John Zorn Music

I bought this to fill out my "jazz core collection" as noted in The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Eighth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings) (I'm working from both ends now), and I expected jazz. This is some kind of avant garde, fancy jazz, but not what I was hoping for, and not what I will listen to on a regular basis. This is a very musically, sonically, and tonically challenging work, and I consider the performances excellent, but simply put, this album will not bear up to repeated listening. When it comes to jazz, I know when I'm in the mood for Bill Evans, and when I'm in the mood for Duke Ellington, and in the mood for Billie Holiday, or in the mood for Miles Davis, etc. I will never be "in the mood" for John Zorn. This album sounds like what happens when a toy truck crashes into a music studio while the producers were taking a break watching a Clint Eastwood movie: hollow, tinny pianos, plastic snare drums, gunshot effects, and screaming. If you want a musically interesting CD, this is for you. If you want jazz music, you can take a pass on this.

3 1/2

Marking a noticeable evolution in this radical composer's one-of-a-kind-career, 1984's early breakthrough interpretations of the spaghetti western king proved a worthy and memorable endeavor. Through Zorn's typically cracked lens Morricone's dusty constructs are given a whole new, usually quite darkened reworking. More traditional fans of these original compositions may initially be turned off with the expansive and distorted liberties taken to resurrect these themes (as compositionally sound as much of the recording is, of course this long album comes with quite a few unsettling, anti-musical audio adventures) but any Zorn fan would be remiss not to own what would start out a long tradition of these fractured, often rewarding tributes.

John Zorn stepped away from his game piece albums and began to get into more conventional songs with "The Big Gundown". A set of 15 Ennio Morricone songs, and one Zorn-penned homage to a Morricone song, it's a difficult album to classify. Zorn is usually characterized as jazz, but this is a long long way from Louis Armstrong, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of improvisation. Zorn himself performs only on a minority of the songs. He's more of a producer-arranger. But, even if he isn't playing the alto sax, these songs bear Zorn's unmistakeable imprint. There's an original 1985 section, and Zorn added some bonus songs in 2000.

Let's describe all the songs since the music sample is often deceptive for this CD. "The Big Gundown" aims for creepy. There are ominous piano chords, dissonant noises, and screams. The music resolves somewhat when a Brazilian percussion section begins, and ends with some Rawhide-esque "ha"'s. "Peur Sur La Ville" is built around an unsettling piano figure and noises. It has a unconventional free-jazz aura to it. "Poverty" is a quiet song based on Toots Thielman's whistling. "Milano Odeo" is a catchy, almost rock-n-roll song taken at a brisk pace. As the song goes on, the keyboards get more unsettling and the guitar gets noisier. "Erotico" has bluesy organ, and Bill Frisell's most romantic electric guitar (in an '80's way) paired with female vocalizations. "Battle Of Algiers" might be my favorite (maybe just because of the represented movies I've seen it's my favorite). Wayne Horvitz pounds out the tense piano line while sounds effects explode in the background. "Giu La Testa" has a slow build for about four minutes, then there's a plucking, walking part to take the song out. "Metamorfosi" is a good song to play when you want guests to leave, Diamanda Galas screams on top of tribal drums. "Tre Nel 5000" is credited to Zorn as a composer. To me, it sounds like a 4 1/2 minute dose of ambient noise. "Once Upon A Time In The West" starts quietly and deliberately, with feedback swelling and decaying. Robert Quine and Jody Harris play their guitars otherwise very minimalistically (not minimally, the feedback is constant). That ends the 1985 section of the CD.

The 2000 section uses an updated cast of players. "The Sicilian Clan" is familiar from the "Naked City" CD, though the instrumentation is more acoustic, and Cyro Baptista adds "western movie" percussion. "Macchie Solari" is another unsettling song. It ends in a fit of crashing piano chords and screams. "The Ballad Of Hank McCain" teams Mike Patton's heroic baritone with Jamie Saft's organ and Baptista's background congas. It's one of the more accessible songs, I wonder what it would sound like with a fuller band. The later instrumental version sounds about the same except, of course, without singing. "Svegliatti And Uccidi", with Marc Ribot and Derek Bailey on guitar-mangling duties, is a skronky blow-out. "Chi Mai", with the same musicians as "The Sicilian Clan", has a pretty melody and gentle music.

