John Zorn: Kristallnacht Genre: Chamber/Montage/Soundtrack Label & Year of Release: recorded 1992, released on Eva in 1993, reissued on Tzadik in 1995 Category: Accessible/Weird/Scares The Horses My Rating: 7/10 Personnel Mark Feldman, Violin Marc Ribot, Guitars Anthony Coleman, Keyboards Mark Dresser, Double Bass William Winant, Percussion David Krakauer (Clarinets on “Shtetl” & “Tzfia”) Frank London (Trumpet on “Shtetl” & “Tzfia”) “Shtetl (Ghetto Life)”. A montage of Klezmer music with other elements including what I assume to be a speech by Hitler. It sounds sensational but actually it's an enjoyable piece overall with Krakauer’s clarinet always a highlight on virtually everything he does. “Never Again”. Eleven minutes of the sound of breaking glass intercut with running feet(?), edited voices, sporadic instrumentation including bells and cantorial singing. There's a liner note that you can damage your hearing by listening to this piece too loud or too frequently but that's pretty much true of any piece of music and I wonder whether this isn't really said in order to preserve the psychological impact of the piece. “Never Again” sounds like an intimidating prospect but it shouldn't put anyone off listening to the album; in fact the glass sounds, especially accompanied by drums, do become quite musical by the end and I think that this is one of the more successful of his “high concept” works. “Gahelet (Embers)”. Very quiet, very still with the instruments sounding very distant. About three minutes in there is the sound of a musical recording but so feint that I can't make out what it is. “Tikkun (Rectification)”. Feldman's violin leads what is essentially a file-card style piece with hints of Klezmer and lyrical playing along the way, with notable accompaniment from Ribot on acoustic guitar. “Tzfia (Looking Ahead)”. At a little under nine minutes this is an extended file-card montage taking in a range of styles including snatched of noisy, Metallic Rock and including multiple soundtrack cues & musical found objects. Parts sound Classical and the timbres are consistently interesting, crossing genres unexpectedly. Klezmer inflections become prominent later in the piece. “Barzel (Iron Fist)”. An industrial, aggressive piece with collaged sound and clattering drums. “Gariin (Nucleus - The New Settlement)”. Opens with quiet drums & cymbals. Bass joins with a repeated descending figure, then dissonant electric guitar from Ribot. The piece gradually accelerates until, just short of the eighth minute, it falls into a grumbling stasis and quiet drums conclude. For me a weaker piece. This is the album which initiated “Radical Jewish Culture” as a concept in Zorn's work and therefore the seminal work of which the Masada project was the flower. It's also, incidentally, one of only five discs by Zorn issued in the inaugural year of the Tzadik label. Given both its subject matter and its musical significance, this is certainly one of the top five most “important” albums in his discography, but its subject matter is also probably the reason why I have listened to this album only occasionally. While I've listened to Steve Reich's Different Trains many times over the years, that's the exception that proves the rule: music about the persecution of Jews has, by its nature, a rather limited appeal. I wouldn't argue with anyone who gave this a 10/10 rating and I think it's a must-own disc. That said - and despite the fact that it paved its way for music that I love - I don't like it in proportion to its significance and (while I fully accept that music does not only exist to be liked) that does hold back my personal rating here.
John Zorn: Filmworks XIX - The Rain Horse Genre: Chamber/Soundtrack Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2008 Category: Relaxed/Accessible My Rating: 8/10 Personnel Eric Friedlander, Cello Rob Burger, Piano Greg Cohen, Double Bass “Tears Of The Morning”. Relaxed, pastoral piece. “The Stallion”. Slightly menacing staccato piano doubled by arco bass. Cello provides its own melodic flights of fancy. “Tree Of Life”. Serene, sunny piece that reminds me (incongruously) of Nick Drake's “Magic”. “Wedding of Wild Horses”. String harmonics from Friedlander introduce a piece where his background in the Masada String Trio seems very present. The piano lines are brittle and uneasy. “Forests In The Mist”. The piano here plays what I think of as the main theme from this soundtrack, a soaring, sweet melody ably supported by the string players. Burger's little touches and sprays of consonant notes are lovely. Friedlander’s soloing is rich and expressive. “Dance Exotique”. Burger's strings are muted to produce a more percussive sound on a faster piece. Friedlander responds with harmonics, glissandi & string atmospherics. “Birds In The Mist”. This solo cello version of the main theme is, for me, pretty much worth the price of admission on its own. If you love the sound of pizzicato cello then you will love this. “Parable of Job”. This piece has a tango feel and Burger solos joyfully over it. “Encounter”. A piece with a looser, more improvised feel. “The Rain Horse”. Shifting time signatures result in something that sounds superficially like a tango but you'd have trouble dancing to it! “End Titles”. Playful, skipping piece with lyrical passages in keeping with the overall album. Lovers of Zorn's more consonant, uplifting music shouldn't overlook this hidden gem from the Filmworks series. The Rain Horse is a beautiful, 40-minute album composed for a 12-minute animation by Dimitri Geller. Zorn sums it up best: “simple, heartfelt music for all to enjoy”.
