trumpet; Moss Freed: guitar; Chris Nickolls: drums; Otto Willberg: bass; Nikki Franklin: voice.
This is definitely a contender for jazz albums of the year. It is a rollicking, confident explosion of music from an 18 piece orchestra. The sound that The Spike Orchestra produces range the tones and enthusiasm of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band to pieces more reminiscent of Carla Bley’s Big Band or Loose Tubes, but always with a uniqueness and swing that shows a surety of touch from its leaders, Sam Eastmond and Nikki Franklin.
The tunes are taken from the Masada songbooks that John Zorn has been developing since the early 90s. There are now three books, comprising 613 tunes. This total corresponds to the number of commandments in the Torah and gives a hint as to the source of many of the pieces in Jewish folk-music and Klezmer, but also points to the importance of numerology and the attendant notions of ‘rules’ for Zorn’s composing. In the Masada songbook, pieces follow rules limiting the maximum number of staves, modes, scales that can be employed. While this might sound overly cerebral, on the one hand, or overly constraining of the other, it often provides a liberating framework in which players can operate. The basis of this framework is the combination of Zorn’s musical heritage with Ornette Coleman’s notion of harmolodics. The original recordings of Zorn’s Masada books were by small groups. Moving these pieces from the dynamics of the small improvising group to a larger band feels challenging, but the Spike Orchestra have achieved this beautifully, adding richness to the pieces through the interplay of the instruments.
What is really intriguing on this album, is the way in which Eastmond and Franklin have Zorn’s rules, the source melodies and the freedom implied by harmolodics and put these into a composed structure for a large band. I don’t know whether Zorn’s agreement to allow the Spike Orchestra to record these pieces was influenced by one of their previous albums (the marvellous Ghetto, which depicted the Warsaw Ghetto uprising) but you can see parallels between the orchestration and playing between those pieces and the way in which these Masada pieces have been interpreted.
I particularly loved the way that the soloists were given space to explore and develop the feel of each piece, with some superb work on tenor, alto and guitar across the pieces, but with the whole ensemble working so closely together that there was no sense of the solos simply show-boating but all players working to produce a complete and marvellous experience.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
