Concert Review – Big Ears 2022 Festival (part 3/4!)

Although my second day of the Big Ears 2022 festival ended on a down note, the third day was when Zorn’s shows started. 

Ultimately it was Zorn that I was there to see.  Full disclosure:  I was quite obsessed with John Zorn for some time, roughly the second half of the 2010’s.  For several years I basically listened only to music from artists on his label, Tzadik. I collected over 100 of the those recordings, and really only scratched the surface of what Zorn has brought into the world.

Zorn started his label in 1995 and currently there are over 900 releases. The vast majority are still in print and none are easily describable. But regardless of how interesting the recordings are, actually seeing the same musicians creating the music, live and in the moment, is a step beyond.

Zorn has a way of pulling frenzied, fully-engaged performances from musicians. That was obvious from the first show, a small group of Zorn’s inner circle (meaning that each of these guys have played on dozens and dozens of Zorn productions) known as The Brian Marsella Trio. Marsella played a grand piano. An upright bass was played by Trevor Dunn, also of Mr. Bungle, Secret Chiefs 3, and sometimes the Melvins (I wrote about accosting him on the street on the first day). Both Dunn and drummer Kenny Wollesen have been in Zorn’s orbit for at least 25 years. For this show, Zorn stood in the wings and watched. The tunes are technically his, but the performances are what bring the tunes to life.

I had heard a few albums with Wollesen playing drums, and honestly, the drums hadn’t grabbed me. But that’s part of the magic of live performances. Watching him play was completely impressive:  arms darting around, he sometimes bounced up and down spastically and always had his face scrunched up in the throes of creation. The same goes for Marsella as his hands flew over the keys. A few times he dropped his shoulder and punctuated a line by using his elbow to hit the keys – that, I loved. Marsella even bounced his glasses off his nose once, and they clattered to the floor! Luckily it was near the end of the song and he was able to wrap it up like a pro. Most of Zorn’s players used charts – written scores or guidelines for each of the songs – but how much they rely on them is hard to say, and certainly varies from musician to musician. What exactly is written on those pages is a source of some mystery to me.

After the first Zorn show, I felt like my systems had been realigned. I’d finally gotten to experience firsthand some of the music I’d been waiting years to see, and it had completely lived up to expectations. And there was a heaping, two-handed serving of Zorn shows left to look forward to.

Next wasn’t a Zorn show technically, although it featured a Zorn collaborator in the lanky, bushy-headed form of Ches Smith. He performed in at least a couple of the Zorn ensembles over the weekend, but on Saturday afternoon he presented his own outfit, We All Break.  Smith is a drummer and one of his specialties is Haitian tribal rhythms. This was another stage full of people: Smith on drums, three different guys playing various congas and hand drums along with supplying some vocals, a sax player, a bass player, a piano player, and three female vocalists – one on the left and two on the right.

We All Break could be thought of as a melding of both the Jazz and the Haitian Vodou traditions. Quite a spectacle! The two idioms sometimes sat a little uncomfortably next to each other – in particular, the extended solos by the Jazz crew began to seem a bit perfunctory. But often the sound was impressively coherent.

Next up was another Zorn show, one that I was previously unfamiliar with. But Petra Haden has been active since the 90’s, lending her violin and voice to work with acts as varied as the Decembrists and SunnO))). Her album of Jazz/Pop vocal numbers on Zorn’s label isn’t one I had sought out, but I’m glad I caught the show. Ms. Haden has a very pleasant voice and stage presence, and she’s adorable to boot!

The songs were written specifically for her by Zorn along with Jesse Harris, who won a Grammy for his involvement (songwriting and guitars) with Norah Jones’ first album in 2002. That was the one that brought Norah Jones immediate national attention, you may recall. Jones’ certified diamond album Come Away With Me also featured some Zorn regulars, most notably Kenny Wollesen (see paragraph three), who joined Ms. Haden for this Big Ears performance. Also on board was songwriter Jesse Harris and a couple other members of Zorn’s crew. Of all the shows I caught at the festival, this was the most straight-ahead and easy to enjoy.

