John Zorn: Hen To Pan Genre: Chamber Music Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2015 Category: Scares The Horses My Rating: 4/10 Ouroboros (Trio Version 1) Jay Campbell, Cello Michael Nicolas, Cello Tyshawn Sorey, DrumsThe work is notated for cello with or without an improvising drummer. I imagine that it would be interesting to see performed live but it's pretty unlikable on disc. Occam's Razor: Canons, Interludes and Fantasies for Cello and Piano Jay Campbell, Cello Stephen Gosling, PianoThe principle at work here is “economy” although this is not a minimal work in the least. Ideas, as so often with Zorn, come thick & fast ... so much so that you could extract passage after passage from this piece and find something interesting in every one. Demands (& rewards) concentration from the listener. Ouroboros (Duo Version) Jay Campbell, Cello Michael Nicolas, CelloStripped of the drums this piece is less gruelling although its internal logic (explosions of fairly unpleasant atonal sound interleaved with more lyrical sections) means that it is a piece that never allows the listener to relax. The Aristos: Ten Metaphysical Ambiguities for Violin, Cello and Piano Chris Otto, Violin Jay Campbell, Cello Stephen Gosling, PianoAt thirteen minutes this is the only work here above ten minutes and also the most “persuasive”, profiting from the timbral contrasts between the three instruments. The piano benefits from some extended techniques inside the case although overall the scoring for the trio could be described as conventional and often lyrical. There are, of course, passages of Zorn's customarily abrasive writing (all his techniques are brought to bear). This would be a good piece to play to a classical music fan sceptical that there was anything composed by Zorn that was worth their time. Ouroboros (Trio Version 2) Jay Campbell, Cello Michael Nicolas, Cello Tyshawn Sorey, DrumsI'm sure that a talented drummer could spend many hours comparing the two versions of this piece presented with drums on this disc and I don't doubt that Sorey's performance is phenomenal. I'll stick to the duo version. If you're wondering, hen to pān is the transliteration a Greek phrase meaning “the all is one” that was inscribed inside an ouroboros in The Chrisopoeia of Cleopatra, a Medieval alchemical text. So now you know. I was dreading listening to this disc because I didn't like it at all when I first heard it; then I found that I had to go back and listen through a second time in order to complete my notes. Ouroboros is a real ask, and three versions of it means that nearly half the disc is very hard slogging; it's a work that you don't just hear or listen to ... you'd need to study it to get much out of it. The remaining works are both good (assuming that you like this composer's chamber music at all) but with several better discs in the catalogue this is one that you can safely save until deep into your career as a listener. As so often, my rating feels very harsh for music so well performed and so abundant in creativity but if that were the only qualification I'd be giving everything 10/10. I'd be surprised if I ended up rating any of the chamber music discs lower.
John Zorn: Cobra Genre: Game Piece Label & Year of Release: Recorded 1985, 1986, 2nd Edition Hat Hut, 2002 Category: Weird/Quirky My Rating: 7/10 Studio Version (1986) Jim Staley, Trombone Carol Emanuel, Harp Zeena Parkins, Harp Bill Frisell, Electric Guitar Elliott Sharp, Doubleneck Guitar/Bass/Soprano Guitar/Voice Arto Lindsay, Electric Guitar/Voice Anthony Coleman, Piano/Harpsichord/Celeste/Yamaha Organ Wayne Horvitz, Piano/Hammond Organ/Celeste/DX7 David Weinstein, Mirage Sampling Keyboards/Celeste Guy Klucevsek, Accordion Bob James, Tapes Christian Marclay, Turntables Bobby Previte, Percussion John Zorn, Prompter Live Version (1985) J. A. Deane, Trombone Synthesizer/Electronics Bill Frisell, Electric Guitar Elliott Sharp, Doubleneck Guitar/Bass/Voice Anthony Coleman, Piano/Pipe Organ/Yamaha Organ Wayne Horvitz, Piano/DX7 David Weinstein, Mirage Sampling Keyboards Guy Klucevsek, Accordion Bob James, Tapes Christian Marclay, Turntables Bobby Previte, Drum Machine John Zorn, Prompter Game pieces came a long way in the half decade or so that separates the recordings on The Parachute Years box set from the composition of Cobra; the latter can be considered the point at which the “rules” of the game were sufficiently evolved to produce something very like musical montage. Very broadly, the players decide individually the musical material and the prompter decides who plays at any given moment and how what they plays relates to other parts of the emerging piece. The game was first played in 1984 and while I don't know the performance history, the musicians seem comfortable with it by the point it was recorded here (though a false start in the studio version shows that it was not all plain sailing). The Hat Hut double album is the definitive recording of Cobra and the must-own version although we will come to other recordings eventually. The stellar ensemble on the studio recording ties this in with Zorn's other groundbreaking recordings of the mid-1980s. As a listener experience it is certainly Avant Garde but neither annoying nor intimidating. (I found it fairly easy to listen to both discs back-to-back.) Music just happens and the appearance of occasional musical found objects focuses the attention. There's absolutely no point in documenting the musical transitions: just let this wash over you. Perhaps surprisingly, the two discs have quite a different feel from one another with the earlier, live recording having a more hip, challenging, Downtown vibe (with its drum machine) and the studio recording having a more delicate instrumental surface (not least due to the presence of the harps). It may be that in some cases the musicians had learnt to play less between performances by the time they recorded the studio version. I'm not sure how widely available this recording is now but you can find it on YouTube. I'd suggest buying it if you see a copy because (while you may not listen to it very often) it remains one of the essential Zorn recordings and a key document in experimental music.