Some of these songs are very cool and original, others I can go without. Since it's a mixed bag I give it three stars. Zorn is certainly an original, and fans will want to make sure they have this one.

I've got about 30 Zorn albums, and this was the first I heard, back in college late during an all-nighter. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Fantastic stuff, and very weird. This is more listenable than some, but definitely not the most easy of Zorn's albums. Great treatments of some familiar pieces if you're into spaghetti westerns.

This is on my must-have list for Zorn albums.

One of the best albums in Zorn's catalog, "The Big Gundown" is a masterpiece augmented in this 15th anniversary edition with a number of new recordings. These are reinterpretations of Mooricone pieces (with one Zorn original) for various groups. The entire record is powerful and energetic, with breathtaking arrangements, brilliant performances, and a fire that had not been captured in Zorn's previous recordings. It is also probably his first true masterpiece.

I think in many ways, the opener and title track best illustrates the aesthetic on the record, if you don't like that one, you'll probably not care for the rest of it-- it covers a number of moods, being dark, haunting, theatrical, explosive and esoteric, sometimes all at once. This sort of theatrical mood extends across a number of songs, the haunting circular piano and percussion workout "Peur Sur la Ville" (with a blazing alto sax solo from Tim Berne), an the dark electric guitar workout take of "Once Upon a Time in the West", reduced a funereal pace.

But there are also many moments of delicate beauty as well-- take for instance "Poverty (Once Upon a Time in America)", with an unusual instrumentation of whistling, harmonica (both handled by Toots Theilman), harp and accordian. Particularly when the harmonica takes the melody, the support swells and embraces and holds on, expressing pain and loss and fear for the future. Or consider the brooding and yet someone still light "Giu la Testa (Duck You Sucker!)", building anticipation through its dark motifs and bizarre instrumentation (among others, the Japanese shamisen, english horn, acoustic guitar, gamecalls and keyboards).

The bonus tracks are no less essential-- Zorn brought in about everyone he played with for the originals, these were a chance to catch up. The amazing thing about Zorn is that as an arranger, he's lost none of his flair in the intervening years, in fact, he may have even gotten better. Zorn uses his "Bar Kokhba" sextet (the Masada String Trio augmented by guitarist Marc Ribot, drummer Joey Baron and percussionist Cyro Baptista) to great effect on breathtaking arrangements of "The Sicilian Clan" and "Chi Mai", and adds another great guitar workout feature with Ribot and Derek Bailey in a noisy, disjoint take of "Sveggliatti and Uccidi", but its Mike Patton's Tom growl on "The Ballad of Hank McCain" that is the gem of the material-- stunning delivery that really captures something special (and may be the best vocal Patton has ever done) over a delicate organ (Jamie Saft) and percussion (Baptista) backdrop that matches and perhaps outstrips the best of the original material.

This is essential music for Zorn fans, if you're not, this may well be a good place to start-- the music can be difficult, and it covers a ton of moods, but there is a lot to hear. Highly recommended.

The toughest barrier in appreciating John Zorn's music remains still the sheer quantity of work he's produced in such a short period of time. Most of it is further plagued with the pretense of "vol. XVII" or "plays the music of...," or any of various cryptically titled ensembles, making it very difficult to discern an entry point to any major concept. Recently being in the mood for some of the more "difficult" titles in my collection, I've decided to give another shot at Zorn's dense discography.

My biggest problem with Zorn's music in the past has been that while everything I've been exposed to I've enjoyed, nothing has really stood above similar talents. His noise/thrash stuff lacks the childlike spark of the Boredoms' own records, his small group improv lacks the revolutionary flare of Ornette Coleman's originals(with the exception of much of Masada, which beautifully integrates traditional jewish music), and his film works are rarely fully successful as independent compositions. Regardless, all of his music is very well executed, and simply SOUNDS "important" despite it's considerable pretenses. I knew that sooner or later I would find a small handful of recordings that put everything else into perspective.

