Masada is not so much a band as a musical project that John Zorn embarked upon in the early 90's. Masada is a collection of more than 200 short tunes that have been written in accordance with a number of rules. These include the maximum number of staves, the modesor scales that are used and the fact that they must be playable by any small group of instruments.
Zorn formed the group Masada in order to record and perform this set of tunes. The personnel is John Zorn: alto saxophone; Dave Douglas: trumpet; Greg Cohen: bass and Joey Baron: drums. A number of different drummers have performed with Masada over the years, most regularly Kenny Wollesen. Masada recorded the music on a series of 10 CDs on the Japanese DIW label and a number of live recordings on Zorn's Tzadik label.
Since the middle 90's a number of new projects have arisen under the Masada banner. The Masada String Quartet performs the music in a semi classical form with Mark Feldman: violin; Erik Friedlander: cello and Greg Cohen: bass. Bar Kokhba is a lounge style band with, among others, Greg Cohen: bass; Marc Ribot: guitar; Anthony Coleman: piano; David Krakauer: clarinet; John Medeski: organ, piano; Mark Dresser: bass; Kenny Wolleson: drums; Chris Speed: clarinet. Various arrangements of these players can be heard on the albums Bar Kokhba and The Circle Maker each under Zorn's name.
Recently Zorn has introduced Electric Masada. This group appears to have the origins of its sound in Miles Davis' electric bands of the early 70's and progressive rock. Often closely controlled by Zorn the group, which includes Ribot, Wollesen, and Cyro Baptista from previous Masada groups as well as Trevor Dunn (Faith No More, Fantomas): bass and Jamie Saft: electric piano and Hammond organ takes the Masada themes through wild free improvisations to rocking funky renditions. They are capable of tight arrangements and laid back jams.
2003 saw the 10th Anniversary of Masada and Tzadik released 3 new CD sets in commemoration. The first release has three guitarists: Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot and Tim Sparks playing the tunes, mainly acoustically. Volume 2: Voices in the Wilderness has a huge range of groups and individuals playing and Volume 3: The Unknown Masada has yet more new groups, together with some familiar faces playing Masada tunes never before performed in public.
John Zorn seems to be continuing the development of his Masada project in to the new millennium. We will have to wait and see where it will go next.