Various Artists: Voices In The Wilderness Genre: Masada Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2003 Category: Accessible My Rating: 7/10 “Karaim.” (Pharoah's Daughter) Rather pleasant band arrangement featuring Basya Schecter on vocals and including Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz on bass with violin & cello. “Kisofim.” (Ben Porowsky Trio) Perowsky on drums with Drew Cress on Double Bass & Uri Caine providing lean, ambiguous piano. Nice bass solo on this one. “Meholalot.” (Cracow Klezmer Band) In keeping with their Masada albums, this is rock solid Chamber Jazz with a soaring violin solo from Jaroloslaw Tyrala. “Lakom.” (Rova Saxophone Quartet) Rather cool to hear this gamey head played on four saxophones, with the quartet giving Zorn a run for his money in their exploration of the instruments. “Tekufah.” (Zony Mash) This quartet is led by Wayne Horvitz on Fender Rhodes, with Electric Guitar, Drums & Double Bass. This version of the head has a sort of David Grusin, soundtrack feel. “Paran.” (Naftule's Dream). A rather overcooked Klezmer performance with a drunken, cabaret feel. Glenn Dickson's clarinet is good but I find the track rather irritating nonetheless. Best skipped. “Khebar.” (Kramer) A short but fun track with multiple keyboards & a fairground feel. “Nevalah.” (Satlah) Daniel Zamir on Soprano sax with Drums & Double Bass. Effervescent blowing on a life-affirming piece of Jazz. The brief drum solo feels superfluous. “Abidan.” (Jewlia Eisenberg) Multi-tracked vocals with percussion ... quite “poppy” in feel and thus rather out of step with the other tracks. Note: Eisenberg died prematurely in March 2021. “Tirzah.” (Pachora) Chris Speed on clarinet with quite a weighty band. More of an “instrumental” than a Jazz performance per se. “Peliyot.” (Lemon Juice Quartet) Eyal Maoz & Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz (both later in Abraxas) team up with Trumpet & Drums to give us a detailed arrangement featuring chaos and a fair amount of equestrian intimidation. Solo spots include some nice trumpet from Avishai E. Cohen. “Shebuah.” (Steve Bernstein) Three clarinets & shaker plus Doug Wamble on guitar & wordless vocals. At over eight minutes this outstays its welcome but the woodwind playing is interesting. “Ziphim.” (Medeski, Martin & Wood) A lively extended workout. “Avodah.” (Rashanim) Jon Madof's trio do well with this rhythmically-slippery head. Mathias Künzli's drumming is especially satisfying and Blumenkranz takes a solo. “Rokhev.” (Davka) This is a great chamber quartet with Violin, Cello, Cajon and Paul Hanson on Bassoon. I wish that they had played more of Zorn's music. “Tannaim.” (Tin Hat Trio) Rob Burger, later a Zorn regular on piano, here plays Accordion in a trio with Carla Kihlstedt on Violin/Viola. Mark Orton, playing a range of instruments, rounds out the trio on what must have been a multi-tracked recording. “Acharei Mot.” (Peter Apfelbaum). This Jazz-Rock sextet, led by Apfelbaum's hard-blown Tenor Sax, has quite a big-band feel. “Malkut.” (Mephista) An interesting all-star trio comprising Ikue Mori on Laptop, Sylvie Courvoisier on Piano & Susie Ibarra on Drums. Certainly at the quirky end of the spectrum. “Kochot.” (Mike Patton) Rather than screaming Patton sings this sly head sweetly and then gives us several types of wackiness very much in sympathy with Zorn's early techniques. A rather charming miniature that punches above its weight. “Jair.” (Ben Goldberg Trio) Clarinettist Ben Goldberg's trio with Devin Hoff on Double Bass & Ches Smith on busy Drums. “Ne’eman.” (The Wollesens) Dave Binney on Alto Sax with two guitarists, Organ, Bass and, of course, Kenny Wollesen on Drums. An easygoing & affable but hardly probing run-through. “Tahah.” (Professionales) Anthony Coleman on Piano, Brad Jones on Double Bass & Roberto Rodriguez on Drums. A rhythmically exciting & dynamic reading. “Tiferet.” (Jenny Scheinman) Scheinman on Violin with Guitar, Bass Guitar & Drums. The slower pace of this track brings some welcome gravity and it goes comparatively quickly. “Kedem.” (Jamie & Vanessa Saft) Vanessa Saft's voice with generous reverb & delay floats over a dense & very “contemporary” arrangement that reminds me of Secret Chiefs 3. With over two hours of music and some very interesting configurations, Voices In The Wilderness is, like Bar Kokhba before it, an essential document of Masada Book 1 but it is generally lighter in feel and less specifically Klezmer in influence. The absence of such hard-hitters as Marc Ribot and the Masada String Trio is definitely felt but what the double-album loses in focus it makes up with variety. This isn't an album that I listen to (at all really) so it was refreshing to come back to it and find so many enjoyable arrangements ... and so many names that re-emerged in Zorn's later discography. It also serves as a decent sampler for Tzadik in general, something that was probably in Zorn's mind as he invited groups to participate. For all its strengths, though, it's not a set that I'd generally want to listen to even on a disc-by-disc basis; it has been made redundant by the later band-per-album format. As a way “into” Masada I think it still has a lot of value.