It's taken a bit of research, but I think I'm catching on. This disc, Godard/Spillane, stands as a truly satisfying and original collection of music that also ties together many of the loose ends I've been so frustrated with. Both of the major works here are free-jazz inspired assemblages that work both as conceptual statements and as fully listenable and enjoyable compositions. Passages of vocal narration and sound effects are inter-spliced with hard bop and cool jazz in the jerky breakneck manner of the Naked City recordings, but are much more successful in accumulating a narrative flow that captivates rather than shocks and assaults the listener. Apart from the music's own strengths, each piece acts as an homage to its respective namesake, memorializing the style and importance of each by incorporating their own methods, Godard through film and Spillane through written word, with Zorn's own distinctive voice. The real remarkable thing about this project is that while nodding to the avant-garde of the past, Zorn actually is progressing as the avant-garde of the present (even though these are relatively old recordings). In other words, this music doesn't sound like mere rehashing of Coltrane and Coleman, which is a rare thing in contemporary jazz.

This is hardly the ultimate John Zorn recording, but it is one that has enriched and rationalized for me much of his other work. Little is said here Zorn's Classical and Klezmer endeavors, but in regard to his Jazz compositions, it's quite definitive.

"Godard/Spillane" is a compilation of pieces written using John Zorn's "file card" compositional technique-- the notion is really quite simple, Zorn immersed himself in a subject matter and produces snippets of music, arranged on index cards (as a matter of convenience originally) and then recorded as snippets that were then juxtaposed together. The two works this is titled after ("Godard" and "Spillane") are reflections on the works of director Jean-Luc Godard and writer Micke Spillane, with a bonus track of a shorter file card composition titled "Blues Noel", a reflection on Christmas.

It should be noted that there is also a release out there on Elektra called "Spillane"-- both this and that album contain three pieces, but only "Spillane" in common, and both have extraordinary value.

"Godard" is probably the ideal subject matter for Zorn-- the director's work is in many ways analagous to Zorn's music and the constant shifts in atmosphere and mood allows a stirring tribute to be painted, with cuts and changes feeling quite natural. The piece is filled with an aggressive nature, with frantic and energetic segments interspersing with just about every element possible from lounge jazz to fierce explosions, marching bands, you name it. Amidst all of it, there's an occasional series of narrations. At one point, it pretty much sounds like someone flipping through a radio station, but it all fits together cohesively. If this is something you can deal with, this might be for you.

"Spillane" is a reflection on the work of Mickey Spillane and the Mike Hammer novels. Zorn takes the noir atmosphere painted by the novels and the music juxtaposes through various passages, from ambient scapes (often featuring narrations by John Lurie and/or Robert Quine) to frantic guitar workouts (featuring Bill Frisell), loungey jazz (cocktail piano from Anthony Coleman) and r&b (check Zorn's alto blowing on the faux-"Night Train" motif towards the beginning of the piece). The net result is a constantly shifting backdrop over which some fine performances are turned by pretty much everyone-- it's like "Torture Garden", only slower, more relaxed, and with more patient development and thematic unity. A lot of people find this to be among Zorn's most powerful work-- I actually find that while it works nicely as an extended and narrative piece, and it certainly sets an atmosphere as well as (if not better) anything else out there, it lacks some of the real immediacy and impact of Zorn's greatest works.

"Blues Noel" is a brief piece Zorn recorded for a Christmas compilation-- again it intercuts different styles, with Zorn's r&b infused sax giving way to odd analog noise then to chanting and so on. Evidentally, it was constructed in consideration of Christmas themes, but quite honestly, I don't hear it (that doesn't change the enjoyability of the music, but...).

All in all, "Godard/Spillane" is an interesting overview of Zorn's file card compositions, but I found overall that within this framework, the material feels like it drags a bit-- it's funny because I really enjoyed "Spillane" on that record but less so on this one. On the other hand, about half the music (and 2/3 the tracks) aren't available elsewhere and it's easier to find then the Elektra issue, so it's definitely a worthwhile purchase, but I'd prbably recommend "Spillane" over this.

"Harras" is a collaborative effort between alto saxophonist John Zorn, guitarist Derek Bailey and bassist William Parker. The album consists of three tracks and a bonus piece appended to the end.