The Rain Horse gets lots of spins here. Even I can't skronk 24/7, need a break every now and then. And Zorn is masterful at dialing up thoughtful, contemplative, and most of all, artful music.
John Zorn/Fred Frith: The Art of Memory Genre: Avant Garde/Free Improvisation Label & Year of Release: Incus, 1997 Categories: Weird/Quirky/Scares the Horses My Rating: 3/10 Personnel John Zorn, Alto Sax Fred Frith, Guitar “The Combiner”. Begins fairly quiet with cautious gestures, some alto shrieking, Zorn plays the valves percussively, Frith largely muted throughout. “The Ladder”. Frith plays fairly dissonant chords using a volume pedal, while we get squeaks and some Jazz sounds from Zorn. Frith starts up a rhythmic attack on muted strings, he plays trills that are picked up by Zorn, fluttering effects on the alto leading to a phase of stasis followed by wailing on alto. Renewed rhythm from Frith with a kalimba feel. “The Chain”. Wheezing/squeaking from Zorn accompanied by junkyard noise from Frith that resolves into a rhythm briefly before becoming a series of ringing sounds. More fluttering from Zorn followed by scale work. “The Field”. A rumble of guitar (something to do with a spring reverb perhaps?) provides a background for Zorn's chirrups. Some dry string sounds alternate with very wet. A crescendo of sound from both. Creaking hinge noise from Zorn followed by fluttering. Some noisier, short-lived moments towards the end largely due to the guitar. “The Table”. Zorn plays for some time at the bottom of his range: sounds so low in fact that I'm surprised that they can be made with alto. He then moves to a more typically squalling phase, followed again by held notes against which Frith makes little glissando noises and string sounds. A clatter of noise approaching rhythm is built up by Frith against Zorn's drone. The two coalesce around a note. “The Interpreter”. No pitch content; a radio(?) plays speech in what sounds like Spanish that is speed-modulated. The speech becomes English-language, then the radio plays a fragment of music. Chattering & fluttering from Zorn. “The Tree”. Something approaching notes from the guitar & sax. Later, gong and other metal percussion sounds from the guitar against circular breathing from Zorn. “The Fountain and the Mirror”. The most “musical” piece on a largely unmusical album: slow with some melodic content interspersed. A sound like mocking laughter. The Art of Memory is not so much difficult as it is unrewarding. The range of Zorn's technique is very similar to that on The Classic Guide to Strategy and of course listeners will by now be familiar with what he does. Frith’s extended techniques are something I'm unused to and I can't say that I enjoy them very much. If you're into avant garde music at all you have to open yourself up to this sort of thing and it has a more transparent musical logic than Pool. Moreover, it is quite varied on its own terms and stands in the tradition of the early game pieces even if it is not generated in the same way. But I feel that I'm listening to it largely under protest, relieved when I can get to the end and cross it off my list.
John Zorn: Bar Kokhba Genre: Mixed Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 1996 Categories: Accessible, Relaxed in Places My Rating: 8/10 “Gevurah”. Anthony Coleman (Piano) with Mark Dresser on Double Bass & Kenny Wollesen on Drums. Fairly straight acoustic Jazz trio version of the piece. “Nezikin”. The Masada String Trio; Kenny Wollesen is listed in the liner notes but I didn't notice him. Fairly terse, uninviting lines here on a brief piece. “Mahsav”. David Krakauer on Clarinet accompanied by Anthony Coleman on Piano. Krakauer’s idiomatic Klezmer performances with the typical vocal/crying quality make this performance exquisitely Jewish. “Rokhev”. Masada String Trio. A more sinuous performance. “Abidan”. Chris Speed on Clarinet accompanied by John Medeski on piano. Speed’s tone is thinner and less “authentic” than Krakauer's but he takes advantage of the melodic nature of the head. “Sheloshim”. Masada String Trio. Opens with string atmospherics over a steady 9/4 riff in the bass and maintains a rather mysterious spirit with lots of “special effects”. “Hath-Arob”. John Medeski plays on piano perhaps the most famous of the game-style heads. With a free rein and no musicians to work against he nonetheless does a pretty good job with the material. “Paran”. David Krakauer & John Medeski on organ. I feel that the organ on this track was probably a mistake but the idea seems to have been to create a “laughing” feel for the piece. Certainly it's quirky. “Mahlah”. Marc Ribot on electric guitar with Greg Cohen. Ribot's understanding of Masada heads would, of course, become