1973 - 3 First Recordings 1980 - 1 Pool / 2 Hockey 1985 - 5 The Art of Memory II 1986 - 5 The Bribe / 8 The Big Gundown / 7 Cobra 1987 - 5 News For Lulu 1988 - 6 Spy vs Spy 1989 - 4 Naked City 1990 - 6 New Traditions in Asian Bar Bands 1992 - 2 Guts of a Virgin/Buried Secrets / 8 Leng T’che 1993 - 8 Radio 1993 - 7 Kristallnacht 1994 - 8 Alef (Masada 1) Beit (Masada 2) Gimel (Masada 3) / 10 Live in Jerusalem 1994 - 6 Dalet (Masada 4) 1995 - 4 Filmworks 3 / 4 Minor Swing 1996 - 9 Voodoo 1996 - 9 Bar Kokhba 1997 - 3 The Art of Memory 1999 - 8 Taboo and Exile 2002 - 2 IAO Music in Sacred Light 2003 - 6 Buck Jam Tonic / 10 Masada Guitars / 7 Voices in the Wilderness 2005 - 8 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass / 6 Masada Rock 2006 - 4 Orobas BoA 4 2008 - 8 The Rain Horse / 5 The Dreamers / 8 The Crucible 2010 - 7 Ipsissimus / 5 The Satyr's Play 2011 - 4 Enigmata 2012 - 4 The Classic Guide To Strategy 4 / 8 The Concealed / 10 Mount Analogue / 6 Nosferatu / 7 Abraxas BoA 19 2013 - 10 Dreamachines 2013 - 6 On The Torment Of Souls / 9 Tap BoA 20 / 4 @ / 6 Lemma / 8 The Book of Heads 2014 - 8 Shir Hashirim / 5 Valentine's Day / 6 The Dream Membrane / 10 Adramalech BoA 22 2014 - 5 Fragmentations Prayers & Interjections 2015 - 4 The Hermetic Organ 3 / 6 Simulacrum / 4 Hen to Pan 2016 - 8 Sacred Visions / 9 Flaga BoA 27 / 6 Commedia Dell’Arte 2017 - 6 There Is No More Firmament / 5 Paimon BoA 32 / 10 Leonard BoA 30 2018 - 6 Insurrection / 4 Netzach BB7 / 9 Da’at BB11 2019 - 8 The Hierophant
Pretty much agree, though I'd go a full 10/10. If only for the variety. His exciting early punk-jazz-metal angry-young-man aesthetic notwithstanding, what I've enjoyed most about Zorn is his own realization that there's so much for him to do as composer that it's ultimately OK for him to let other world-class musicians interpret his work. The results have spoken for themselves over decades now. Even if all of this has nuked my wallet irreparably.
Dither: John Zorn's Olympiad Volume 1 Genre: Game Piece Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2015 Category: Weird/Quirky My Rating 9/10 Personnel Taylor Levine, Electric & Acoustic Guitars Joshua Lopes, Electric & Acoustic Guitars/Bajo Sexto/Zhongruan James Moore, Electric & Acoustic Guitars/Banjo/Mandolin Gyan Riley, Electric & Acoustic Guitars/Banjo “Curling - Electric Short.” Comparatively noisy, varied piece with a lot of guitar effects used. Sounds like seven short pieces. “Hockey - Acoustic Dry.” (Levine/Lopes/Moore) Although we get no game calls here it is audibly very close to the original work as it appears on the Hockey album, with the same sense of some sort of broken clockwork toy. “Fencing - Electric.” (Levine/Lopes/Moore) This piece has the chaotic feel that I generally describe as “gamey” when writing about Zorn's other music. Critical here is the speed of the musicians’ responses to one another, either directly responding via musical gestures or via musical found objects. This is an exhilarating piece for the audience to follow and it translates well to audio-only recording. A highlight. “Curling - Acoustic.” Perhaps due to the presence of Zhongruan (Chinese lute) this piece has a distinctly Oriental feel. Ritualistic & quiet it is musically rather opaque which itself makes interesting connections with the other performances here of the same process. “Hockey - Electric Wet.” (Levine/Lopes/Riley) Due to the high number of effects pedals used this is quite unlike the original Hockey, sounding if anything more like some sort of post-Rock. I like this one a lot. “Fencing - Acoustic.” (Levine/Lopes/Moore) Again, due to the musical found objects, this is very accessible: indeed, you could say that recognisable “tunes” become a crutch for the audience and perhaps even for the performers. Nevertheless on a long album of experimental music a crutch is not always a bad thing. “Hockey - Electric Dry.” (Levine/Moore/Riley) Using electric hum, feedback and a range of extended techniques this piece sounds like a different sort of busted device: a spring-driven time machine perhaps? “Curling - Electric Long.” At over nineteen minutes this is the longest track on a long disc. This piece is divided into sections separated by silences in this piece but it is, overall, an ambient piece, rather still in feel. Although mysterious, this piece should be largely accessible to a mainstream listener. Okay, this is the essential disc of game pieces. With three versions of Hockey, three of Curling and two of Fencing you are getting an excellent overview of how these games sound in the context of the guitar and in the hands of a more or less consistent group of musicians. Importantly, it all sounds like music, and the disc, at 78 minutes, is generous.
