I've got to say that I've missed John Zorn. He's continued to release strong, or at least energizing, work, but he's failed to sell it to me consistently over the last several years. I grew weary of the DIW Masadas, preferring the group as a live band, and when the live cds started coming, responded with more than a bit of 'been there, done that.'

Where he's been excelling, of course, is as a composer. But I guess I'm a bit of a rocker at heart. When he quit presenting new material in a standing band format, I grew to feel a post-Naked City void.

As I've kvetched elsewhere, Masada was supposed to be a more dynamic project than it became. It was meant to be about the song, not the singer. But the first fourth of Zorn's 49th year has been a good one. He's returned to the idea of Masada-as-songbook (rather than a standing band or three), introducing an increasingly exciting new line-up, Electric Masada, and three discs worth of new versions of Masada tunes. With Voices in the Wilderness, he may well achieve the remarkable feat of releasing two records destined for end-of-the-year Top 10 lists without playing on either of them.

Masada Guitars was a beautiful set of solo guitar interpretations by Marc Ribot, Tim Sparks and Bill Frisell. Now, this second volume of the Masada Tenth Anniversary series hands the songbook over to two dozen acts over two discs for a fairly staggering set of reworkings.

The versions more or less fall into two camps. Some are hot bands sticking more or less to the letter of the law, the others providing dramatic reworkings of the material. It's rare that either falls flat.

Because of the nature of Wilderness, it's hard to do much more than list pick hits. Pharaoh's Daughter are a stronger band than their original material often allows them to show, and their "Karaim" (performed on oud, bass, recorder, melodica, guitar, cello, viola and vocals) is a strong start to the set. Rova do a great "Lakom", Naftule's Dream are excellent and Kramer is lush and saccharine. Jewlia Eisenberg and Pachora offer beautiful readings and Steve Bernstein reminds that he is a bang-up arranger, even with serious material. Medeski, Martin and Wood pick one of my all time faves ("Ziphim"), Mephista are, as always, remarkable, and Jamie Saft once again demonstrates his close kinship with the composer.

The tinge of self-glorification, or the tiredness of the tribute album, might keep some of the flock away from this new Masada project. Pity that, because it's a more valuable reiteration of Zorn's last decade than Masada Live in Des Moines or whatever the next (or last) quartet cd is (or was). And upcoming releases in the 10th Anniversary series (including a set by Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman and a disc of previously-unreleased titles, again by a variety of musicians) promise to continue the run. It might seem a tacky bit of auto-ennobelization, but so far the ends justify the means. And really, if you made a list of artists deserving tribute treatment, wouldn't Zorn be on it, even if he had to do it himself?