One of the final albums of compositions from the collection John Zorn – The Book of Angels, also known as Masada Book 2, will be released this week.
All three Masada books, including The Book Beriah (Masada Book 3), contain 613 compositions in total. The first album from The Book of Angels edition was recorded in 2005, counting a total of 27 releases to this day, recorded by numerous important musicians of New York’s downtown and international scene.
The new album and ensemble named Flaga: The Book of Angels Volume 27, performed by the exceptional trio of pianist Craig Taborn with double bassist Christian McBride and drummer Tyshawn Sorey brings eight compositions by one of the most important living American composers. Flaga will be released on Friday, 26 February by Zorn’s record label Tzadik, which has already announced the next, 28th edition of The Book of Angels, to be released in April under the name Andras and performed by the Nova Express Quintet.
On previous releases Zorn’s compositions were played, among others by Pat Metheny, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier, Crakow Klezmer Band, Uri Caine, Marc Ribot, Medeski, Martin & Wood, David Krakauer, Cyro Baptista and many more.
His music is available on more then 400 different releases. Zorn himself participates on more then 200 of them, not only as a composer, but as a musician and conducter as well.
Astaroth – the first album from The Book of Angels series was released in June 2005 and performed by the trio of pianist Jamie Saft with bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Ben Perowsky. Listen to one of John Zorn’s compositions from this album – Ariel.