Previte/Zorn: Euclid's Nightmare Genre: Free Improvisation Label & Date of Release: Depth of Field, 1997 Category: Accessible/Scares The Horses My Rating: 5/10 Personnel John Zorn: Alto Sax Bobby Previte: Drums No track notes this time as they would take nearly as long to read as the tracks would take to listen to! The liner notes on the back of this CD tell us that these improvisations were intended to last a minute each. The result is an album of 27 tracks lasting between one minute exactly and four minutes for the final track (of which only half is actual music): where the tracks are longer than a minute there is often a clear point at which they change (or evolve) from one thing to another though occasionally the rule seems to be broken. The extended silences in some of the later tracks make me wonder whether the session is more or less unedited. Tracks 14 & 27 seem to have the same musical material with the latter just including an extra minute of silence and some studio chatter. This is a disc I've owned for a while but I don't think I've ever listened to it, shuddering in anticipation at what I assumed would be another long session toiling unprofitably in the salt mine of Zorn's outer extremes. To my surprise, however, Previte's drums are far from abrasive and the necessity for frequent changes of approach means that Zorn relies on ingenuity rather than resorting to the screams. Some of his playing is straightforward Jazz; in one case (track 9) he blows raspberries for a minute. Track 12 is marked by a descending F major scale. Zorn's usual alto vocabulary is, of course, in evidence but each technique comes in a manageable portion. Previte is at times (e.g. Track 24) very impressive indeed. As an experiment the one minute rule is a roaring success, resulting in a varied set that attracts the listener’s ear with frequent novelty. This is another non-Tzadik disc well worth picking up at some point.
John Zorn: The Turner Études Genre: Solo piano Label & Year of Release: 2020 Category: Accessible My Rating: 7/10 A mysterious rising figure is heard repeatedly with dissonant ornamentation and some accelerando. Rallentando at the emphatic end. Disconnected phrases with a cartoon feel. Abrupt changes of style from about the one minute mark. Ends with the sustain pedal held down, sustaining diabolical low notes. A nursery ostinato with birdsong. Good. A consonant piece with an Alhambra feel. Jarring (or, for some, a relief) after the more sophisticated harmonic language of the opening pieces. Held semibreve chords with Jazz tonalities with a spread chord to resolve at the end. An interesting “study”. Angular with extremes of dynamics and little sprays of notes. Tremolando with some ornamentation. Extended arpeggios in the left hand ornamented with dissonance. A rake across the strings followed by seemingly random notes high on the keyboard. Seven notes at a time are sustained as a spread chord. As with track 5 this a study in pure harmony. Agitated playing in the right hand underpinned by fortissimo chords in the left. Impressionistic with a Ravel feel. Atonal birdsong. High, serene arpeggios. A Jazz progression bring resolution. Cartoon music with some very loud dynamics in places and variety. Virtuosic with some counterpoint. Again impressionistic. Fast-flowing with shifting measures and a virtuosic surface. A crowd-pleaser. Study in accelerando with intervals repeating the same theme. Briefly staccato, then ritardando to end. A rather free piece with an appealingly brittle main theme. Slow, calm, contemplative. Cartoon music with the feel of a machine slowly springing into action. Mechanistic middle section alternating with flourishes. Ends with a peal of notes high on the keyboard. The full title for The Turner Études is “18 Studies from the Later Sketchbooks of J. M. W. Turner (1841-1845): Images and Impressions for Piano”: a long title for a rather substantial, significant work. In the liner notes Zorn invites the listener to take a more active role in inventing narratives for the pieces but personally I don't hear them like that except in the rather narrow sense that any music may evoke water or landscape. This is an impressive series that you could easily listen to besides other major series of short piano works. Some (such as the fifth) are technical studies but at their best they have almost the quality of encore pieces both through their concise length and the virtuosity required to pull them off. This disc is fairly easy to listen to and rewards close attention.
Moonchild: Astronome Genre: Avant Metal Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2006 Category: Scares The Horses My Rating: 5/10 Personnel Mike Patton, Voice Trevor Dunn, Bass Guitar Joey Baron, Drums “Act One.” Scene 1 gives us fury for about five minutes as a coven dances around a bonfire. Scene 2 (“A single bed in a small room”) is quieter but Dunn cuts loose on heavily distorted bass. As we enter Scene 3 and the summoning of demons Baron is thunderous as Patton returns with plenty of screaming and glossolalia over an urgent bass riff. A satanic baptism is depicted by Patton's low murmuring over static textures followed by more fury with “the visitation of the Lord of Light”. “Act Two.” Dunn gives us some unusually (for him) experimental bass sounds in the early part of this act, while Patton audibly gorges on forbidden meats. Things get wilder and we get some almost jazzy lines from Dunn. Scene two begins audibly with harder rocking from the drums, then tribal drumming represents the raising of the dead. Dunn uses a scraping effect. “A sacred ceremony” gives us something like relief from the oppressive atmosphere with Patton providing bird calls. “Act Three.” Begins full of energy with Baron once again providing heavy drumming for “The Battle of the Wizards”. Some reverse delay. Patton's death cry leads to more furious Metal. At the start of Scene 2 (“An Unnamed Location”) Patton sings languorously in his high register. Then more Metal, squealing & gibbering. Patton unaccompanied gives an impressive cadenza, then a climax of incredible anger & commitment from all three. Zorn composed Astronome as an opera for the Avant Garde stage director, Richard Foreman. Although the opera had not been written or performed by the time that the disc was released in 2006 there is a DVD on Tzadik (released in 2010) of the stage production - ASTRONOME: A Night at the Opera (a disturbing initiation) - as filmed by long-time Zorn collaborator Henry Hills. There is thus the question of whether we listen to the album in isolation or as a finished artwork. For these purposes I watched the film before listening to the album. If the theatrical Astronome was a parody of the most pretentious, opaque, up-itself brand of experimental drama I'd likely laugh & applaud it. Action on stage is highly symbolic; the characters wear bizarre costumes, often including hats & veils; there is a sense of largely lurid activity being represented in tangential tableaux; a grandfather clock is moved around; a giant cruet set makes an appearance. The opera is highly worked with abundant semiosis. If you check your preconceptions at the door it has a certain power. Coming to the album I think you have to think about it as music for that style of visuals: in other words, forget about it as that familiar sort of bizarre that we get with Moonchild and think about it as being bizarre like Foreman. We do sometimes forget that however inaccessible Zorn's music may at times become, he has a background in New York's broader Avant Garde and we shouldn't really “normalise” it by losing touch with that. Even in the Moonchild discography Astronome is a challenging album, with Patton's vocalisations prominent and Dunn employing more in the way of extended technique. Those coming from Ipsissimus or The Crucible may feel as I do that the music here is more ... repulsive. This isn't a disc that I generally spin, but clearly it meant enough to Zorn himself for it to come in a smart white box with two booklets of notes & images. Overall, difficult to recommend.
