Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2

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Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2
John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2.jpg
Studio album by
John Zorn
ReleasedMarch 26, 2002
StudioAvatar, New York City
Genre Avant-garde jazz
Length70:44
Label Tzadik
Producer John Zorn
John Zorn chronology
Live at Tonic 2001
(2001)
Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2
(2002)
Hockey
(2002)

Cobra: John Zorn's Game Pieces Volume 2 is an album by John Zorn that includes his game piece, Cobra . [1] The piece was recorded in previous versions by the labels HatHut ( Cobra in 1985), Knitting Factory ( Live at the Knitting Factory in 1992), and Avant ( Tokyo Operations '94 in 1994) but this was the first time by Zorn's label Tzadik.

John Zorn American composer, saxophonist and bandleader

John Zorn is an American composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist, and multi-instrumentalist with hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, and producer across a variety of genres including jazz, rock, hardcore, classical, surf, metal, soundtrack, ambient, and improvised music. He incorporates diverse styles in his compositions, which he identifies as avant-garde or experimental. Zorn was described by Down Beat as "one of our most important composers".

Game piece is a concept of experimental music having its roots with composers Iannis Xenakis, Christian Wolff, John Zorn and Mathius Shadow-Sky. Game pieces may be considered controlled improvisation. An essential characteristic is that there is no pre-arranged sequence of events. They unfold freely according to certain rules, like in a sports game. Therefore, game pieces have elements of improvisation. A number of methods can be used to determine the direction and evolution of the music, including hand gestures and shuffled cards, as in his file-card compositions. Zorn's game piece "Cobra", which has been recorded several times for various labels, uses a combination of cards and gestures and can be performed by an ensemble of any size and composition. Zorn's game pieces, written in the late 1970s and mid-1980s, include Cobra, Hockey, Lacrosse, and Xu Feng. His file-card compositions include Spillane and Godard.

Cobra is an unpublished but recorded and frequently performed musical composition by John Zorn. Cobra was conceived as a system with very detailed rules but with no pre-conceived sequence of events for a group of musical improvisors and a prompter. Zorn completed Cobra on October 9, 1984. The composition consists of a set of cues notated on cards, and rules corresponding to the cues that direct the players what to do in response to the cards. The number of players, instrumentation, and length of the piece is indeterminate, but a "prompter" is essential to the piece, holding the cards at his or her discretion and issuing other cues. Because there is no traditional musical notation and the players improvise, the piece may sound radically different from performance to performance. The title was inspired by a table-top war game published by TSR.

Contents

Reception

The Allmusic review by Steve Loewy awarded the album four stars, stating, "Cobra is a fun-filled, mystical, blindfolded ride down a dark alley that circles back every few yards... Almost like a Talmudic tapestry, the intricate complexities are in full flower here, with constantly changing snippets, twisted sounds, swirls of ornate and not-so-ornate clusters, and shimmering beauty." [2]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [2]

Track listing

All compositions by John Zorn
  1. "Pendet" – 4:49
  2. "Tabana" – 10:47
  3. "Uluwati" – 7:27
  4. "Tamangiri" – 7:50
  5. "Paras" – 6:07
  6. "Sangeh" – 11:26
  7. "Penganggahan" – 10:44
  8. "Raksasa" – 4:44
  9. "Goa Gajah" – 6:50

Personnel

Josh Roseman is an American jazz trombonist. His nickname is "Mr. Bone". He studied in Newton North High School.

Marcus Rojas American musician

Marcus Rojas is an American tubist from New York City.

Jennifer Choi is a Korean-American violinist based in New York City. Choi graduated from the Juilliard School and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has performed in a variety of settings including solo violin, chamber music, and creative improvisation and performed with the Oregon Symphony, the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Portland Youth Philharmonic, and the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC) among others.

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References

  1. Tzadik catalogue
  2. 1 2 Loewy, S. Allmusic Review accessed July 29, 2011.