50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5

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50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5
Live album by
ReleasedJune 29, 2004
RecordedSeptember 15, 2003
VenueTonic, New York City
GenreDowntown music
Avant-garde jazz
Length44:53
LabelTzadik TZ 5005
ProducerJohn Zorn
John Zorn and Fred Frith chronology
The Art of Memory
(1994)
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5
(2004)
The Art of Memory II
(2008)
John Zorn chronology
Masada Recital
(2004)
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5
(2004)
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 6
(2004)
Fred Frith chronology
What Leave Behind
(2004)
50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5
(2004)
Eleventh Hour
(2005)

50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5 is a live album of improvised music by Fred Frith and John Zorn documenting their performance at Tonic in September 2003 as part of Zorn's month-long 50th Birthday Celebration concert series.[1]

Reception[edit]

The Allmusic review by Sean Westergaard awarded the album 4 stars stating "The interplay is simply amazing. Much of it is what you'd expect from free improv, but there are a handful of beautiful, lyrical moments, like those that close the set. Any fan of free improvisation will be thrilled. It doesn't get much better than this."[2]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]

Track listing[edit]

All tracks are written by John Zorn and Fred Frith

No.TitleLength
1."Off Topic"7:29
2."Alecto"3:56
3."Sowers of Discord"3:54
4."Four Corners"8:14
5."Level Six Jumping"4:33
6."Cruel Abstraction"6:25
7."Eumenides Outside the Window"6:54
8."Nine-part Invention"4:37
9."Cord Trouble and Tuning"1:38
10."Astrologers and Magicians"6:31
  • Recorded live at Tonic in New York City on September 15, 2003

Personnel[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Tzadik catalogue
  2. ^ a b Westergaard, S. Allmusic Review accessed June 6, 2020