Masada String Trio

Masada
Masada performing, c2005; L.-R. Joey Baron (dr), Greg Cohen (b), Dave Douglas (tr), John Zorn (sax)
Background information
Genres	Klezmer Experimental Jazz
Labels	Tzadik Records
Associated acts	John Zorn Electric Masada Naked City
Past members	John Zorn Joey Baron Greg Cohen Dave Douglas

Masada is a musical group with rotating personnel led by American saxophonist and composer John Zorn since the early 1990s.

Masada is as much a "songbook" as a group, comprising more than 500 relatively brief compositions. Each song is written in accordance with a number of rules, including the maximum number of staves, the modes or scales that are used, and the fact that the songs must be playable by any small group of instruments.

Given the historical associations of the project's name (see Masada), the Hebrew titles of the compositions, and the Jewish imagery on the covers of the associated albums, Zorn was clearly exploring his Jewish roots, stating, "The idea with Masada is to produce a sort of radical Jewish music, a new Jewish music which is not the traditional one in a different arrangement, but music for the Jews of today. The idea is to put Ornette Coleman and the Jewish scales together."

Zorn formed the group Masada in order to record and perform this set of tunes. The first group to use the Masada name was Zorn (alto saxophone), Dave Douglas (trumpet), Greg Cohen (double bass), and Joey Baron (drum set). On occasion, different drummers filled in for Baron – most regularly Kenny Wollesen.

This first edition of Masada had the same instrumental make-up as the pioneering free jazz group led by saxophonist Ornette Coleman in the late 1950s and early '60s, and earned frequent comparisons to Coleman's music. Masada recorded the music on a series of ten CDs on the Japanese DIW label and a number of live recordings on Zorn's Tzadik label.