John Zorn: Interzone Genre: File Card Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2010 Category: Accessible/Weird/Quirky/Scares The Horses My Rating: 7/10 Personnel Marc Ribot, Guitars/Banjo/Sintir/Cümbüs John Medeski, Keyboards Trevor Dunn, Basses Kenny Wollesen, Drums/Vibes/Chimes/Tympani/Wollesonics/Percussion Cyro Baptista, Percussion Ikue Mori, Electronics John Zorn, Saxophone Sine wave with guitar atmospherics, dissonance: I'm calling this the recurring “Interzone theme”. Tribal chanting, percussion into fuzz bass riff with organ arabesques, Ribot cuts loose. Mori chaos into more static chaos with drums, bass and guitar. Gnostic-style section with ethereal vibes and organ. Doom-laden section with electronics, wood-flute loop and a return of the Interzone theme. Angular piano into spooky atmospherics with tingsha. Jazz nightclub pastiche with Zorn on Alto and Dunn on Double Bass. Nova-style acoustic section to end. Atmospheric section with very low sounds juxtaposed with high whistling plus Mori electronics. Abrasive Metallic section with distorted atonal guitar lines. Folkstyle organ lines into handbells and a return of the opening sounds into anarchy. Tribal drumming with distorted Fender Rhodes, kit drums, Ribot solos over this extended groove, then Mori prominent. Just short of the twelfth minute a quirky section, then dark atmospherics. An Alhambra-like section with piano, vibes and shifting measures. Marching feet, rumbling, Nova-like vibe atmospherics into weird sound effects with percussion. More Nova-like Acoustic Jazz with racing ride cymbal into Double Bass solo and finish. Abrasive sound effects with alarm sound and Jew's harp. Three tingsha strikes into organ and a relaxed, Middle Eastern section with vibes, tubular bells & conga. Bass drum heartbeats, Interzone theme into Honky-tonk piano and sounds of small crowd, into sintir & percussive Moroccan(?) groove. Ends with random “computer” noise. Benighted atmospherics with gongs. Brief piano, bongos(?), electronic chaos, sine wave & angular piano alternate, Interzone theme. Subterranean noise. Organ ostinato introduces another Gnostic section. Chaos into bass riff and upbeat Dreamers funk with Ribot solo. This riff transforms into a Masada-esque head to end. Interzone is a book of short stories by William Burroughs that, like this album, is divided into three parts. It takes its title from the “International Zone” in Tangiers. For what it's worth, part one has eight stories, part two has nine and part three is a single novella. It's tempting to see each part of the album as directly corresponding to the book but I don't know for a fact so it's up to you. This was quite a difficult album to write notes for ... I had to listen through twice. In some respects this is a really important album with an all-star cast and referencing many of Zorn's later stylistic reference points. Some of the “groovier” sections are allowed to stretch out and there will certainly be passages here with broad appeal. Furthermore, the Burroughs association gives a sort of rigour to the occasional weirdness that marks the entire album as distinctly a separate thing. On the other hand when it's good Interzone does remind me of other Zorn albums that I could be listening to instead. Overall, recommended.
Feldman/Courvoisier: Malphas - Book of Angels volume 3 Genre: Chamber Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2006 Category: Accessible My Rating: 6/10 Personnel Mark Feldman, Violin Sylvie Courvoisier, Piano “Azriel.” Feldman plays in a variety of styles including Baroque over the piano that either supports or plays the head. “Basus.” Game-style head with extended free improvisation. Klezmer section for Feldman. Then back to the head. “Rigal.” Relaxed, flowing lyricism with quite a “composed” feel. A highlight. “Kafziel.” Long, cartoon-style head. Agitated then somewhat Game-style towards the recapitulation of the head. “Labariel.” Serious, rather unsettled in feel with an incongruous quotation from Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Piano takes the lead. Czardas violin. “Zether.” Strong attack leads to anarchic, game-style counterpoint. “Paschar.” Effects from both violin & piano on an atmospheric track with exciting timbres. “Boel.” Declamatory, uneasy with more of Feldman's Klezmer flourishes. Extended passage for piano alone. “Sammael.” Another game-style piece with free improvisation and the short head heard several times. After an early head repeat the violin & piano trade licks on a crazed game of follow-the-leader. Things get noisy later on. “Padiel.” Tragic, slow opening with double-stopping. Feldman solos at the top of the violin range. Courvoisier plays Impressionistic lines. “Vretil.” Another cartoon-style piece, quite noisy with another famous classical quotation (that I don't know by name). Although Feldman is best know to Zorn fans for Masada String Trio & Bar Kokhba Sextet (both ensembles that can often be genial or relaxed) this duo with his wife, Courvoisier, has a more consistently serious feel. Without Zorn writing the violin lines this is for the most part not abrasive although it is rarely relaxed either. The relatively large amount of game-style content makes this a good, albeit cerebral, listen.
