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Fred Frith met Bill Laswell and Fred Maher (along with Michael Beinhorn) then known as the Zu Band, on the first day he arrived in New York in 1978. They were rehearsing his song Moeris Dancing in the basement of Giorgio Gomelsky's Zu Space. There was an instant rapport. Some time later, when Peter Blegvad was looking for an opening band for his Valentine's day concert at Soundscape, Frith invited Bill and Fred to join him in a power trio. The band was an instant success, and soon they were performing all over the city, in the Mudd Club, Danceteria, the Peppermint Lounge, Inroads, CBGB, Hurrah, and many othersThe Zu Band had become Material in 1979, and Frith was intimately involved in their first recording, playing guitar and violin, helping with arrangements, and mixing many of the songs alongside Martin Bisi. Along with Material and Massacre, George Cartwright's Curlew, Rudolph Gray's Blue Humans, Elliott Sharp, Borbetomagus, and many other shorter lived bands were exploring different aspects of a similar terrain, some mare jazz-derived, some more dance-oriented, some dealing with ecstatic noise. Massacre's territory was perhaps most closely aligned with punk, and indeed the critics coined the term punk jazz to describe most of the above groups. Massacre's pieces were often very short, always very loud, and involved intricate heads that opened into high-energy explorations of rhythm and timbre. When they performed at progressive rock venues in France in early 1981 it was like a blast of fresh air whose impact was deeply felt and long-lasting