a key element in the Bar Kokhba sextet and he seems to command the material here in one of the album's more “auspicious” tracks. “Socoh”. Masada String Trio. A wild reading with more of the feel of the original Masada quartet: Feldman & Friedlander channel Zorn & Douglas surprisingly well. “Yechida”. Anthony Coleman plays rather staccato chords at the start and his playing cautiously probes the material in a solo improvisation that sounds unpremeditated and at times somewhat lost during the course of over eight minutes. “Bikkurim”. Masada String Trio. A more consonant performance, closed to the MST that people came to know & love. “Idalah-Abal”. Chris Speed & John Medeski on organ. I like “Idalah-Abal” so I also like this version of it. “Tannaim”. Masada String Trio. Feldman & Friedlander play in absolute disciplined lockstep here for much of the opening of this slow piece, gradually parting to play individual lines of fluidity & lyricism. Cohen varies the weight with which he plays his ostinato. “Nefesh”. Medeski/Dresser/Wollesen trio. Joyful acoustic jazz with a mainstream feel, reminiscent almost of Dave Brubeck. At only three and half minutes, an all-too-brief highlight. “Abidan”. Masada String Trio. One of the stronger heads in a lovely pizzicato arrangement. “Mo’ed”. Anthony Coleman on piano & John Medeski on organ. To me a rather insipid head that is heard too much in the course of a rather rigid performance. “Maskil”. Marc Ribot & Greg Cohen. Clean, melodic playing from Ribot. Cohen takes a short solo break. “Mishpatim”. Coleman/Dresser/Wollesen trio. Another tentative performance from Coleman who does not seem to take the rhythm section with him here in the course of a fairly joyless seven minutes. “Sansanah”. Chris Speed, Mark Feldman, John Medeski. This always makes me think of “Inchworm” from Hans Christian Andersen. After a piano statement of the head Feldman & Speed perform it in unison with the violin & clarinet well matched. Feldman shows off his amazing facility with Klezmer phrasing in one of the album's more successful team-ups. “Shear-Jashub”. Masada String Trio. I think Cohen is paying arco throughout here, which contributes to a muddy sound on what is quite a rough performance. “Mahsav”. John Medeski brings a warmth & intensity to his solo piano performance of this famous head which has, of course, already been heard on the first disc. The contrast between the two arrangements is remarkable. “Sheloshim”. Dave Douglas on Trumpet, Chris Speed, John Medeski on Organ, Kenny Wollesen. A slightly Noirish feel to this performance. Douglas's trumpet, muted here, contrasts well with the clarity of Speed's clarinet. “Mochin”. Marc Ribot has an extended, thirteen-minute solo here, performing on what I think may be an acoustic guitar through an amp so that you get the warmth of the strings but the break-up of the amp. Either way, the result is a more ethnic sound than we are used to from Ribot and he does not play the head until well into the fifth minute. I used to find this track rather boring but I seem to have warmed up to it over time, admiring the patience of the extemporisation. “Karaim”. Masada String Trio. Another of the more popular heads with a tango feel given a rather Romantic performance. Bar Kokhba was an important release for two reasons. In the first place it opened the Masada songbook to other performers, indicating the route that Zorn would eventually take with Books 2 & 3. Secondly, it created a substantial, two-disc project in the second year of its existence for Tzadik musicians, helping to define the young label. In both senses it was a big success and though it has been somewhat eclipsed by the success of The Circle Maker two years later it is difficult not to see this as a significant milestone in the Masada story. This album anoints the Masada String Trio as the superstars of the first phase of Masada interpreters: Cohen's experience as bass player in the original quartet marrying superbly with Friedlander's lyricism and Feldman's often magical phrasing. As the years have gone on I have listened to the trio less and less as other configurations have come to the fore but their role in “civilising” the rawness of the original quartet cannot be overlooked. It's a long time since I've sat down and listened to this album through. I bought it only a month or so after I “got serious” with Zorn and I've always counted it as a must-own but with the perspective of time, having listened to the second and third Masada books, I feel that we are only beginning to hear musicians making the heads “their own”. Nevertheless, it's impossible to argue with over two hours of music including an album's worth of material from the Masada String Trio.
