Various Artists - Hallelujah, Anyway- Remembering Tom Cora - Tzadik TZ7602 - USA 1999 (CD)

I knew Nothing of Tom Cora when i bought this album. I bought it as part of my collecting of the catalog of John Zorn's Tzadik Label.

 Released in 1999, soon after Tom's passing from cancer at the age of 44, this tribute to Tom consists of two 70 minute CDs of music from Tom and many of the bands Tom played in over his career as well as other musicians that Tom had played with and influenced, doing pieces that Tom wrote or that they recorded especially for this compilation.

 I could be here a month of Sundays trying to describe the music on this release and at over 140 minutes there is a hell of a lot to take in and this sort of stuff does not get pulled off the shelf very often.

 Tom played in many bands over the years as well as releasing solo stuff, like some of his solo cello improvisations, an impressive example of which graces this album, along with recordings he did with some familiar names, such as, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Leo Smith and Chris Cutler. There are also tracks from bands that Tom graced such as, Curlew, Oriental Fusion, Third Person, The Ex, Pidgen Combo, Nimal and I believe his most well known outfit, Skeleton Crew with Fred Frith and Zeena Parkins.

Oh what a roller coaster of a musical journey is this project but it is very well worth the ride. Some really mind bending and creative music resides on these two discs, from free improvisations, plenty of NYC Downtown madness, Brass Bands, electronic noise, off kilter pop and plenty of other almost indescribable weirdness, there is nothing I don't like and plenty that I really am enjoying very much. It would be worth tracking down some of the recordings Tom did with the various bands he played in that I mentioned above. A wonderful tribute to Tom and musically get a massive thumbs up from me.

 I highly recommend this album for those who like challenging music, go on, dive in I dare you. Rating 5/5.

https://www.discogs.com/Various-Hallelujah-Anyway-Remembering-Tom-Cora/release/523994

Pet Bottle Ningen - Pet Bottle Ningen (Tzadik 2011)

The next Tzadik arrival.

A quick word on this last Spotlight release, again all instrumental tracks, pretty chaotic freeform jazz rock from this 3 piece with guitar, sax and drums. Needs focused attention for deeper appreciation, but enjoyable enough all the same.Rating 2.5/5.

Les Rhinocéros - Les Rhinocéros (Tzadik 2011)

Some More Tzadik arrivals.

Like most of the releases in this series, this is an instrumental album of rock based tracks. The Tzadik blurb above just about always makes these albums sound far more fantastic than they actually are, but that being said this is another fine release from the label, a bit more laid back than some of the others in this series but non the less enjoyable with its well executed blend of genres. A very cool name though. Rating 3.5/5.

Many Arms - Many Arms (Tzadik 2012)

Tzadik Again.

Three piece rock bands Tzadik album consists of 3 extended instrumentals that are a sort of Avant Rock minimalism with some free jazz thrown in for good measure. Quite challenging and highly technical but interesting all the same and keeps up the high quality of the Spotlight series. Initially I struggled with these tracks but have come to appreciate them more with additional exposure. Rating 3/5.  

Aram Bajakian's Kef - Aram Bajakian's Kef (Tzadik 2011)

Tzadik Rules.

With no drums it doesn't really qualify as rock music but this three piece can certainly rock out with this kinda high octane world folk music crossed with the ghost of Hendrix, very good stuff and yet another great release from Zornie and the crew at Tzadik. most impressive, rating 4/5.

Guillaume Perret And The Electric Epic - Guillaume Perret And The Electric Epic (Tzadik 2012)

Yep, Tzadik.

