Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson And John Zorn: The Jazz Festival Experience

I briefly mentioned Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson in my previous post, but I've been holding back all week writing about them in a totally different context: their appearance at the Montréal International Jazz Festival with John  Zorn for a set of improvised music. Totally improvised. And, yes, that means no Velvet Underground stuff (that's ok, the tribute night more than made up for that!), and definitely no ''Walk On The Wild Side''.

Some people, who didn't seem to realize this was a jazz festival, not a pop one, booed and walked out. Zorn got so mad after booing started following the second piece that he said something along the lines of ''if you don't like this music, get the fuck out!'', which many did - most wanting a refund. About a third of Place-Des-Arts attendees left before the show was over, a large amount considering it barely lasted an hour and the expensive ticket prices - well over $100.

Spinner had this to say, while, somehow, The Guardian (in the U.K.) also got wind of the story. There were, however, satisfied customers, such as my friend Albérick, who some of you may know as art-sound creator .Cut from the Montreal Nintendo Orkestar, who wrote this review (and whose image I'm stealing for this entry).

Myself, I didn't go because I didn't know what to expect with the price range. I've been waiting for Reed to come to town with either his solo act without a concept or for one of his tours re-performing either the Berlin or Metal Machine Music records, and I was afraid this was going to be fluff - not because of Reed or his guests that night, but because the Jazz Fest, which has definitely gone from groundbreaking to very, very soft in the span of my lifetime (Lionel Richie being the opening concert of the festival attests to that). Basically, I was afraid the organizers would cut his balls off.

I'm glad to see they didn't, and I'm sad I missed the show, because, apparently, I was exactly the target audience for this. Luckily, it's available for download, recorded by a user named Patook, with artwork by schnitstelle. Go ahead, make your own mind up.