Masada: Beit Genre: Acoustic Jazz Label & Year of Release: BIW, 1994 Category: Mostly Accessible My Rating: 8/10 Personnel John Zorn, Alto Sax Dave Douglas, Trumpet Greg Cohen, Double Bass Joey Baron, Drums “Piram”. One of the most popular Masada heads which often seems to be played live has a driving beat with a slightly gamey head heard twice at the start of this performance before heading into Zorn's smoothly-flowing opening solo. Douglas's solo is wilder, egging Zorn on as the two play together. Brief bass solo quickly handed off to Zorn. Controlled chaos for a few bars and back into the head. The final flourish is always played and a distinctive end to the piece. “Hadasha”. Intense, slow start with Cohen's bass riff and hushed lines from Zorn. The sly, slightly sinister, head is heard late into the second minute (of ten). Zorn's solo begins bluesy, reminiscent of his Noir pastiche work, with steady accompaniment by Douglas, but he opens up as it progresses. The trumpet solo is ragged and the two are soon playing together with lines rising and falling against one another. Drums & Bass take a spot. Just short of the tenth minute there's an abrupt breakdown that is a feature of this piece, before resuming and ending the piece. “Lachish”. Wild, gamey head with a fanfare leads to hot playing on a short but fiery piece. “Rachab”. Hesitant, slightly lugubrious start to a piece where the quartet plays freely with snatches of the composed head emerging seemingly without planning. “Peliyot”. Fanfare-style head before a 6/8 dance rhythm (subdivided 4/2). Baron rampant, raising the volume of the front line and almost drowning out Cohen's steady riff. “Achshaph”. Freeform piece driven along at times with energetic drumming. “Sansanah”. Slow, melancholy waltz in 6/4. Zorn & Douglas feel disciplined, almost stark. “Ravayah”. One of my favourite Masada heads because it's a drum feature and Baron is always superb on it. The front line plays the celebratory, uplifting head as written so it's a focused three-odd minutes. “Sahar”. Racing bass & drums usher in hotter playing from Zorn & Douglas with a head that seems consciously slurred, almost drunk. “Tirzah”. Slow piece (12/4 maybe?) has the trumpet muted from the start. Zorn plays his creamiest and most restrained on his first solo. “Shilhim”. Zorn unleashes his signature sax mannerisms on a wildly careering piece of party music, drawing my attention to how almost conventional his playing has been throughout this disc. It's tempting to rate this higher than the first Masada album because it's an hour of first-rate music featuring two of my favourite heads but since we're going to need a little space for even better albums from this quartet I'll hold it at 8/10. Otherwise, so much like Alef in feel and excitement that no additional comment is needed.
This is by much and by far my favorite Zorn, and one of my favorite things ever. It has enough conceptual baggage to sink 2 or 3 albums, but none of that (the tunes, the Jimmy Giuffre/ Jim Hall trio instrumentation, the hardcore punk inspiration to just get it done and get out) gets in the way of what I consider to be some of the most inspired and fresh collective playing I've ever heard. Worlds more imaginative than the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet which is still enjoyable but comparatively rote. This turned me on to Zorn shortly after it came out. Spy v. Spy turned me off. I've only intermittently paid attention to Zorn since. 11/10, it's a freaking miracle.
I wish I could tell you that there's an obvious successor to News For Lulu that you might have missed from the catalogue but really Zorn's engagement with the Jazz songbook pretty much ended when he started writing his own heads with Masada and beyond. His engagement with the Jazz tradition continues (he's probably presided over as many acoustic trio & quartet albums that are unambiguously Jazz as artists who do nothing but that) but News For Lulu & its sequel remain an outlier in the discography. How do you feel about the original Masada quartet?
John Zorn: On the Torment Of Saints, the Casting of Spells and the Evocation of Spirits Genre: Chamber Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2013 Category: More or Less Accessible My Rating: 6/10 The Tempest: A Masque. Performed by Claire Chase (Flute), Joshua Rubin (Clarinet, Bass Clarinet) & Nathan Davies (Drums, Percussion). This is an inventively dramatic piece due to the conflict & interplay between the woodwinds. As so often with Zorn the piece has a file card feel due to the shifts in style (including a merry little Renaissance dance in the middle) and there's a lot of Jazz in this Classical piece due to the extemporised percussion lines. All Hallows’ Eve: Satanic Counterpoint for the Witches' Sabbath. Performed by Chris Otto (Violin), David Fulmer (Viola) and Jay Campbell (Cello). This piece in three movements is tempting to tick off as another example of Zorn's horror movie string writing but it's a very detailed score. The first part, “Matins”, is characterised by held notes followed by pizzicato intrusions and racing atonal lines. In parts it is a very quiet piece (in fact in one section it is at the threshold of audibility) with passages that could have come out of the Romantic repertoire. “Lauds” begins with a repeated chord “breathing”. A series of plucked notes suggest a change of feel but the chords resume and there is a feeling of uneasy anticipation. “Vespers” follows immediately with racing strings featuring “diabolical” soloing and fierce performance. It lasts less than a minute and a half, meaning that far from being overall violent the work has been darkly atmospheric. The Temptations of St. Anthony: Thirteen Talismanic Antiphons for Piano and Nine Instruments. Performed by Fifth House Ensemble featuring Jani Parsons on Piano. The piano is juxtaposed with string quartet, wind quartet and a solo French horn on a highly “coloristic” work (lasting fewer than nine minutes). The orchestration is assured, reminiscent of Messiaen or perhaps his immediate musical forbears. I can't imagine a fan of 20th Century chamber music being uncomfortable with this work which is, as ever, confident & varied. As with There Is No More Firmament, this isn't a disc that I've really had much cause to revisit since it came out but it is unquestionably strong with all three works providing more substantial musical content than their modest running lengths would suggest.