All three tracks follow roughly the same formula-- titled "Morning Harras", "Noon Harras", and "Evening Harras", all three start slowly, with long tones from the alto, delicate bass work (arco in the case of "Evening Harras", although Parker is pizzicato for most the record), and fractured, deliberate guitar lines. Eventually, Zorn picks up the pace and his playing becomes more frantic and inventive, Bailey responds to this by pushing the music further, and Parker becomes busier and more detailed, bridging the gap between the two. After a pause, there's a blast of solo guitar (evidentally this was Bailey's idea and is not a problem with your CD).

The performances are fairly engaging, exciting, and powerful. Unlike Zorn and Bailey's previous collaboration ("Yankees"), this one feels more natural, with all three musicians expressing their voices pretty much equally. The only complaint I have is that Parker is a bit too quiet, but really, it's a great listen. Recommended.

I like the straight on attack of the trio on Harras. Baliey is is fine form and not repetitive. Parker and Zorn fill in the spaces but to me are under miked. On my copy tune #3 ends suddenly with a four minute gap before a Bailey solo comes in. Anyone out there know why this is? This is the Japanese import version. Nonetheless Parker and Zorn are spectacular on this free form recording and Bailey doesn't let down. All three numbers kick.

I'm not really a fan of John Zorn. His hairpin mood shifts that characterize the Naked City stuff and the screeching torture music of Painkiller both put me off. On the other hand I adore Derek Bailey and William Parker is a spectacular bassist. You should here some of his work in the Die Like a Dog trio with Peter Brotzmann and Hamid Drake. Thus, I thought it was worth the risk of enduring Zorn's horn. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when stripped of his compositional interests in pain and cartoons Zorn is a very astute and lyrical improvisor. Don't make any mistake here. This is free improvization and hence bound to sound like noise to anyone not familiar with its conventions, but Zorn manages to sound not only palatable to me but pleasant and I intend to look into more of his albums to see if there is more work like this. Bailey's playing fits in between perfectly and this group works together. He does have a solo section at the end of the first track, which is the best part of the album. This is probably the best work of a group this size I have heard him in, much better than "Arcana: The Last Wave" for example, not to mention "Sign of 4". I heartily recommend this.

"Harras" is a collaborative effort between alto saxophonist John Zorn, guitarist Derek Bailey and bassist William Parker. The album consists of three tracks and a bonus piece appended to the end.

All three tracks follow roughly the same formula-- titled "Morning Harras", "Noon Harras", and "Evening Harras", all three start slowly, with long tones from the alto, delicate bass work (arco in the case of "Evening Harras", although Parker is pizzicato for most the record), and fractured, deliberate guitar lines. Eventually, Zorn picks up the pace and his playing becomes more frantic and inventive, Bailey responds to this by pushing the music further, and Parker becomes busier and more detailed, bridging the gap between the two. After a pause, there's a blast of solo guitar (evidentally this was Bailey's idea and is not a problem with your CD).

The performances are fairly engaging, exciting, and powerful. Unlike Zorn and Bailey's previous collaboration ("Yankees"), this one feels more natural, with all three musicians expressing their voices pretty much equally. The only complaint I have is that Parker is a bit too quiet, but really, it's a great listen. Recommended.

I like the straight on attack of the trio on Harras. Baliey is is fine form and not repetitive. Parker and Zorn fill in the spaces but to me are under miked. On my copy tune #3 ends suddenly with a four minute gap before a Bailey solo comes in. Anyone out there know why this is? This is the Japanese import version. Nonetheless Parker and Zorn are spectacular on this free form recording and Bailey doesn't let down. All three numbers kick.

I'm not really a fan of John Zorn. His hairpin mood shifts that characterize the Naked City stuff and the screeching torture music of Painkiller both put me off. On the other hand I adore Derek Bailey and William Parker is a spectacular bassist. You should here some of his work in the Die Like a Dog trio with Peter Brotzmann and Hamid Drake. Thus, I thought it was worth the risk of enduring Zorn's horn. I was pleasantly surprised to find that when stripped of his compositional interests in pain and cartoons Zorn is a very astute and lyrical improvisor. Don't make any mistake here. This is free improvization and hence bound to sound like noise to anyone not familiar with its conventions, but Zorn manages to sound not only palatable to me but pleasant and I intend to look into more of his albums to see if there is more work like this. Bailey's playing fits in between perfectly and this group works together. He does have a solo section at the end of the first track, which is the best part of the album. This is probably the best work of a group this size I have heard him in, much better than "Arcana: The Last Wave" for example, not to mention "Sign of 4". I heartily recommend this.

