John Zorn's COBRA is a monthly event staged at the Knitting Factory. Each time a different musician brings in twelve of his or her peers to play what amounts to a musical game. The game requires a prompter and agile musicians who improvise using cards, hand signals, and headbands to create teams, duos, and improvised sections with the entire group. Over 100 musicians participated in this project.

Personnel includes: John Zorn (alto saxophone); Gisburg (vocals, mouth organ, tin whistle); Judy Dunaway (vocals, electric guitar); Jeff Buckley, M. Doughty (vocals); Roy Nathanson (soprano, alto & tenor saxophones); Curtis Fowlkes (trombone); Marcus Rojas (tuba); David Krakauer (clarinet, bass clarinet); Andrea Parkins (accordion); Michelle Kinney (cello, sound effects); Zeena Parkins (electric harp); Myra Melford (synthesizer); Marc Ribot (electric guitar); Tronzo (slide guitar); John King (dobro); Joe Gallant (acoustic bass, 6-string contrabass); Christine Bard (drums); Anthony Coleman, David Shea, David Weinstein (samples).

Personnel: John Zorn (alto saxophone); Sharon Topper (soprano); Judy Dunaway (mezzo soprano, electric guitar); Mark Ettinger, Jeff Buckley, M. Doughty, Makigami Koichi (tenor); Chris Nelson (baritone); Wilbur Pauley (bass voice); David Watson (electric guitar, trumpet); Vito Ricci, Craig Flanagin, Adam Rogers, Marc Ribot, Rolf Sturm (electric guitar); John King (dobro); Frederick Lonberg-Holm (electric harp, cello, cornet); Zeena Parkins (electric harp); Paul Morrissett (violin, kaval); April Chung, Alicia Svigals (violin); Tomas Ulrich, Michelle Kinney (cello); Greg Anderson (strings); Paul Shapiro (flute, soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Walter Thompson (flute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone); Andrea Parkins (accordion); Doug Wieselman (clarinet); Tim Smith (bass clarinet); Roy Nathanson (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone); Allan Chase (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone); Jay Rodriguez (alto saxophone); Frank London (trumpet, percussion); Evan Gallagher (cornet, trombone, keyboards, sampler); Curtis Fowlkes, Steve Swell (trombone); Marcus Rojas (tuba); Dan Rosengard, Randy Hutton, Nick Balaban, Myra Melford (synthesizer); Sebastian Steinberg (electric bass); Joe Gallant (6-string bass); E.J. Rodriguez, Michael Evans (drums, percussion); James Lo, Ben Perowsky, Christine Bard (drums); Billy Martin (talking drum, percussion); Jane Tomkiewicz (percussion); David Shea, Mark De Gli Antoni, Anthony Coleman, Dawn Buckholz, Lee Hyla, David Weinstein (sampler).

Recording information: Knitting Factory (1992).

Calling this set of performances bizarre would be an understatement. John Zorn inspired (through obscure game playing that is not explained anywhere on this CD) these 14 eccentric "tributes" to different types of cobras. Because many of the performances utilize samplers and voices (in addition to conventional instruments and miscellaneous devices), the wide range of sounds attained from the 87 musicians (heard in different combinations) is impressive, if often quite unlistenable, ranging from humorous interludes to very obnoxious noise. For a few examples, "Cobra 4" has a man screaming over and over again, "Cobra 2" features a sound collage with a male opera singer repeating the same four notes continuously, and "Cobra 5" has, among its many vocal noises, a man imitating a dog barking. There are some colorful segments, but in general, these self-indulgent performances would be much more interesting to see in person than to hear on record. Taken purely as a listening experience, one is surprised that this material has even been released. ~ Scott Yanow

Down Beat (8/95, pp.43-44) - 4.5 Stars - Very Good/Excellent - "Like all games, Zorn's COBRA is best experienced by participating in it....Like the deepest musical compositions, COBRA becomes more meaningful through close and repeated listening. Those who are curious should just join in the fun!"