Masada in Vienna
New Masada Quartet aftershow hangouts with Kenny Wollesen & Mathieu Amalric!
Sup Lovers?
Flake here with another update from the road. I must only write the loveliest things today because both of today’s subjects are subscribed to the Fladik News… ;-)
Another Johnnie tour has come to a close. Me and the ZC attended both New Masada Quartet sets of the Vienna show along with some friends and while both sets were musically wonderful, we both agreed that the second set was the winner. The band were already hyped up, the concert-goers slightly tipsier, and the atmosphere even livelier.
NMQ were smoking aces. Johnnie, as always, in complete control, gesturing hands conducting the tight band, hit after hit. The chemistry and interplay between Johnnie and Julian Lage was sizzling, as usual, feeding off each other’s energy in the most satisfying manner. The call-and-response moments between the two went down some fun paths. Having already seen them a few times live now I can confirm that they are still slaying it. And Julian really DOES look like Abraham Lincoln.
ZC has a better ear for the setlists and he confirmed that there were around 3 or 4 of the same songs in both sets. I’m not as familiar with all the melodies as he is - Hath-Arob, sure - but I found the solos to be nicely varied and I didn’t get a sense that it was too repetitive at all. At one point right towards the tail end of the show, Johnnie pointed at Jorge and out of nowhere he whipped a bow out, like a magician, and started going to town aggressively on the bass! Did not see the bow trick in the first set, so this was an ace up his sleeve.
Another quite hilarious moment during one of the event pieces featured Johnnie signaling Julian, prompting him to play - of all things - an extremely basic 12 bar blues riff, no bells and whistles. Meanwhile Kenny was hammerring away on some complicated syncopated polyrhythms over the top. It was such a bizarre mish-mash which elicited a couple of giggles from the crowd, who by this stage were well aware of Julian’s overqualification for this simple, slow riff.
At any rate, a New Masada Quartet show is rarely anything other than a blast, and always feels criminally short. At around an hour per set, with one encore each, it wasn’t long before the whole thing was over. I parted with my friends and went on a solo mission…
Pacing around Porgy & Bess, (or as my Zorn Consultant and I call it, Orgy & Ass), I searched for someone to connect with who could help me get the zine to its owner. Someone suggested that Julian, the greatest merch guy ever, might know what to do, so I headed down to talk to him back at the merch stand. Before I was able to ask him anything, a chipper man with a cymbal bag came up the stairs with a t-shirt on that said JULIAN LAGE in big letters. “Kenny!” I bounded over and gave him a big hug. “This is for you!” He smiled and presented me with a super cool Wollesonic Records tote with a lovely blue handle, complete with fresh vinyl inside: his latest album Latrala, and Paper Flower, the newest from Jesse Harris.
“You’ve heard of Jesse Harris?” Kenny asked. “Of course!,” I replied, “And I have something for you also, but first I need to get this to Johnnie. He asked me to bring it!” “Ohh…” came his sympathetic reply: “He’s already left.”
Damn.
I couldn’t say I was terribly surprised, but I was admittedly a little disappointed. After all, he was the one who asked me for a copy - he had even contacted me first, out of the blue. But at least I had an audience with his kickass drummer. :-)
I was introduced to his lovely friend Anna, an important figure in the scene who has been heavily involved with booking Johnnie in Europe for decades, and the three of us sauntered off into the night, in search of Pisco.
Some say Pisco is dead, but I think it lives! Nowhere does the rich culture and spicy latino spirit of Peru truly shine brighter than the heart of Vienna, Austria: flickering Christmas lights and big screen TVs display salsa videos, and patrons dance around the bar to the blaring South American beats. A cheeky long-haired Peruvian barman grins gently from across the room. Kenny is completely in his happy place: “Dontcha just love this place? I love this place!” He exclaims with an enormous, open-mouthed grin. He is totally in awe of the charismatic little bar, and can’t wait to invite us for a round of Pisco Sours. What followed was several rounds of the most delicious sour cocktails and banter, and a cavalcade of laughs.
Anna and Kenny are clearly well acquainted, old friends, and after a round of drinks Kenny announces: “I wanna give you a Wollesonic Massage! Have you heard about my Wollesonic Massage?” Anna had not. “I make all of these instruments - hundreds! I make ‘em myself! The people lay on the ground as the masseuses go around and play them - some are very light and nobody hears the same thing. We go up close to their ears as we walk around. It’s a great experience! We’ve had all different reactions to it - one lady cried, it’s different for everybody. I think you’d like a Wollesonic Massage!”