Stephen Gosling Trio: In The Hall Of Mirrors Genre: Acoustic Jazz Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2014 Category: Accessible My Rating: 7/10 Personnel Stephen Gosling, Piano Greg Cohen, Double Bass Tyshawn Sorey, Drums “Epode.” Quite a simple, consonant piece with shifting metres. Drums & bass offer only discrete underpinning. Pleasant. “Maldoror.” Although the chordal work here is quite “Jazzy” the angular lines are astringent. In the fourth minute a dark ostinato emerges for a while before more Impressionistic lines. Late in the fifth minute there are hints of a more consonant music but these evaporate and the drums suddenly become more energetic as the piano picks up pace for a while. The piece meanders for a while with gestures & phrases largely disconnected from one another. “Tender Buttons.” Busy Jazz start, recognisably a part of “the tradition”, although piano & drums do seem to diverge as the piece goes on. Cohen, whose bass has been quite free so far, locks in with the piano for a while with repeated riffs. Then, suddenly, a sweet waltz appears from nowhere for a while. Upbeat Jazz returns. “In Lovely Blueness.” Cohen comes into greater prominence at the start of this liquid Jazz ballad. Three minutes in we get arpeggios in the pianist's left hand that are briefly in canon with the right hand. Into the ninth minute the piece becomes unexpectedly more noisy and we hear bowed bass and drums on their own before Gosling plays a melody that provides a destination for the piece. “Illuminations.” Harmonically probably closer to the concert music field this piece holds out less promise of Jazz, becoming downright noisy in the sixth minute. (Not that Jazz can't be noisy of course!) In the ninth minute we get some less abstract musical phrases but this just sets up another explosion of noise as Sorey takes command on the drum kit. After that there is a brief Bass spot and then the music becomes faster as it heads towards the end. “Nightwood.” Hushed, atmospheric with some extended techniques. Jazz chords appear around the two minute mark. It is worthy of comment that a composer whose career started writing pieces for improvisers that contained no musical material at all has ended up writing incredibly detailed scores both in the concert music sphere and also, as here, in the broader “Jazz” style. In The Hall Of Mirrors is “the album for Jazz fans who want to experience Zorn's atonal style but can't face his concert music”. Already in this thread I've been through a number of albums featuring his concert music and some are pretty hard going. Other than the first track this album is also often somewhat challenging but that's hardly unusual for the Jazz world. Overall a good solid album well worth hearing.
Zorn/Horvitz/Sharp/Previte: Downtown Lullaby Genre: Free Improvisation Label & Year of Release: Depth of Field, 1998 Category: Quirky My Rating: 4/10 Personnel John Zorn, Alto Sax Wayne Horvitz, Keyboards, Hammond Organ, Piano Elliot Sharp, Electric Guitars Bobby Previte, Drums “4B4 Broome.” Zorn unmusical in his high register, like a squealing tyre. A confluence of noise towards the end but otherwise everyone plays with some restraint. “500 West 52nd.” Walking bass Jazz feel, Zorn's lines in keeping with that. Funky keyboard(?) solo with an unusual filter effect. Sax becomes more agitated, followed by drums. Held organ chords are added as Previte steps up to cymbal splashes, dissonant climax. “Eighth Between B & C.” Middle-Eastern sax cries. Smokey, minimal feel with no one doing too much. Film cue feel. “77 White.” Somewhat upbeat with Zorn blowing a repeated riff with quirky, celebratory sounds from Horvitz & Sharp. “22B West Broadway.” After a brief Masada-esque line Zorn blows quietly over muted piano while guitar produces a muezzin cry. Drums rise in intensity. Piano enters with bell-like Jazz lines. Another coalescence of sound, building further in volume but still in check. An abrupt collapse in energy leaves Zorn playing random Jazz lines to himself with sporadic addition from the others to end. “Bleecker & Bowery.” Martial side drum. Glitchy guitar sounds, held sax notes, organ. Previte tries to whip up a backbeat but the others won't play ball. Zorn gets more strident. Guitar with delay. This track goes nowhere. “1 Morton Street (Downtown Lullaby).” Squalling post-Bop sax with noisy drums & organ chords; Free Jazz feel. An ungodly racket is made for the first time on this album. Then things get quiet as the quartet “breathes” together calmly for several minutes to end. According to Wikipedia the track titles here all refer to performance spaces in NYC. That may suggest that the album is an affectionate tribute to the city but, if that's the intention (and notwithstanding the relaxed ending) it doesn't come across. This a surprisingly “blank” album where Previte & Zorn work fairly consistently but there is little sense of a quartet working together or musicians collaborating towards any particular end. It's neither accessible nor weird nor does it scare the horses (except briefly), so I've gone for “Quirky” by default but really it's music to shrug your shoulders to. Not a tough listen but not a particularly enticing one. Entirely superfluous.
