Fantastic Metropolis

8. Best Tzadik: Masada Guitars, John Zorn (composer), Bill Frisell, Marc Ribot, Tim Sparks

John Zorn’s Tzadik label, featuring experimental, avant-garde and new music of all stripes, has quickly become my favorite label and 2003 saw me buying so many of their new releases and back catalogue offerings that their own category seems in order. On Masada Guitars Frisell, Ribot and Sparks, three of the best jazz/avant-garde guitarists working today, perform solo interpretations of twenty-one compositions originally created by Zorn for his Masada quartet. Exquisite playing, and oddly accessible. Believe me, you can even play this for your baby. And for added fun, do a blindfold test and see if you can figure out which of the three guitarists performs on which tracks.

9. Best of the Weird: Maldoror, Erik Friedlander

I guess I could frankly combine this category with Best Tzadik, but I won’t. On Maldoror, downtown cellist Erik Friedlander (who’s played with Dave Douglas, among others) improvises solo on ten selections from Lautreamont’s protosurrealist horror novel Maldoror. The CD, which has particularly nice packaging, includes the ten short texts. (Sample: “I am filthy. Lice gnaw me. Swine, when they look at me, vomit. From my nape, as from a dungheap, sprouts an enormous toadstool with umbelliferous peduncles.”) The results are interesting, to say the least, whether appreciated on their own or together with the texts. I’ve been listening to it a lot. But hey, that’s just me.

Gabriel Mesa lives in New York City with his wife and daughter and 4,000 books. He is a contributor to The SF Site, Fantastic Metropolis and other online publications.