Afterwards, I zigged when I probably should have zagged. I had a chance to see an up-and-coming young sax player from the UK named Nubya Garcia. She sports an alliance with Sons of Kemet’s Shabaka Hutchings, which carries some weight. Stereogum’s Phil Freeman did a substantial interview with her a year ago https://www.stereogum.com/2180245/the-month-in-jazz-march-2022/columns/ugly-beauty/ but I ignored his guidance. Unfortunately, I made a different decision and regretted it almost immediately. My bad, Ms Garcia. Maybe you’ll come back to Lower Appalachia in the near future…

Then it was time for one of the bigger Zorn shows! Simulacrum is his current HEAVY ensemble, a 3-piece featuring John Medeski, of Medeski Martin and Wood, playing his trademark organ, along with drums and (extremely) electric guitar. Guitarist Matt Hollenberg was a joy to watch perform. He’s an intimidating-looking guy – tall and lanky with facial expressions that change constantly, matching the complex and often sideways shifts of the rhythms of the music. His body language gave off aggression and energy, and the guitar was wielded as much as played.  But often there was a huge smile on his face.  And drummer Kenny Grohowski is, quite frankly, a beautiful dude who has, without a doubt, the best hair in the Zorn orbit:

Similar to the music of Zorn, a day at the festival can be full of contrasts. After my first doses of live Zorn music, I was all abuzz, and one of the shows I’d been most looking forward to was coming up. One of Zorn’s bits for the last few years is something he calls The Hermetic Organ. You could think of this an historic church organ stress test.  He’s released over half a dozen of these, all performed on different organs.

Some would consider this a dynamic exploration of the creative and physical limits of a man and a church organ, and others would consider it an elaborate, unpleasant joke on the audience. I lean toward the former, but I suspect there are aspects of both in it.  And really I’m not a fan of church organs in general, but I’d been oddly excited to see Zorn do his thing. Maybe that’s because it was a chance to see him perform solo, or maybe because the organ shows are a pretty rare occurrence.

The catch is that there was a window of several hours between the Simulacrum show and the Hermetic Organ show. I didn’t see any other shows on the schedule that looked compelling, and even after eating something and wandering around a bit, I still had a few hours to wait before the church show. I decided to head to the church early, check out whoever was playing before Zorn, and maybe find a warm corner to curl up in for a while.  Unfortunately I got a little sidetracked.

If you had the good fortune to read the tnocs.com piece, “Thoughts on Creativity” by lovethisconcept, you may recall that in the comments I brought up labyrinths, in the context of having constructed one a few years ago. I have an affinity for labyrinths, and when I realized that the church where Zorn was playing also had a lovely bricked courtyard labyrinth, I gave in to its charm and decided to walk it.

Modern labyrinths have grown new traditions in the last few decades. Walking a labyrinth is sometimes seen as a metaphor for life as a whole, and I have to admit that it did seem to take a lifetime to walk it – all the way in, stand at the center (reverently!) for a few, and then all the way back out. If I had more brass and/or brains, I would have bailed on it about a minute and half in, which is when I realized I’d made a tactical blunder. But I hung on tradition and followed it through, hoping for… what? A bit of insight, or some serendipitous synchronicity…? I didn’t notice receiving any of that stuff, but I did get to take this video clip:

The stonework exterior of the church is masterful, and the palm (?) tree in the corner, bathed in the sun, is a highlight (in more ways than one). Sharp ears will notice a weak attempt at narration that quickly gives way to exhaustion.

And sadly, giving way to exhaustion is about all that happened after that. I tried for a while to push through and endure it, but there was still a couple of hours left before Zorn was even scheduled to start, and I suspected that I wouldn’t even enjoy the show considering how tapped out I felt physically. I got back to my room before the start time of The Hermetic Organ, lay down on the couch, and didn’t get back up until morning.

… to be continued…

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