Not reaaly looking for Lulu part 2, just something else that's just as inspired. I've heard some Masada but have only a vague remembrance.
I suspect that I'm the wrong person to give you advice as I see inspiration throughout the discography! Maybe others will chip in ..?
John Zorn: The Concealed (This cover, which is white with the shapes stamped out, does not reproduce well!) Genre: Acoustic Jazz/Lounge Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2012 Category: Accessible/Relaxed My Rating: 8/10 Personnel John Medeski, Piano Kenny Wollesen, Vibes Mark Feldman, Violin Eric Friedlander, Cello Trevor Dunn, Double Bass Joey Baron, Drums “Persepolis”. Just vibes, piano, bass & drums on this piece. Vibes play the (cloying) Eastern motto and then hand over to piano, which handles the chord structure & solos. The subtitle of this album, by the way, is “Hidden Secrets and Esoteric Traditions out of the East” and there is a sense of Orientalism that suffuses this album and this track. “The Hidden Book”. Although we here have Trevor Dunn instead of Greg Cohen on bass this is effectively a Masada String Trio piece of the rather soaring/uplifting type. “Passage to Essentuki”. Medeski & Wollesen play the head in unison (both also take solos) with the strings providing support. “Pathway of Fire”. Just strings and the rhythm section, with Feldman taking the lead from the start and a very bubbly, energetic head. Friedlander takes the first solo, pushed along by drums & bass. “Towards Kafiristan”. This piece had an afterlife when Jesse Harris wrote lyrics for it: it became part of The Song Project and Songs For Petra. It's a slice of melodic lounge jazz that Medeski hams up with idiomatically cheesy spread chords. Dunn takes a solo. “Kavanah”. Again, a very MST feel, again rather upbeat. At five minutes it probably last longer than it should. “Back To Bokhara.” I love this piece. The cross-rhythms in the head are really magical and the arrangement is very detailed, with strings, piano and especially vibes (which takes an extended solo) all playing their part and justifying the ensemble configuration. “The Silver Thread”. I'm a simple man: I hear an Eric Friedlander solo performance and automatically like. “The Dervish”. More “Eastern” exotica: not quite as high energy as its title would suggest. “The Way of the Sly Man”. Solo piano. This piece is an absolute treat, beginning with a New Orleans Jazz sound but quickly diversifying into flowing sections demonstrating Medeski's touch. “Amu Darya”. Probably the most dynamic and exciting of the MST-style pieces on this disc. “A Portrait of Moses Cordovero”. I find this one of the more persuasive of the Jewish-sounding pieces on the album although the lounge influence is very much still here in the piano. I presume that the title refers to Moses ben Jacob Corovero, who was a leading light in the (16th Century) development of the Kabbalah. “Visitation of the Night Angels”. I very rarely have cause to describe Zorn's music as “cute” but this piece with piano & high vibes chiming together comes close. Cello opens the piece, violin & piano both take meaningful extended solos. “Life is Real Only Then, When “I Am””. Just piano, vibes, bass & drums. A bright, Jazzy piece. I took my life in my hands and asked John Zorn to sign this for me, which he did (although I'm not convinced that he was too happy about being asked!). It's a great, varied album that (on paper at least) brings the best of the Masada String Trio style into contact with the Nova Quartet, which had recorded its first album the previous year. In practice it's not quite as good as that: there's a lounge feel here that makes the Middle Eastern scales sound rather inauthentic at times. Nevertheless, in the course of an hour it has some notable highlights that lift it well above average and it's one of the most varied of Zorn's “Relaxed” albums, which I've listened to quite a lot over the years. It falls just on the right side of the line that divides accessible from bland and a good range of uptempo material maintains the energy.
