Masada: Het | |||||
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File:Masada Het.jpg | |||||
Studio album by John Zorn | |||||
Released | 1997 | ||||
Recorded | August 1, 1996 | ||||
Genre | Jazz | ||||
Length | 60:17 | ||||
Label | DIW | ||||
Producer | John Zorn and Kazunori Sugiyama | ||||
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Masada: Het, also known as Masada 8, is a 1997 album by American composer and saxophonist John Zorn released on the Japanese DIW label. It is the eighth album of Masada recordings.
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The Allmusic review by Don Snowden awarded the album 4 stars stating "Het isn't spectacular Masada full of fireworks, but there's plenty of that around -- this is just a very good, solid disc packed with strong performances and material".[1]
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Masada (מצדה metzadá "fortress") is an ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa, on the eastern edge of the Judaean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Arad.
Herod the Great built palaces for himself on the mountain and fortified Masada between 37 and 31 BCE. According to Josephus, the Siege of Masada by troops of the Roman Empire towards the end of the First Jewish–Roman War ended in the mass suicide of 960 people – the Sicarii rebels and their families hiding there.
Masada is one of Israel's most popular tourist attractions.
The cliffs on the east edge of Masada are about 400 m (1,300 ft) high and the cliffs on the west are about 90 m (300 ft) high; the natural approaches to the cliff top are very difficult. The top of the plateau is flat and rhomboid-shaped, about 550 m (1,800 ft) by 270 m (890 ft). There was a casemate wall around the top of the plateau totaling 1,300 m (4,300 ft) long and 4 m (13 ft) high, with many towers, and the fortress included storehouses, barracks, an armory, the palace, and cisterns that were refilled by rainwater. Three narrow, winding paths led from below up to fortified gates.
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.
Masada may refer to:
(stewart)
Hey pal, let me lean on you and talk awhile
Your planes been delayed by the rain
Or something
I wouldn’t even fly away
If I had one good reason to stay
But you said
If you don’t need my love
I’m gonna find someone who does
And I’m not hanging around
This old heart is far to proud
She got tired of me
Staying out late everynight
I’d fall up the stair
Thought she’d always be there
But suddenly I’m alone
And I’m not accustomed to sleeping alone
She said if you don’t need my love
I’m gonna find someone who does
You’ve stripped me of everything
And you’ve torn down all my dreams
Its been two long weeks
Since she’s been gone
Thought I had her in the palm of my hands
She said I’m through, don’t try to call me
Cause you won’t even find me
Cause if you don’t need my love
I’m going to find someone who does
And the heartache you’ve give me
You’ll get it back just wait and see
Well, well, well, well
I’d give anything to hold her in my bed again
I just wanna feel her breath on my back
She said my blood can’t give her love
No way
She said if you don’t need my love
I’m gonna find someone who does
And I’m gonna take our child
Cause I don’t want him running wild
Hey pal, I think they just called out your flight
Put down your glass don’t forget your boarding pass
And if your looking or you found love
Or sunshine thats enough
Don’t play hard to get
Cause that ain’t where it’s at
Give her all your love
Place her high above
I missed you baby
I missed you baby
Yea I missed