JOHN ZORN'S COBRA: TOKYO OPERATIONS '94

And now that I'm reading about this, it's all making a lot more sense. As you'll notice in the album credits, John Zorn himself is nowhere in sight (despite his musical language and humorous cacophony being written all over this: literally so!). This is a 1994 performance of his still officially unpublished "game piece" (a sort of structured improvisation with rules and prompts). I find this concept super interesting, as it can be representative of not only the improvisational and unexpected nature of Jazz, but also have the sheer appearance of a sort of classical orchestration (with an ensemble cast of performers and someone somewhat acting as conductor, in this context considered a Prompter, and here specifically Makigami Koichi).

This may strike some at times, as it did me, as similar to Zeuhl. Vocals are focal and at the fore in this version of the piece. There is chanting and a sort of mirrored echo relationship vocals have with the instrumentation (I often think of another Japanese band when I think of modern Zeuhl, Koenji Hyakkei). It also feels absolutely alive, as the best of improvisational music (and any artform) should be. So I definitely draw a parallel to, say, Koenji Hyakkei. For a fantastic, fun example of this at play, see "Sunbu" or "Taian".

This sort of performance would be fascinating to witness. All the moving parts and the unexpected nature of it all. Not as jarring or inexplicably bizarre as some of Zorn's other material, but still, unsurprisingly, only so approachable.