Interesting stuff, Mike Patton doing his usual of late vocal insanity, Zorn doing his horn squecks and squeals, and last but far from least is Ikue Mori on laptop. Ikue Mori uses a laptop to create some of the most interesting percussion work on the planet and that is no exaggeration. I've picked up a couple of her other CDs with different artists because of the interesting sounds she gets, highly unusual. This is really what makes Hemophiliac work, do not think drum machine here because it isn't and doesn't sound anything like it.
Using this backdrop Patton and Zorn use touches of sound to interweave creating a very interesting landscape. Once again this is not a style of music I would nomally seek out to buy but now that I have I find it very interesting and worthwhile experiment. I tend to think that Zorn gets into all this wacked out (yes I said wacked out) stuff because it pushes him into discovering new stuff for his compositions or maybe this is just the flip side of his personality.

I know the title is moronic, but it was the best I could think of. Now to serious matters.
This is one of John Zorn's "game pieces", which are early improvisational pieces of his that are set up like games, hence the title "HOCKEY". I'm not exactly sure how the system he created works, so I won't go into detail on that. All you really need to know is what follows:
1. There are 17 tracks, 12 of which were previously unreleased.
2. The album is divided into two sections, electric and acoustic. The electric version is performed by Eugene Chadbourne, Wayne Horvitz, and Bob Ostertag, the acoustic is perfromed by Polly Bradfield, Mark E. Miller, and Zorn himself.
3. In my opinion, the electric version is better than the acoustic version, although acoustic takes 9 and 12 are pretty good.
4. The CD clocks in at 50:01.
5. If you are a fan of avant-garde, improvisational, atonal, or just plain weird music that can't be put into any sort of category, you will probably like this.
6. If you buy albums by bands that won't be popular in three months because they have hit songs that sound like everything else being played on the radio, this will sound like a bunch of stoned idiots noodling to you, and you probably aren't reading this review anyway.
7. I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT THIS WAS RELEASED ON ZORN'S TZADIK LABEL IN 1997!
Okay, hopefully someone else will write a review of this wonderful album and fill in the huge gaping holes in mine.
Ta-ta!

John Zorn's game pieces are generally dense, difficult to understand, and make little sense without seeing them live-- essentially, they are rules for improvisation and interaction between musicians, often cued in various forms.

"Hockey" is probably one of the most difficult to make any sort of headway into-- it sounds as if each musician comes in, plays for a bit, then another musician comes in and the first one receeds (the AllMusic Guide refers to this as "passing the puck", probably an accurate assessment). The music is presented in two forms, replete with additional/atlerante takes from its original release, including four takes of an "electric version" (take 4 was the only issued one originally) featuring Eugene Chadbourne (guitar), Wayne Horvitz (amplified piano) and Bob Ostertag (electronics), and 13 takes of the acoustic version (2, 4, 11, and 13 were originally issued) featuring Polly Bradfield on violin, Mark Miller on percussion, and Zorn on game calls and clarinet mouthpiece. Some of the alternates are complete, some are not.

The electric versions succeed quite a bit better than the acoustic one, primarily because the instruments are better able to fill space with the amount of noise they generate-- take 3 is a particular monster, with Ostertag all over the place with his synth and Chadbourne borderline frantic while Horvitz delicately inserts himself between the two. The issued take (4) is also remarkable, if nothing else for the sheer level of chaos the three manage to generate-- there seems to be a much higher level of interaction on this one, with Ostertag remaining active at all times and Chadbourne and Horvitz trading off with him.

The acoustic versions are, well, odd. Here, the pass idea is taken to the extreme, with literally single notes or two notes being played in rapid succession, Zorn blows a duck call, Miller shakes a shaker, Bradfield scrapes across the strings, Zorn sustains a crow call, Miller cranks a fishing reel (it sounds), Zorn blows a goose call, and somehow during that hter's a couple violin scrapes. Noen of the takes last more than four minutes, and its probably a good thing, many of them get tedious far before then. Their interactions are somewhat clever at times, occasionally witty in their setup, but largely its uninteresting to me.

