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John Zorn Jams with Gary Lucas at Roulette

Gary jammed with saxophone icon/Tzadik Records label supremo John Zorn at a much ballyhooed gig at NYC downtown performance space Roulette on Friday April 3rd (the gig was picked in the Times, the New Yorker, the Village Voice—and the Jewish Weekly Forward!) Playing before a packed house filled with longtime Lucas supporters and recent converts, John and Gary had a historic first live encounter that had the audience spellbound. First up was John guesting on Sandman, a hypnotic track that is one of Zorn's favorites from Gary's new Tzadik album Busy Being Born. The fiery alto sax player essayed the role of psychotic madman as Gary whispered the lyrics to this indelible anti-lullaby...followed by Zorn and Lucas taking an excursion into the twilight zone on an extended improv that touched on electronic space jam territory. One of the highpoints from an outstanding show (Gary also had a great extended improv gig this year with 6 string lunatic Eugene Chadbourne at the Knitting Factory, a highlight of which was them duetting on a version of Syd Barrett/Pink Floyd's Interstellar Overdrive, itself derived from Burt Bacharach's My Little Red Book—this a part of a Tzadik Records Tribute to Bacharach night).

Next up: Gary takes it to the people in an appearance at the Knitting Factory Cyber-Seder, uptown this year at Lincoln Center on a bill including John Zorn, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson, Sandra Bernhard and others.