I watched this yet again (probably around 7 times now) and each time is better than the last. It’s too bad that this concert in Warsaw wasn’t released as The Song Project. Does anyone know if this concert may see a CD release? I suppose I could email Tzadik, but I doubt I’d hear anything back from them.
Amazon was offering this album for $6 and I have Prime, so why not? Some of Zorn’s cartoon music. This could be a fun disc.
The two solo albums on Tzadik are definitely the least annoying part of his output, but everything else I've heard has left me pretty cold. I could never stand Faith No More, but I did buy the first Mr. Bungle album, just because I figured with all the cool celebrities attached, how bad could it be? Oof. I don't mind the Maldoror album he made with Merzbow too much, though.
It's fun all right, though pretty short, only a bit over 20 minutes. I have the CBS/Sony edition, which has somewhat better artwork, at least on the inside.
Yesterday I listened to the Bar Kokba and the below -- covered both spectrum's. Haven't listened to either in a long time. Really, really, really have to be in the mood for Moonchild.
Through Tzadik’s web store, I now have acquired the rest of the Filmworks recordings --- I was missing a lot in my collection. I doubt I’ll acquire all the Masada albums, but I would like to get the entire Book of Angels series at some point.
I've been buying some RJC and Spectrum cds lately from Amazon, ranging from 5 to 11 dolars. Looks like they are selling out their stocks of Tzadik.. It looks like they don't re-stock when they are sold.
To be fair, I am not particularly familiar with Mr. Patton's work and I did enjoy his 1922 soundtrack. He seems like an OK guy, I just really don't care for his vocalizing. Being aged, as you seem to infer you are, can also mean you know more, are open to more, and are maybe ready to put the old regime to the side for a moment. Because you've done that. I'm 63. How old are you? Let us not ossify prematurely, my dear. You're right, Halvorson is not as obvious. She is not a guitar-slinger in the same way as Ribot, Frisell, etc. And I can understand people hearing her special loop-delay effect as gimmicky-sounding. But she doesn't do it all the time. When not doing it, her playing/sound sometimes reminds me of early Coryell and even Robert Fripp. She is not gonna be for everybody and, like I said, I mostly only know her guitar playing in the context of at least a quartet. Threadgill's compositions, too, are not for everybody.
Some girl, the girlfriend of a friend introduced me to Zorn, in the basement of a record shop I worked in I think I could have loved her, but life happens.
Not sure if this has been mentioned, need to catch-up here a bit but I trust everyone has a copy of this? Yes, it's a lowly DVD but man it's good.
I'm not calling you out, but who are all the cool celebrities attached to the 1st Mr. Bungle album? Heh.
The BoA series - like much of the TZ Archival series - are beautiful gatefold digipak pressings w/die-cut front covers that show the color of the CD inside. Neat design, as always, by Chippy. Mine aren't all together as my Archival series is indexed straight from TZ-7301 to TZ-8365, but when they are all put together spine-to-spine they look really nice (similar to the original DIW Masada series).
I'm 43. For me, quoting "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "it's not the years, honey, it's the mileage". I've listened to a lot of music, and always game for more, but all that music/mileage (also coupled w/Berklee education, which I now wish was either at the NEC if for composition or strictly Music Production & Engineering at Berklee) == music snob. I think acknowledging it at least is the 1st step towards acceptance of new/newness. I am also being more-than-a-little facetious. Oh, and there's always my quest to listen to all 800+ Tzadik albums at least once in my lifetime. I've got a long way to go (hundreds left, still).
+1 for XIII "Invitation to a Suicide", which is one of the only FilmWorks albums I have listened to more than once, along w/VIII (the 2nd half of which has a Cyro Baptista / Wollesen percussion score for "Latin Boys Go to Hell"). On the subject of Baptista, true story: summer of either 96, 97, or 98 (I would have to look at my Berklee transcripts; I think 97), taking the class "World Percussion" w/Jamey Haddad, he was late for class (as usual), and the 6 or 7 of us were about to cut class as it was close to 15-minutes past, and in walks Cyro Baptista playing a berimbau. We could hear him coming down-the-hall. I had never seen one before, but I knew the sound of it (I think courtesy Sepultura's "Roots'" album). All of our jaws == dropped. Not b/c we knew who he was (I had not idea at the time), it was just a true lesson/experience in world percussion. He stood there playing it to/at us (dumbfounded) for a few minutes before he stopped, introduced himself, and let us know that he was a sub class that day. I barely remember the class now, but suffice to say it was one of my favorite Berklee classes. Baptista has quite a look about him, especially while he's playing, similar to this at-the-time: He was soft-spoken and very encouraging/inspiring. I don't remember much else from that class/day other than playing a surdo and trying to play (all classmates, together) ahead of the beat by a fraction, as opposed to dead-on it, or behind. Baptista said something to the effect of Brazilian percussion being characteristically ahead-of-the-beat, but not in actuality; the inner-clock keeps pushing/striving to get ahead, but it never does.
I need to shut up, but Baron's (repeated) solos on Beeroth are so awesome. Sans his playing, his face (smiling, ever-happy) == my happy place.
I'm sure there was at least one review I read at the time that claimed that Fred Frith was there in the mix. He's one of the coolest celebrities I can imagine. For some reason I thought that more of the Tzadik crew were on board, either in person or as samples; Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp. It's not impossible that my memory is starting to play tricks on me. I also thought that Zorn was involved in the N.A.D. album but he's not credited on that one either. Between Zorn and Bill Laswell there were a whole lot of albums in the 90s that I bought and didn't keep just because someone's name was on them. Back then, I was either brave or foolhardy.
It's funny/ironic that the last few pages have been taken with discussions of whether this or that Zorn sideman/imterpreter is entirely to our taste. I guess even the sensation-hungry Zorn true believers draw the line somewhere! For what it's worth, I felt much better about Patton once I had seen him live: the passion, commitment, energy and virtuosity pretty much immediately came across. On recording he can sound like someone coming up with silly voices, but there's a lot more to him than that and, as usual, Zorn picks up on the things that we don't.
I've been called a music snob more than once and it's always amusing to me as my tastes range far wider than my accusers. Good luck with your Tzadik project.
I’m happy with the ‘music snob’ moniker because usually the accuser is the one that’s the narrow-minded one.
Looks like you've zeroed in on a common attribute of the Zorn fan. I'm sorry, but solely reading The Hunger Games (or for that matter Moby Dick) does not give anyone the same basis for commenting on literature as someone who is widely read. Someone who has really put in the hours and listened to a wide range of music may not have better taste but they are certainly going to have a more informed perspective.
Only mildly off topic...but can anyone tell me if there was an inner sleeve for "At The Gates of Paradise" or did the cd just slide into the pocket? My copy got a little "displaced" a while back and I'm trying to determine if I lost the sleeve or it never had one in the first place. Thanks