As far as Zorn's early work goes, "Hockey" is a good introducition, the game piece concept is well illustrated in the 17 tracks here, and while it can get irritating, this one makes an interesting listen.

When I got this album home at first I found it slightly boring,.. it didnt catch me at all. Then after listening to it a few times, it started to really grow on me. The voices of the ladies reading are truely beautiful, and the musicianship is amazing. Hwang Chin-Ee really stands out to me, with amazing percussion work.

"New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" is a recording of three of John Zorn's later Game Pieces. For those unfamiliar, the Game Pieces are essentially a series of rules for a group to improvise with-- nothing is precomposed, but a set of cues are used to indicate change in direction in performance. The original Game Pieces were named after sports and games, then eventually Zorn switched to Asian titles. Because of the nature of the Game Pieces, they are extraordinarily hard to "get" and they can sound fairly random, particularly the early recordings, when in fact they are highly ordered. The later recordings, where the performers have more experience in this sort of thing, sound much more cognizant and are easier to understand, but even still, they're an extraordinarily difficult listen if you're not ready for it: case in point, the three pieces on this recording.

What I'm trying to say is that if you're not altogether familiar with Zorn's work, the Game Pieces are probably not the best place to start (that'd probably be "Naked City"). Even if you are listening to Zorn, virtually all the Game Pieces are difficult to get until you've seen an example of how they work. If you can't get to a live show, there's some footage on the documentary piece "A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories about John Zorn" by Claudia Heuermann, which is what initially cleared it up for me. Indeed, I couldn't listen to any of these before I got that. Mind you, if you want to explore the Game Pieces, "New Traditions in East Asian Bar Bands" may be the best place to start.

To begin with, the recordings benefit from restricted format-- each recording is a duet with an Asian-language narration on top. "Hu Die" (from 1986) is recorded with guitarists Bill Frisell and Fred Frith, "Hwang Chin-ee" (1988) with drummers Joey Baron and Samm Bennett, and "Que Tran" (1990) with keyboardists Anthony Coleman and Wayne Horvitz. With only two musicians, it's easier to get a feel for the interactions between them and the subtleties of their work. It also helps that it seems these are about extended dialog-- the early Game Pieces all appear to be about (relatively) brief moments, meaning that as ideas develop, they get thrown away in favor of the next, leaving little in the way of the illusion of conventional structure for the listener to grab onto. "Hu Die" certainly proves to be an exciting listen-- Frisell and Frith wrap around each other, one usually seems to lead with the other following, playing in forms from gentle and supportive to explosive and fierce. By and large, explosiveness is the driving factor of "Hwang Chin-ee", although the drummers do entwine around the narration to a far greater level of detail to the guitarists (who seem by and large to ignore the narrator). "Que Tran" is by and large a minimalist affair, with the keyboards suggestive around and delicate, rarely stating anything directly around the quiet narration.

The net result, a surprisingly diverse and reasonably enjoyable record, in fact probably the most so of the Game Pieces. Highly recommended.

As a long time non-practicing fan of Asian languages and music, this one really gets me. Each track exploits the phonic characteristics of the language (Mandarin, Korean and finally Vietnamese), or should I say allows it to appropriately enter the improvisational sound space, beautifully. The bending of Mandarin to the ambient electric guitar work of Frisell and Frith is interestingly done, enough to move me into the weaving texture of tones, like layers of branches in wind, birds moving up and down in them. At once sexy and percussive, the Mandarin voice could stand as a song on its own. The Korean with the percussion is arty-theatrical and strident, but certainly fun--all moving along wildly, and the Vietnamese an ethereal, slowly breathing masterpiece with Coleman and Horvitz. This CD is wonderful, especially in its use of language as music (my apologies to those of you who will catch the informational content of the recitations). It's the first time in my life I was actually glad I don't speak any Asian language. Personally, I place this up with the Big Gun Down as a Zorn favorite. Have Fun.