Masada: Hei Genre: Acoustic Jazz Label & Year of Release: DIW, 1996 Category: Accessible/Scares The Horses My Rating: 7/10 Personnel John Zorn, Alto Sax Dave Douglas, Trumpet Greg Cohen, Double Bass Joey Baron, Drums “Paran.” Low-key mid-tempo head leads to a track which sees Douglas & Cohen take the spotlight. Odd, enervated ending phrase seems detached from the main piece. “Halishah.” Up-tempo “Jewish” number sees Baron full of life from the start, with exciting dynamics. Douglas seems about to take a solo but Zorn muscles into it with counterpointing lines that show off how well the two have learned to work together from live performances. Things get pretty “out”. “Yoreh.” All instruments seem to have a lot of space on what appears to be a very slow game-piece. Unusual for this quartet although the head means that it remains recognisable. “Beeroth.” Up-tempo “Jewish” party head sets up a drum feature that would become a popular live vehicle. D&Z play with gusto in support and the piece is more fully arranged than the earlier drum features. “Hobah.” Clamorous opening fanfare from D&Z over a static accompaniment. Zorn plays with some savagery here and the counterpoint with Douglas is harsh & anarchic. Cohen struggles to make an impact on his spot, with Baron's restless drumming nipping at his heels. Zorn takes a violent solo in the eighth minute. At over eleven minutes this track becomes the album's abrasive centrepiece. “Neshamah.” Stiff, slow head goes quickly into Douglas's Bluesy solo. Zorn's spot is creamy, restrained. Cohen's solo is given respectful space. D&Z play economically to the end. “Lakum.” Game-style head leads to a typically boisterous three minutes. “Makedah.” An almost listless start means that we don't really get into a solo until Zorn's unusual spot beginning in the third minute: he starts off almost with a mournful restraint and is then whipped up by Cohen into what sounds almost like pastiche Jazz. Douglas's solo repeats this with the same trigger from Cohen. Later, Cohen will do the same thing and get no real response from the winds who seem almost to be falling asleep. Structurally interesting but hardly a toe-tapper. “Hafla’ah.” “Jazzy” piece with a more mainstream feel and idiomatic playing from Z&D that is undercut by playful stop-start episodes. This is actually a pretty funny piece with some extraordinary playing from the high-spirited front line: one to check out whether or not the entire disc attracts you. The fifth & sixth Masada studio albums were recorded at sessions on the 16th & 17th July 1995, fifteen months after the session that yielded the first four. If those early albums established the formula, you can sense Zorn's impatience here and his determination to stretch his quartet. Several of the tracks are, in different ways, testing for the listener and I'd go so far as to say that “Hobah” is extreme enough to disqualify the disc as your evening Jazz go-to. My rating of 7/10 feels a bit generous this time because while the playing is still superb there is comparatively little hand-holding for the audience here and the often slow tempi can feel stuck in the mud.
John Zorn: Music For Children - Music Romance volume 1 Genre: Mixed Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2nd Edition 2009 Category: Accessible/Weird/Scares The Horses My Rating: 5/10 “Fils des Étoiles.” Anthony Coleman on Celesta with Cyro Baptista on percussion & vocals. A charming and thus a misleading start. “This Way Out.” Hardcore miniature performed by Prelapse. “Music For Children.” David Abel on Violin, Julie Steinberg on Piano, William Winant on Percussion (including Vibraphone). In some respects a straightforward, Impressionistic piece of concert music, this has surprising sections involving something being hit with a crop and something seemingly being torn apart. (A different recording of this piece also appears on the Cartoon/S&M album.) “Bikini Atoll.” Hardcore miniature performed by Prelapse. “Bone Crusher.” Hardcore miniature performed by Prelapse with Zorn guesting on Alto. “Dreamer of Dreams.” Marc Ribot on Electric Guitar with Greg Cohen on Double Bass & Eric Friedlander on Cello. I guess the Dreamers were named after this ... it certainly has their exotica feel. “Cycles Du Nord.” Zorn on three wind machines, two acoustic feedback systems & bass drums. William Winant on bass drums. Lou Reed on guitar feedback (on the revised version only). At over 21 minutes, this high concept track is probably reason enough to love or hate John Zorn. With the drums and wind sound you'd be tempted to call this a depiction of a storm but it's also an investigation of noise and pitch. I don't have the original (only the version with Lou Reed) and I'm sorry about that because when the guitar comes in at about the fifteen minute mark it shatters the atmosphere. “Sooki's Lullaby.” Anthony Coleman on “Celeste Music Box”. A pretty little miniature. The band Prelapse is made up of Alex Lacamoire on Keyboards, Mason Wendell on Bass/Vocals, Dane Johnstone on Guitar, Andy Sanesi on Drums & Jeff Hudgins on Alto Sax. This Boston-based band recorded one, self-titled album featuring Zorn and here stands as a proxy for Naked City. There’s very little to say about the Prelapse pieces on this album because they're so brief ... about two and a half minutes in total. If you like early Naked City you'll be right at home. Music For Children is an ill-proportioned album since by far the majority of the running time (35/49 minutes) comes from the title track and “Cycles Du Nord”: since these are both unusual tracks the album as a whole cannot stand as a sampler, and if you're uninterested in either or both of the longer pieces then this is not the album for you. Personally I like “Cycles Du Nord” and could imagine listening to the album through for its strong contrasts and occasional beauty ... but I think it's a minor album.