John Zorn: Shir Hashirim (The attractive cover art is somewhat risqué and hard to source so I have substituted a different work by the same artist, Auguste Rodin) Genre: Choral Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2014 Category: Accessible My Rating: 8/10 Personnel (All Vocalists) Martha Cluver Lisa Bielawa Kathryn Mulvehill Abigail Fischer Kirsten Sollek “Kiss Me”. “Rose of Sharon”. “A Night In My Bed”. “How Beautiful You Are”. “I Have Come Into My Garden”. “Where Has Your Lover Gone”. “Dance Again”. “O If You Were Only My Brother.” It's very difficult to keep up with the many technical devices used on this album: I tried to write track notes but they came to nought. Broadly, the album is consonant & sweet with shifting time-signatures and heavy-handed use of Masada-type “Exotic” scales. Susurration, dissonance, atonal moments are present, but commonly we hear chords or arpeggios distributed two or three voices while the remained sing melody/descant. There do not appear to be any sung texts. At times there are hints of “a capella” in its low sense though the performances are, of course, virtuosic. Because I like Zorn's choral works a lot this was, prima facie, a candidate for 10/10 but although it is a varied album I find the reliance on quasi-Minimalist arpeggios and Eastern scales ultimately holds it back. At only 31 minutes the album nonetheless feels repetitive: more so than “The Holy Visions”, which for me is the preferable work. It also has less structure & direction, ultimately feeling like a series of broadly similar pieces, and the sweetness does begin to cloy without ever becoming the seductive, sensual experience that the track titles suggest. At 8/10 this remains a safe disc, perhaps too safe.
I think there was a concert, and maybe a recording, with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson reading a text, not sure if before or during the piece. Would be nice to get it released (if recorded).
John Zorn: The Big Gundown - John Zorn plays the music of Ennio Morricone Genre: Montage/Soundtrack Label & Year of Release: Elektra Nonsuch, 1986; Re-released with six additional tracks on Tzadik, 2000 Category: Mostly Weird, occasionally Accessible My Rating: 8/10 “The Big Gundown”. There just too many performers on this album to give everyone their proper listing so I'll pick out a few names as we go (with apologies to those I don't name). After a phenomenal first half minute featuring bells & drums we have a piece largely reliant on Luli Shioi’s vocals and a large percussion band. Foley work adds cinematic sound effects. At seven minutes this single track is almost the entire album in microcosm. “Peur Sur La Ville”. Wayne Horvitz on piano picks out a sort of menacing moto perpetuo over heartbeat drums while Orvin Aquart's harmonicas play. Tim Berne's alto sax is heard for a while, then. “Poverty (Once Upon A Time In America)”. Out of tune whistling from Toots Thielemans, then his harmonica supported by Carol Emanuel's Harp and Guy Klucevsek’s accordion. Whistling again to the end. A lovely melody idiosyncratically but rather beautifully performed. “Milano Odea”. Anton Fier's heavy backbeat for a band with three electric guitarists (Fred Frith, Arto Lindsay, Jody Harris) and Zorn on harpsichord. “Erotico (The Burglar)”. Big John Patton on organ while Laura Biscotto & Shelley Hirsch provide odd vocalisations. Bill Frisell takes a bluesy guitar solo. Bobby Previte provides Jazzy drumming. “Battle of Algiers”. Martial snare drum and piano plus quirky additions from Christian Marclay on turntables and bugle calls. Vicki Bodner provides Oboe & Cor Anglais. “Giu La Testa (Duck You Sucker!)”. An atmospheric start featuring Ned Rothenberg & Michihiro Sato on Japanese instruments. Vicki Bodner plays the lyrical main theme on Cor Anglais. The into a faithful performance of the playful, slightly ridiculous subsidiary theme from the movie now featuring Rothenberg on Jew's Harp. “Metamorfosi (La Classe Operaia Va In Paradiso)”. Diamanda Galas screams operatically against loud orchestral drumbeats. “Tre Nel 5000”. Bob James on Tapes joins Christian Marclay on turntables to provide an off-the-wall montage accompanied by live musicians performing in game piece style. “Once Upon A Time In The West”. Robert Quine & Jody Harris on electric guitars present the gunfight theme through a miasma of feedback & noise. Ends on the wail of Orvin Aquart's harmonica for reasons that will be well known to anyone who's seen the movie. Shouldn't work but does. “The Sicilian Clan”. Bonus tracks start here! Absolutely straight version by the Bar Kokhba Sextet. “Machie Solari”. Jamie Saft on keyboards is joined by Miho Hatori on vocals who sighs & raves her way through this creepy cue. “The Ballad of Hank McCain”. Mike Patton (singing idiomatically) backed by Jamie Saft & Cyro Baptista. At nearly five and a half minutes feels unbearably protracted. “Svegliatti e Uccidi”. The dream rhythm section of Dunn/Baron here back Derek Bailey & Marc Ribot’s rampant guitars on an exciting, hard-rocking track. “Chi Mai”. Bar Kokhba Sextet again give a straight reading, this time of one of Morricone's most famous theme tunes. “The Ballad of Hank McCain (Instrumental)”. I had enough of Hank first time around thanks. Although this album had a big impact on me when I first heard it on release it was only when I came back to it decades later that I started to appreciate and (dare one say it?) like it. In some respects this is the quintessential John Zorn album ... or at least it's the one that defined him in the critical imagination as an irreverent, uncontrollable enfant terrible capable of both enthralling & antagonising. Yet while many people think that The Big Gundown is what a John Zorn album sounds like, it's really unlike pretty much everything else in the catalogue. If you've made it this far into this thread you probably already own this album and think it's a stone cold classic. The bonus tracks on the 15th Anniversary Edition (some of them good, appropriate additions) bring the original running time of 50 minutes up to 75 and confirm this album as a definite must-own. I toyed with giving this 10/10 because it really stands up but I can't start basing my personal rating on inventiveness & novelty.