“I have a funny story: Shahzad was at Big Ears (Festival where they were conducting the massages), and I asked if he wanted to be a masseuse. He said “Sure!” And he was given this instrument that I had made out of balloons, with a kind of crank. You are supposed to gently turn the handle and it makes a very light sound with the balloons. I thought he would do it softly but Shahzad was cranking this this so fast and so crazy, that all of a sudden there was this enormous BANG! Right during the middle of the massage. Shahzad had managed to pop one of the balloons.”
The drinks kept flowing and so too did the funny stories and observations. He claimed to LOVE “matching bands” - when the band members all have a matching uniform. I mentioned Devo, Kraftwerk, and Simulacrum - interesting combination! The huge grin was permenant and contagious; his face positively beaming the entire time as he recited his catchphrase: “Dontcha just love this place??” He repeated, “…I love this place!”
Yes, Kenny. We DO love this place. As you can see in the photo!
Two days later I received a text message all the way from the states. It was Kenny, all excited, having just read DOZ II from cover to cover on the plane.
“Holy cow
How do you do it ??!!
You are a magician
The book is fabulous
I read the whole thing on the flight back to nyc
Many times I burst out laughing
(Much to the chagrin of my row mate )
The book is beautiful
I love how you put it all together
The design is fantastic
You ARE a genius
It’s just beautiful”
Moments and messages like this make it all worth it.
Thank you, Kenny, you rule!!!!!! ^_^ <3 <3 <3
In yet another bizarre twist of fate I had managed to secure a hang with Mathieu Amalric between the screenings of his three Zorn films at the Kinokulturhaus Cinema in Vienna. I was nervous to see the director again, as is usual for me when meeting with people I admire, but all the jitteriness was forgotten when I spotted the frenchman making his way over in a lovely brown cord suit. Although we had met just once before, the reunion felt warm and familiar. It was smiles all round.
The cinema was screening all of his Zorn films in a row, with 1 & 2 back to back, and a break before part 3. Before each film Mathieu would dash back inside and introduce each film. This gave us a good hour of downtime between announcements. I had already seen the films, so I was just happy to stay outside in the warm spring air, and guard our little bench in front of the cinema as he would occasionally dip back inside.
We spent the better part of the evening hanging out on the bench: smoking, drinking white wine, consuming the complimentary corn chips from the cinema bar, and casually oversharing about both of our lives, like old friends. This, coupled with a heavy dose of nerding out about our favourite musicians from the Zorn universe. We both agreed that double bass is boring but Jorge Roeder is AMAZING.
Mathieu confessed that between various film & theatre projects, as well as screening commitments and his personal life, he hadn’t had any time for his writing. As a writer myself, I was intrigued by this.
“What are you writing?” I asked
“My next film!” He beamed, excitedly.
“Oooh! What’s it about?”
“I don’t know!… I haven’t had time to write it!!”
I asked if perhaps he was the kind of person who had trouble saying “No”? He stared me in the eye with a hint of exhaustion that suggested I had no idea, and told me straight up: “I. Say. ‘No’. Every… Day!”
At one point during the third film a patron exited the cinema and walked right into us. What a fright it must have been for the poor guy, to have left halfway through the film, sneaking out the door and running smack-bang into the director himself. Mathieu gasped: “You’re leaving?!” As it turned out the man had a call from home that his daughter was unwell, so he had to bail. Mathieu reluctantly let him go.
After the third film, a couple of filmgoers began asking me questions about my book. Huh?! How did they even know about it?! As it turned out, Mathieu had been raving about it during his final talk! Such an unexpected, exciting turn of events - I navigated the impromptu DOZ II press conference with a certain level of modesty, as this was not a night about me.
It was fun being around all the people and chatting about the finer points of the films. One woman had asked Mathieu why there was so little focus on the women in Zorn’s musical universe. I found myself coming to the defence of both of them, preparing to list the myriad of collaborators and album projects that Zorn has worked on with a multitude of women. This woman corrected me in saying that it wasn’t about Zorn’s omission of women, but Mathieu’s. However, she was satisfied with the answer that he gave in the talk: if that’s how it came across in the films then he took ownership of that oversight.
I mean, the way I see it… the entire third film was about a woman… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Anyway the whole evening was a truckload of fun, except Paris losing to Dortmund in the soccer, much to Mathieu’s utter dismay. I don’t know a lot of words in French, but I surely recognised the word: “Merde!”
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Next week i’m off to catch the JACK Quartet in Berlin, so that’s it from me this time lovers… take care, and much love til then. <3
Love
FLAKE
CEO Fladik