The Spotlight series is the newest series on Tzadik Records of which there are only 9 releases so far from 6 bands. I recently aquired the rest of the ones I didn't already have, except the very latest one that just came out last month. The mix of music on these releases is very eclectic as you'd expect from Tzadik nowadays, but the Spotlight releases tend to be more in the "Rock" oriented field. This release is no exception. I have been absorbing the music via a mixed playlist along with several of the other Spotlight releases and I have been very very impresses with what I have been hearing. This set, like so many Tzadik albums, is difficult to pigeonhole but we are presented with a great mix of progressive rock, Jazz and a tinge of world music, the mix sometimes gets quite heavy but there are some more gentle moments that quite impress. This is mostly instrumental music, again like most of the series and I do personally find that I enjoy the songs more on an individual basis in a mixed playlist than I do listening to them in the context of the whole album. Overall though, this is a very good set and gets a rating of 4/5.

Tzadik Records.

Anyone who even bothers to read this blog will by now know that I have a slightly obsessive admiration of the music of John Zorn. Fortunately Zorn is one of those rare artists who has control of most of his own copyrighted recordings and due to lack of much information out in Webland, I assume he started Tzadik Records as an outlet for his releases. As I have grown my collection of Zorn's recordings I was attracted to the label that he was releasing them on and I discovered that Tzadik is quite a prolific little operation and I decided it was time to start checking some of it out after being put onto the excellent Zion 80 release last year. With well over 600 releases to choose from it was mind boggling where to start sampling this music, especially as I was completely unfamiliar with almost all of it, so I decided to start with the latest releases and start working my way back if I liked what I was hearing. The image above was lifted from the Tzadik web site and gives a very limited insight as to the music available. After acquiring over 50 CDs from the label so far, I have been so very very impressed with the music presented with only one release I really didn't like.

Wikipedia states that "Tzadik is a not-for-profit, cooperative record label". So I assume that after costs, all profits from the sale of the CDs goes direct to the artists. The CDs are all released under certain "Series" like the "Composers Series" or the "Radical Jewish Culture Series" these two being the biggest series. Within each series, although there is a sort of theme or some sort of loose connection, the music within each series is quite diverse and sometimes the music released on a CD in one series could more than likely fit in to a different series but thematic attributes put it where it is. 

So several things I have noticed about the music from Tzadik releases are the overall sound and production quality is first rate, the musicians are all without exception, exceptional and the artwork is also great. Each series has a consistent cover art theme to Identify the series it inhabits, which interestingly makes for a quite uniform output for such an eclectic catalogue of music. The music on Tzadik, I find to be very advanced and quite often very challenging but so far almost uniformly exciting and enjoyable. I especially like to have my Tzadik playlist in Itunes set to random and am constantly surprised ant the new sounds that keep coming out.

John Zorn is listed as executive producer on every tzadik release, so I assume he has the final say as to who gets their music released on his label. From what I have heard so far, that is a good thing. I look forward to exploring many more of the back catalogue and future releases and I suspect I never listen to popular music the same way again.

The label may not be well represented on the internet but it does have it's own Web Site which lists and sells all of the catalogue of releases right back to the initial releases in 1995 and if you can read French, there is a great Blog reviewing many of the Tzadik releases, links below.

http://www.tzadik.com/

/http://tzadikology.blogspot.co.nz/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzadik_Records

David Gould - Adonai in Dub (Tzadik 2001)

Some Earlier Tzadik.

Now here is something different from Tzadik, A Dub album. I am quite familiar with dub as we have a strong scene here in New Zealand and this release fits in quite well with local recordings I have, but  with a slightly more world music tinge. As with most Dub, play up loud for best results and let the groove move ya. Rating 4/5.

Ha-Yang Kim - Threadsuns (Tzadik 2014)

More from Tzadik.

This is a great release, I am really enjoying it, 3 pieces for string quartet with some dirges and almost ambient in flavour, quite mellow but a little haunting. Tzadik again exposes me to something I would normally never get to hear. Rating 4.5/5. 

Tobias Picker - Invisible Lilacs (Tzadik 2014)

Latest Tzadik Arrivals.

The Tzadik Composer Series is exposing me to all kinds of contemporary classical music and mostly from people I am not familiar with although many of them are highly rated in the "scene". Picker is new to me although he has been around for quite a while. Somewhat more melody here than some of the other releases I have so far and this is an enjoyable set of compositions. I could almost play this for visitors without scaring them off. Rating 3.5/5.