Taborn/McBride/Sorey: Flaga - Book of Angels Volume 27 Genre: Acoustic Jazz Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2016 Category: Mostly Accessible My Rating: 9/10 Personnel Craig Taborn, Piano Christian McBride, Double Bass Tyshawn Sorey, Drums “Machnia”. Upbeat, confident number in the mainstream of Jazz Piano trio music. The head is heard repeatedly and the emphasis on the three instrumentalists well balanced; Taborn leads but does not dominate and about six minutes in he lets bass & drums shine. “Peliel”. Harmonically sophisticated ballad opening on solo piano with a Bill Evans feel. The head is distinctive, melodic and brings in the bass and drums. Just short of the three minute mark a bass solo. “Katzfiel”. Ostinato start into a syncopated head on a busier, more abrasive piece. Moderately aggressive playing. “Talmai (Take 1)”. Fast waltz with lively, exuberant piano lines. McBride continues playing the riff along with lead through his exciting solo spot. Sorey plays hotter. “Shoftiel”. Static, freely improvised start. A tempo at about the four minute mark when the head is heard; playing is free & probing.The music seems to break down well into the seventh minute then regathers itself, the head is heard again and the energy is allowed to subside through an outro. “Agbas”. Tricky head (some bars are 9/8 but I can't count it out in full without more work) leads to a rhythmically interesting and very focused track. Another nice McBride solo. “Rogziel”. Game-style piece with plenty of chaos. “Harbonah”. After the somewhat declamatory head, McBride plays arco with an ethnic, microtonal feel. “Talmai (Take 2)”. Still a fast waltz but now a drum feature on which Sorey really runs wild as if daring the others to keep up with him. The naming conventions for the Book of Angels broke down before the end, so Flaga is here the name of the trio rather than a specific album title, and what a great trio they prove to be. Sorey, of course, has recently become one of Zorn's favourite drummers who seems to be picked for some of the more technically demanding projects. Here he shows himself to be spiky & virtuosic: an equal partner in a very convincing trio album that I'd count among the best Jazz albums I've heard this century. Taborn is completely idiomatic and, unlike Brian Marsella (whose BoA volume we will come to), always speaks in his own voice without stylistic ventriloquism. The result is an album that participates in Zorn's soundworld while keeping a foot firmly in the Jazz mainstream. This would be a firm recommendation to anyone coming at Zorn from the Jazz world.
A favorite of mine also, it introduced me to the melodic Hard Bop World of Sonny Clark, Hank Mobley, Freddie Redd, Kenny Dorham et al.
When this was performed live at the old Knitting Factory it was done with the air conditioning off and in the dark and started with the sound of trains...terrifying.
I've never been to the Knitting Factory but if it's anything like the NY JZ venues I have been to, just turning off the lights would make things pretty upsetting. (I don't think that the Stone ever had aircon!) Still, I envy your having seen Kristallnacht ... I imagine that seeing it live really raises the impact of that album.
Good one, @Sordel ! This one is already in my collection; bought it while browsing at a local store's Zorn section and seeing Christian McBride's name on it - instant purchase for me as McBride is one of the greatest bass players alive. Sadly, IIRC he doesn't get much of a chance to shine and this is mostly a Taborn and Sorey vehicle. That said, it is pretty slamming and definitely deserves more listening.
I think that McBride gets more exposure on the Flaga disc than Greg Cohen or Trevor Dunn usually get on Zorn albums. That said I’d be happy to hear more of him on Tzadik ... but he seems to have an exclusive contract with another label.
