John Zorn Music

As John Zorn began moving beyond his early work as ultra-abstract improviser, he started to head in the direction of thematic structure, of setting up a series of rules and motifs around a single theme-- his composition "Spillane" (available on Godard/Spillane) is the best example of this-- Zorn dug deep into the source material and put together "file cards" with the different themes, rules, suggestions and directions on them. He then took an ensemble and recorded these file cards in some sequence or another. Where the line between composition and improvisation, or more abstractly, the line between composer and performer, is often unclear. Nonetheless, unlike his earlier system of improvisation (the Game Pieces), this tended to provide a significantly easier to digest set of music. With a large part of the band that recorded "Spillane"-- a virtual who's who of mid-80s downtown New York improvisers (Ehrlich, Staley, Quine, Coleman, Horvitz, Previte, the composer and half a dozen others), Zorn recorded this for a radio play.

The results are, quite frankly, about what you'd expect. I suspect most folks looking at this have heard "Spillane"-- in it's way, this is more of the same, although it sustains a narrative a bit better. I'll point out that I was never really in love with the file card stuff-- it has its moments, but by and large and seems a bit lacking in that feeling of real immediacy that Zorn's best work has. I'm sure this is because of the element of storytelling in the subject matter, and while the recording certainly has its moments, usually based around a great performance from one musician or another-- Quine's monster r&b solo on "Meters", Zorn blowing a fierce blues on "The Taxman Cometh" and pretty much everyone on "Victoria Lake", by and large I find that it doesn't completely sustain my interest.

Having said that, if you loved "Spillane", you'll probably love this. Not completely my cup of tea, but good for a lot of other folks. If you haven't heard "Spillane"-- start there, then check this out if you find you want some more.

It's easy to prejudice against John Zorn. It's easy to dismiss a lot of non-pop music. However, anyone who knows of Zorn should know how varied he is, and what you see isn't what you get. And any self-proud musician should open up to the bribe. I'm not big on 'jazz' but the fusion of styles on this album is incredible - it reaches a point where you no longer look upon the music as being this or that - it's just music, great music, that is hard to explain. The whole piece is just a great 'adventure', like film score, very interesting, strong yet subtle melodies, great arrays or riffs and rhythms from what is a fairly standard band line-up. Twinkling bells, jazz bass, odd samples, rock riffs, horns and sax, are put together in a way that is never self-indulgent or unlistenable - well, for me. Bits stick in your head, and I just find it a nice musical change, this CD will last a life time. And I'll add that the tracks are proper `songs' with many nice changes of genre, time signature, orchestration and the whole piece has a great atmosphere. If you are even looking at Zorn stuff - get this!!

Am I the first to review "The Bribe"? I'll make it quick.

This album is jammed with as much music as you can fit on a single CD. It's the soundtrack to an imaginary noir film. You'll have fun trying to piece together the plot from the song titles. As always with Zorn, the musicians are fantastic. The musical styles are old-fashioned, but the composition is very modern. (Or, to put it another way, the styles are timeless and the composition is ahead of its time. No wait! The styles are . . . groovy . . . and the composition is . . . loopy.)

I feel better now.

3 1/2

Delivered with virtuoso-like command, John Zorn's ongoing explorations into expanding the sonic palate of traditional Jewish music, as only the diverse musicianship of the notoriously eclectic, avant-garde trumpeter's Masada compilations would see fit, here translates some of their vast catalogue into a more traditional setting. Relying on a trio of string players, Zorn has reimagined some if his fiery klezmer jazz as fiery klezmer classical, replacing all of the Masada group's horn based zaniness with the fiery and overly erratic stringed assault, linked somehow deep within to the base that used to guide these compositions. When Zorn and company really want to do transcribed justice to these pieces, all is evident; the music explodes with a fiery, controlled expertise that will all but simmer the most shy of listeners. All too often however, Zorn falls prey to the same ambiguities that have seen all sides of his art suffer, the overdone artistic indulgences that seem to sometimes mask as soloing serves nothing but underlying the simplicity and disregard for substance with a blatant plea for style. There are still enough tracks on The Circle Maker that make this disc a must have for any adventurous jazz, classical, or Israeli fans to marvel over the talented and unique interpretations, but still too much material that will alienate someone not already keen on Zorn's particular sense of asymmetrical aesthetics.

For a long time, I have held a basic simile tying together John Cage and John Zorn. Both of them have extraordinary ideas about the nature of music, and both a noted pioneers of new musical trends.