Alhambra: In Search Of The Miraculous - Hymns, Prayers and Sacred Dances Genre: Acoustic Jazz Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2010 Category: Accessible, Relaxed My Rating: 10/10 Personnel Rob Burger, Piano, Organ Kenny Wollesen, Vibes Greg Cohen, Double Bass Ben Perowsky, Drums Shanir Ezra Blumenkranz, Bass Guitar (on “The Magus” & “Mythic Étude”). “Prelude: From a Great Temple.” Beautiful & flowing with shifting measures. “Sacred Dance (Invocation).” Uplifting, joyful head with Burger's piano featured. “Book of Shadows.” Wistful, introspective head with expressive soloing from Burger & Wollesen. “Affirmation.” Carefree head, saccharine sweet with soloing to match. “The Magus.” This track - one of my absolute favourites - is highly composed & structured, taking us on a real journey in the course of its nine minutes. The initial mood is established by an uneven metre but switches two minutes in to a carefree improvisation section where first Wollesen & then Burger play focused solos supported by Blumenkranz's bass guitar, which adds critical momentum to this track. Three minutes a composed section with shifting metres provides a first climax and from here on the piece really doesn't let up into the second half of the piece. There is a driving, almost Prog feel to the second climax in the sixth & seventh minutes. In the eighth minute Burger improvises with a light touch and the ensemble coasts to a serene ending. “Hymn For A New Millennium.” A slow, melodic piece with lovely playing from Cohen. “Journey Of The Musicians.” Another carefree piece, this time with a nice vibes solo. “Mythic Étude.” Something of a high-concept piece, this study has long chord structure where the same arpeggio pattern is used throughout and each chord has a bar to itself. Some improvisation from the fifth minute onwards as a gradual crescendo begins. The organ from Burger late in the track is presumably overdubbed. Perowski finally gets to play more heavily but the track fades with no sense of a conclusion. “Postlude: Prayers And Enchantments.” Another carefree piece rather reminiscent of The Rain Horse. Cohen takes a nice solo. Having “discovered” Rob Burger's strength as a pianist on The Rain Horse, Zorn built the “Alhambra Trio” around him to record Alhambra Love Songs later in the same year (2008). A year later the Alhambra project attained its “classic” lineup with this album and the addition of Wollesen on vibes. Obviously there's a conceptual overlap between Alhambra and the Gnostic Trio: both relaxed, both trios with vibes, both formed in the same period of Zorn's long career. While the Gnostic album can sometimes sound claustrophobic with their very opulent sound I find the Alhambra albums easier to listen to in general and they have the virtue of being largely “happy” which carves out a very specific niche for them in the Zorn oeuvre. This is a clear 10/10, easy to recommend to anyone.
In case anyone cares, the title "In Search of the Miraculous" is a book written by PD Ouspensky, about the author's association with George Gurdjieff...I believe Zorn has an interest in Gurdjieff (as does Keith Jarrett and Robert Fripp and probably some other prominent musicians). Gurdjieff composed some music so I'm not sure to what degree if any this album relates to Gurdjieff's music - I've not heard either this album or any Gurdjieff music.
I own (somewhere) a 2CD set of piano music by Gudjieff/de Hartmann. It's very much Relaxed/Accessible and worth checking out. There are a lot of recordings out there.
The Dreamers: Ipos - Book of Angels volume 14 Genre: Masada/Surf/Exotica Label & Year of Release: Tzadik, 2010 Category: Accessible/Relaxed My Rating: 7/10 Personnel Marc Ribot, Guitar Kenny Wollesen, Vibes Jamie Saft, Keyboards Trevor Dunn, Bass Joey Baron, Drums Cyro Baptista, Percussion “Tirtael.” Surf-rock with lots of Ribot. “Hashul.” A metre with a light-hearted skip in it. Wollesen takes the first solo, Saft on piano takes the second, Ribot takes the third. “Galizur.” ‘70s thriller film cue feel in 6/4 over a steady riff. Wollesen doubles Ribot on the head then takes a solo. Ribot takes over with crunchy Blues lines. “Oriel.” Easy-listening exotica feel. Long clean solo from Ribot, rather insipid vibes solo then Saft on Fender Rhodes. “Zavebe.” Dancing head in 5/4. Piano takes solo, followed by vibes. “Qalbam.” Atmospheric movie soundtrack feel with extended solo from Ribot, then Fender Rhodes. Bloogle resonator also features! “Hagai.” Tango-style head. “Cool Jazz” piano solo. “Zortek.” Mysterious head leads into great Rhodes solo, again reminiscent of ‘70s thrillers. The vibes solo is fast and probing, supported by Ribot's comping. Third solo is guitar over vibes chords; drums push. “Ezriel.” Slow, hypnotic head alternates groupings of 12 & 9. Ribot's solo is almost lyrical. Vibes & piano solos follow. “Kutiel.” Surf-rock piece with high energy and excellent work from the percussion section. How much you like this album may depend on how fond you are of Marc Ribot's electric guitar, which is given considerable rein here. Personally I find this album to be a game of two halves: the first half of the album is fairly bland but basically enjoyable; the second half (especially the really excellent “Zortek”) is more compelling. I'd be surprised if I rate anything by The Dreamers above this album.
I I quite like this one, but a big part of that is Ribot's playing, so you're probably on the money about your assessment that that's the key to how much someone will dig it. I like the Dreamers' records a lot in general, with O'o and Pellucidar a bit ahead of this one in my estimation.
Yes, I'll be interested to see what I think of those when I get around them because honestly I have played them very little. Part of my reason for starting this thread was to approach with fresh ears some of the neglected albums in my collection.
This is my favourite Dreamers release as well. One thing in common with all Dreamers releases is that they have a track that gets on my nerves...
