| 50th Birthday Celebration Volume 5 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by John Zorn and Fred Frith | ||||
| Released | June 29, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | September 15, 2003 | |||
| Venue | Tonic, New York City | |||
| Genre | Downtown music Avant-garde jazz | |||
| Length | 44:53 | |||
| Label | Tzadik TZ 5005 | |||
| Producer | John Zorn | |||
| John Zorn and Fred Frith chronology | ||||
| ||||
| John Zorn chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Fred Frith chronology | ||||
| ||||
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]
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]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [2] |
All tracks are written by John Zorn and Fred Frith
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
