MBS with a legend in music, by John Zorn

MBS with a legend in music, by John Zorn

3rd July 2020 – Shabbat is almost here

And on this occasion we will come back to our todays with the super productive creator John Zorn and one of his pieces I love the most: Sippur, played by Masada String Trio

John Zorn does many different things. I have only seen him once, in a concert with Mike Patton, the singer of Faith No More, Fantômas or Mr. Bungle and who is one of his many collaborators. But, before that, I started to really appreciate Zorn’s work thanks to his work with the record label Tzadik. In this occasion we will enjoy his work as composer, in which the Jewish history and symbols have a strong pressence.

Sippur, a legend made music

· At the bottom you’ll find the video with the music piece ·

 

Sippur, in plural sippurim, is a legend, a story, usually with a moral lesson. There are many Hassidic sippurim in which the protagonists are rebbes. My very dear Igal Gulaza Mizrahi noticed me about the many sippurim by and about the founder of Hassidism, Baal Shem Tov. After watching some videos with rebbes explaining tales, I found this one, made with stop motion, very nice to share.

 

And here on the right you have the cover of a book of 1888 by Jakob. B. Brandeis, a historic publisher from Prague. This book is available digitaliced, here. Sadly for me, it is in German and I haven’t found a translation to English. But you can read many little Hassidic sippurim, in English, for instance in Chabad.org.

 

But what about the music!? This is “Music Before Shabbat”

But as you understand, music is a door that opens the curiosity about many other captivating facts about Jewish people, history, traditions… The true is that, while doing this MBS, I felt tempted to talk about the fortress of Masada and about Issachar, son of Jacob and Leah, but I will leave them for another edition.

This picture by John Zorn is the profile picture from his Facebook page, credited to Nick Ruechel. He was born in New York 66 years ago. His main instrument is alto saxofon but that is not the most meaningful thing to explain about him as a musician. His work as a composer and a producer is super prolific and very diverse: from a nice delight like the one we have here below, to some things I could not even call music, like this.

I have chosen the live version of Sippur recorded in 1999 in Warsaw (where I should have been in April…) by the Masada String Trio, composed by Mark Feldman (violin), Erik Friedlander (cello) and Greg Cohen (double bass). The studio recording is in The Circle Maker, disc 1: Issachar. You can listen that version here.

John Zorn, through his label Tzadik and, above all, the Radical Jewish Culture series, has launched the works by artists like Frank London, David Krakauer (our protagonist of this MBS) or Naftule’s Dream (that will show up here at MBS soon). He really deserves a prominent place as the disseminator of Jewish contemporary music and this is a little tribute to him.

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Click the picture to listen Sippur:

I hope you’ll like it and, if so, feel free to share it and invite your friends to join us.
It is as symple as sending … this link to sign up

Shabbat Shalom.

Araceli Tzigane | Mapamundi Música

And we share with you one hour of music for joy in this playlist.
To know more about our artists, click here.

May you always find the light in your path.

These is our artistic offer for live show:
Jako el Muzikante – Gulaza – Janusz Prusinowski Kompania Jewish Memory