Free Jazz Music

Opening with what sounds distinctly like the frantic licks "Heretic 2" from Naked City's "Heretic" album, John Zorn (alto sax) and Fred Frith (guitar), longtime partners, produced a set of extremely dense and merciless improv-- this one is not for the feint of heart-- the music is intense: this is some of the most unique work either of these two have done.

Zorn moves through virtually all his modes, his vocabulary as a saxaphone playing is extensive, he pushes his instrument quite a bit further than any of his contemporaries, and to have such a great support such as Frith who can easily slide between modes, Zorn gets to show all sides, from the most chaotic squeals and bleats and polyphonics that he can summon from his horn to the most delicate and beautiful. Whatever effects Frith is running through, he moves in veins from percussive to chimes to most typical guitar tones, showing a stunning sense of understanding for how his partner wants to move the music.

Having stated that, I will also say this is a really hard listen-- take the second track ("Alecto"), essentially Zorn using his mouthpiece to extremely high diversity while Frith generates an array of squawks and sounds on his guitar and quite frankly, I'm used to this kind of stuff, if you're not, this is probably not a great place to be looking, regardless of your opinions of the two men performing this. Of course, for every moment where there's absolutely no touchstone for me, I get something like "Nine Part Invention" on here, featuring great Zorn soloing over percussive guitar sounds or the unnervingly delicate and beautiful "Four Corners" that absolutely blows me away.

(oh and in case you're wondering, "Cord Trouble and Tuning" is precisely what its name states it is),

Nonetheless, for those inclined for free improv, this is a unique and interesting set, although I much prefer many of the others in the birthday series in this vein, this is one I come back to frequently, and I suspect if I reviewed it in a year, my rating would be higher.

My only reason for buying this CD is the track 4:33 by Frank Zappa. 4:33 minutes of total silence, well almost total silence because you can hear a little background noices in the control room of Frank. It is a very interesting cd. But if you are not a fan of Zappa or Cage, and you like to hear music I say: buy something else. If you are ready for an experiment: buy this one or the CD Roaratorio.

It might be bewildering at first. The first disc has 98 tracks; the second, 85. If you listen straight through, you do not perceive any discontinuity. A collection of John Cage pieces performed by friends, collegues, and admirers. Frank Zappa (American composer [complete biographical blurb that he provided]) contributed 4'33". Laurie Anderson tells a few Merce Cunningham tales. Seems like a fun tribute from the git-go. But wait! (And this is where the fun begins!) Switch your CD player to the shuffle (random) mode. Now look what happens. It goes from, say, Yoko Ono's piece to the Kronos to the Moraz prepared piano performance to Ken Nordine's narration - all in the matter of seconds. It is a great to homage to Cage himself with the great use of the random chance operations that he might have enjoyed. Every performance of this disc becomes a unique experience (just like Cage). For even more fun, try playing both discs at the same time (provided, of course, you have the means; if not, improvise). Or add another sound source as well, like, say, the radio, or the television very low, or a tape of white noise. The possibilities are endless. I had the pleasure of trying this one day with FOUR players going on simulataneously: two with these discs, another with Miles Davis far in the background, the fourth with a disc of bird calls. It was quite a fun sound environment and I would not hesitate to try it again. But that was my experience. Your experience may be different.

The whole collection is interesting. However, the great moment of this collection is the Ono contribution Georgia Stone. It's a fluxus symphony. Never have I heard a more poignant antiwar piece. It rates in power and beauty to Henryk Gorecki's Symphony #3 with soprano Dawn Upshaw. If anyone ever doubted the genius of Yoko Ono as being relevant and an artist of the highest calibre then listen to this masterpiece and you'll be jolted into her energy as an artist. Yoko, give us more of this kind of music.

Jspark wrote a review that totally grabbed my intrest..I did my senior art history project on John Cage..using random sheets of paper for the lecture. the idea of hitting the "random button" is a great idea..and the idea of running two disks at once is even neater..being a big fan of just about everybody on the cd..especially Laurie Anderson doesnt hurt either... I haven't heard it yet, but i think i'll be sticking with the 5 star rating.