Luc Ferrari - Cellule (Tzadik 1998)

Some older Tzadik release. 

I picked this out of Tzadik's back catalogue while browsing the other week cos the dude has a cool name and the French put out some pretty out there music. Luc doesn't disappoint. Two extended tracks with the first one having a strong Minimalist vibe and some cool percussion before developing into even more interesting sounds.The second track is even more experimental but is also very cool and I keep thinking back to Igor Wakhevitch as a reference point.Totally non commercial and very  far away from conventional "classical" music, Luc has composed some interestingly different music that works well and keeps me interested throughout. Rating 4/5. 

Henry Kaiser : Requia And Other Improvisations For Guitar Solo (USA Tzadik 2013)

The latest arrival from Tzadik

An experimental improvised solo guitar album from Tzadik, this has some quite interesting and enjoyable moments and covers quite a lot of styles but also has some long and tedious plinkity plinkity bits that don't really inspire me too much, mainly being the 21 minute track 3. A mixed bag  and not the best example of this sort of thing I have heard. Rating 2.5/5.

Gabriele Coen : Yiddish Melodies In Jazz (Tzadik USA 2013)

Pick of the night from the Tzadik CDs I have been sampling. After some cursory listens when this arrived last year, I find my self connecting with it tonights in a serious way. A great swinging jazz album with some excellent melodies and piano, guitar and Clarinet solos. Awesome for start to finish and highly recommended. Rating 5/5.

Barbez : Bella Ciao (Tzadik USA 2013)

Another from Tzadik.

Yet another high quality release from Mr Zorn's Tzadik label. As usual, A highly creative blend of all sorts played by exceptionally talented musicians in a rock based formula but with quieter almost classical pieces in the mix. An album that grows with repeated exposure revealing its' subtle nuances

Rating 3.5/5.

Pierre-Yves Macé : Segments Et Apostilles (Tzadik USA 2013)

More From Tzadik.

Another classical release from Tzadik, this set of recent compositions is very sparse and sounds of random instrumental flourishes and electronic noises. I don't object to this type of composition but it is hard to stay with this stuff, with out much structure  or melody. On concentrated listening there are some interesting moments but again it is pretty hard to stay with this set. Rating 2/5.

AutorYno : Cosmopolitan Traffic (Tzadik USA 2013)

More from Tzadik.

Another of Tzadik's progressive Jewish rock bands. All instrumental rock music played with jazz melodies and some rockin guitar. Very accomplished and well recorded and most enjoyable, but not something to rave about, sounds like could be good live. Rating 3.5/5.

Jacques Demierre : Breaking Stone (Tzadik USA 2013)

More Tzadik music.

I am really starting to get quite a collection of  21st century "Classical" music through these Tzadik releases. most of it isn't anything like the classical music we all know from the 18th and 19th centuries and I am enjoying most of these different type of compositions.

This particular release opens with an impressive 3 part  solo piano piece that is fast in tempo and quite minimalist in structure, especially the second movement. I like it a lot. Things get a lot weirder on "Sumpatheia" which is a very sparse piece with no melody and random sounding noises from the duo of violin and guitar, neither of which are played in any conventional way on a lot of this composition. A lot of plucking sounds from the guitar. Not really my thing and neither is the title piece, which is 40 minutes of the composer making very weird vocal sounds and occasional tinklings on his piano, I have not been able to sit through the whole piece yet. A disappointing release for me apart from the excellent opening piece and get a rating of 2/5. 

Suphala : Alien Ancestry (Tzadik USA 2013)

More Tzadik music.

Suphala plays the Tabula and composes this music, with oud,cajon, garhand and frame drum as well as more familiar instruments sprinkles throughout the compositions you would be right in labeling this some kind of world music. Very Indian sounding and adds another feather in the diversity of the Tzadik catalogue. The music is good  and interesting on closer inspection but not something I would get excited about. Still,a nice relaxing vibe for a warm summers afternoon. Rating 2.5/5.