John Zorn & Thurston Moore: @ Genre: Avant Garde/Free Improvisation Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2013 Category: Weird, Scares The Horses My Rating: 4/10 Personnel John Zorn, Alto Sax Thurston Moore, Guitars “6th Floor Walk-Up, Waiting”. Moore provides a wall of distortion against which Zorn plays his customary sax lines, without undue shrieking. In the eighth minute Moore falls silent against Zorn's valve beats and then produces low hum which Zorn employs as a drone accompanied by “metal percussion” sounds in the guitar. At the ending of the piece glitchy cut-out noise. “Jazz Laundromat”. Moore produces “gong” sounds and undulating interference patterns with which Zorn plays sympathetic lines which become noisier. “Dawn Escape”. Zorn begins in a mode reminiscent of The Classic Guide To Strategy. Moore introduces sounds with the feel of chains, then settles on a droning note that returns to distortion & chaos with sax wailing. Unexpected peace, blowing noises with bell-like jangling in the guitar. Actual notes in the guitar half way through, then held chords behind Zorn's circular breathing. Crunchy guitar distortion and some full-blooded screaming in the sax. Ringing in the guitar, wailing in the sax. Low, melancholy melodic lines from Zorn. “Her Sheets”. Almost ambient with creamy, calm sax and scraped string noise. “Soiled, Luscious”. Again, begins calm. Some quirky, pitch-modulated effects (maybe whammy bar) on guitar. Brief Jazzy lines and fluttering sounds from Zorn. “Strange Neighbour”. “Dragged slab” sounds in the guitar are amongst the new effects on another measured opening. Zorn provides a patient drone for Moore’s percussive sounds. Zorn's drone rises to an undulation, then a trilling that rises in volume & tension before he comes out with clear, Jazzy lines. Moore's ringing rises in volume and becomes glitchy noise. “For Derek and Evan”. A “dripping water” feel in the guitar. The saxophone “cries”. The guitar soundfield increases in scale & volume towards the end. Clearly Zorn's free improvisations & avant garde works are grouping at the lower end of my rating scale but I prefer Thurston Moore's guitar techniques to Fred Frith's, and that pushes this disc higher for me. In describing them I found myself reaching for analogies that may make little sense to another listener. I also feel that there's a fuller range of Zorn's instrumental vocabulary on display, and it's better recorded. As so often, the programming leads with the noisiest and most off-putting material but there are passages here that will reward a patient & open-minded listener. By & large, though, best avoided by a novice.
Pat Metheny: Tap - Book of Angels Volume 20 Genre: Masada Label & Year of Release: Tzadik/Nonsuch, 2013 Category: Accessible My Rating: 9/10 Personnel Pat Metheny, Guitars, Bass, Keyboards, Orchestrionic Marimba, Orchestra Bells, Bandoneon, Electronics, Flugelhorn Antonia Sanchez, Drums “Mastema,” Upbeat with plenty of drums. “Albim”. Mainly acoustic guitars with Double Bass & Drums on this laid-back track with a rather “Californian” feel. Subtle bandoneon enters about four minutes in, bluesy electric guitar solo. There's an interesting climax with keyboards and Orchestrion (which is Metheny's way of triggering acoustic instruments from guitar). “Tharsis”. Begins with the complex head treated in a wildly contrapuntal (almost neo-Classical) way before turning into the sort of piece that we might associate with Metheny's MIDI guitar, with the lead taken by a trumpety synth voice over a complex backing. “Sariel”. I think that this track features tiples at the start, which are South American relatives of the ukulele and, so I learn, the national instrument of Colombia. The instrument provides multiple (ho ho!) tracks and then Metheny solos over the top with what sound to be at least two tracks of electric guitar. Just past the five minute mark we have a passage of acoustic guitar sounds before resuming the track as if nothing has happened. The track breaks down again around the nine minute mark and ends with what sounds like two minutes of scrambled samples and noise: a fittingly Zornesque coda. “Phanuel”. This is my favourite track on the album: a mysterious piece that opens with meditative acoustic guitar, reverb and a soundscape of processed sound. Bandoneon (considerably amplified) blends with other sounds including vocal samples. The head is only heard for the first time four minutes in and it's really rather lovely. An extended solo on acoustic guitar follows, joined by subtle percussion that adds some sense of motion. Around the eight minutes mark we get the head once again. Towards the end alien sounds, including some resembling bowed instruments, enter to close things. “Hurmiz”. Game-style piece with a mechanical, Orchestrion feel. Ends with a child's voice yelling “Dad!”. No question Metheny is a good interpreter of Zorn, understanding the innate zaniness of his approach to music and emulating them, especially on “Hurmiz”. That said, this album is multi-tracked which always creates problems in terms of spontaneity, and Metheny is arguably too good at making this sound like a Pat Metheny album. Also, I'm not sure that (“Phanuel” excepted) he is well served by the heads, which (as too frequently during the second book) feel at times rather anonymous. Nevertheless, despite all those minor niggles, Tap is a complex & wide-ranging experience that cannot fail to score highly with most listeners.