But both of them have created music that has been of little interest of me. With Zorn, I am a big fan of his Naked City work, and _Spy vs. Spy_ is nothing short of the Missing Link between jazz and punk. But when it came to his game pieces and a lot of his sporadic teamings (short of Hemophiliac), I have found his method tiresome and actually predictable, which for me tore down the curtain of awe and made me see him as a kind of one-trick solo pony. I credit the Tzadik label with pioneering many a talented new voice (ANYONE who promotes Eyvind Kang is a winner in my book), but it also seemed to become the Zorn repository, putting out any junk he had slapped together in the studio on a given day.

But this 2-CD set has revitalized my interest in a way I haven't felt since I first put on that original Naked City record. Zorn seems to do his best work with a little structure to work away from, rather than pretending to invent it from scratch. The Jewish rhythms used in here coupled with Zorn's purely original voice make this a wonderful listen throughout.

John Zorn's "The Circle Maker" is two albums of new arrangements of pieces from the Masada songbook-- I hesitate to refer to this as "chamber music arrangements" because its largely untrue. The first disc, "Issachar", features the Masada String Trio-- Mark Feldman on violin, the incomparable Erik Friedlander on cello, and bassist Greg Cohen. The second disc, "Zevulon", credited to the Bar Kokhba Sextet, features the Masada String Trio again further augmented by guitarist Marc Ribot, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and drummer Joey Baron. Each record has its own personality.

The Masada String Trio, for those unfamiliar, is a powerful entity unto itself-- these three are masters of their instruments and like the Masada quartet, manage to operate on an extraordinarily high level. I find myself however comparing this album to the live "50th Birthday Celebration Volume 1" disc from the same group-- its actually quite a similar sleection of songs, but I'm inclined to find the live performance more engaging and much prefer that over this one. Still, there's a brilliance that shines in many spots. "Sippur" is probably the best example of this-- Friedlander delicately states the them beautifully arco over pizzicato backing, eventually Feldman counterpoints him, and then Fridlander takes an arco solo of absolutely breathtaking sensitivity. The haunting "Hadasha" shows off beautifully the range of technique these three have-- Feldman in particular digs in deep on this one, scratching and squeaking his way through the piece, but maintaing an extraordinary level of musicality. But probably nothing on the disc is as engaging as "Yatzah"-- opening all arco (unusual, Cohen plays pizzicato for the majority) with some lush and lovely soloing from Friedlander, eventually Feldman takes the theme with such a sensitivity and real understanding behind the music. His own solo finds him in an understated mood, but able to derive from one sustained note an uncommon level of power and what I contend is the best solo I've heard him play. And speaking of great solos, Friedlander takes a spotlight on "Elijah"-- performed as a solo cello piece, that is just stunning.

The second disc, "Zevulun", is not quite what one thinks of when one thinks chamber music-- indeed the ensemble feels more like a jam band playing Masada tunes then it does any sort of chamber ensemble. While the string trio's function remains largely the same, Ribot alternates between offering color and playing melodies, while Baron operates in a similar context to his place in the Masada Quartet. Baptista's role in the preceedings is, as always, harder to define-- he's all over the map, serving as rhythmic assistence, additional color, and a countermelodic voice at times. Many times, his presence on the pieces makes the piece.

Roughly speaking, "Zevulun" divides nicely into two kinds of pieces-- those where Ribot offers color and those where the String Trio does. Both have their moments-- I particularly like Ribot's playing on the surfish "Hazor" and the overly cinematic "Laylah". The latter in particular is really quite nice, it has that sort of churning anticipation that a good western soundtrack would need. Of the string driven pieces, "Khebar" is nice (and feels like a chamber piece) and "Teli" is just brilliant-- if Ribot plays at all, he's pretty muted, but the piece is downright funky with the strings intertwining with some frantic percussion. Also of note is "Ner Tamid", where the trio and Ribot alternate stating the theme (with minimal improvisation) and a nice chugging beat from the percussionists.

All in all, "The Circle Maker" is a has a lot of good music, and at its length (around two hours) and its price a bit over 20 bucks as I write this), its definitely a fine value, but there's definitely better material in this vein out there.

This is one of John Zorn's ten best albums, and it's likely to stay in the top ten for a long time. Unlike some of his other work, which emphasizes noise and quick changes from one piece of music to the next, The Circle Maker plays out in elegant waves of melody and percussion. It's Zorn's most beautiful album. It started with Masada, Zorn's four-piece jazz band. Masada plays "free jazz klezmer" --- original compositions based on traditional Jewish folk music themes, written in a simple way that encourages improvisation. On the Masada albums, the band blows the melodies apart on trumpet, saxophone, drums, and bass.

Zorn wrote new arrangements of these songs for chamber ensembles, replacing the old instruments with cello, violin, viola, guitar, bass, and percussion. The improvisation is out. The musicians concentrate on the melodies, playing off of each other in very subtle ways. The result is a combination of jazz, chamber music, and Jewish folk music, all rolled into one --- and played simultaneously. Even if you have no interest in John Zorn, you'll love this album. There isn't a single bad song on these two CDs. After you hear it, you'll want Bar Kokhba, which is more of the same.

_The Circle Maker_, a two-disc collection of Jewish chamber jazz, is one of my favorite items to bear John Zorn's name. Zorn does not actually perform on either of these discs -- they are songs from the Masada songbook rearranged for two different formats. As is typical with Zorn, the musicians he employs are world-class wonders proficient in jazz and classical, imbuing the pieces with feel and lyricism and mature consideration.

_The Circle Maker_ consists of two discs. The first is _Issachar_, which is performed by the the Masada String Trio, comprised of Mark Feldman (violin), Eric Friedlander (cello), and Greg Cohen (double-bass). For the most part, the songs are highly melodic and picturesque Masada pieces, minus the free n' dissonant battle-damage of Zorn's original quartet. It tends to be very beautiful and soothing with a feisty rhythmic spirit, all the while evoking images of middle eastern and Mediterranean lands. Greg Cohen usually plays a disciplined, bouncy rhythmic anchor over which Friedlander and Feldman swirl and twist and clash. (If you have heard Zorn's _Taboo & Exile_, the string trio pieces there are pretty much representative of what _Issachar_ is.) Some of the pieces, especially the short ones like "Karet" and "Zebdi", are very frenetic and dissonant. "Yatzah" is also very intense, but in a different way: Cohen and Friedlander hold down a single rhythmic phrase for eight minutes while Feldman's violin minimalistically rises from quiet scratching to shrieking strikes. One piece, "Elilah", is a gorgeous cello solo, and definitely one of the highlights of the string trio disc.

The other disc, _Zevulun_, is performed by the Bar Kokhba Sextet, which adds to the string trio guitarist Marc Ribot, percussionist Cyro Baptista, and drummer Joey Baron. Ribot's glistening, mesmerizing electric guitar lines sparkle between the two percussionists (one in each channel) and the string trio fills in the blanks. _Zevulun_ is a little less rigorous than its counterpart in this set...it is more swaying and mellow. "Tevel" is familiar because a different arrangement of it appears on Zorn's _Music for Children_ as "Dreamer of Dreams". The songs are a little more diverse on this set: "Laylah" is very eerie and dramatic, "Khebar" has an almost-pointillist arrangement with some very catchy melodies that evoke a bustling desert village, and "Idalah-Abal" is a nocturnal piece centered around a gorgeous cello theme and peppered with a constellation of effervescent cymbals and reflective drumming.

The more of John Zorn's music I hear, the faster he is on the way to becoming my favorite artist. And among his mammoth discography, _The Circle Maker_ is one of his best and most pleasant -- which is saying a lot. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, and not just for hardcore Zorn nuts like myself. It's hard to imagine anyone with good taste _not_ liking this. It's so good is EXPLODES the Amazon rating system.

I was expecting a lot more technical playing on this album,and after the first listening session I said to myself"hmm...it's good chill music,but there isn't much substance." After hearing these gentle, flowing tunes a few more times though I realized that this isn't supposed to be a "balls-to-walls" action-packed album;the idea which makes this music amazing is that it's meant to be a mental "seasoning".I use it while doing mellow chores,cooking,etc. and it is a great cognitive comforter which sets a nice pace for easy activities.zorn fans might be hit-n-miss on this one,but it's great chill music!

As others have previously (and better!)pointed out, this CD is John Zorn's take (partly) on surf guitar (marc Ribot plays)but it is also much much more. It is on the one hand beautifully played but also very innovating in some ways. OK, the artwork is in questionalble taste.

One of the more unexpected albums in John Zorn's catalog, "The Gift" finds Zorn exploring primarily surf music. With guitarist Marc Ribot as the primary hero in the preceedings, Zorn creates a swirling, modern take on the genre, with a couple odd tracks thrown in to keep you guessing. The core of the band is a series of Zorn regulars (Ribot, Jamie Saft, Trevor Dunn, Cyro Baptista and Joey Baron), with contributions by Ned Rothenberg, Dave Douglas, Zorn on piano and theramin, Mike Patton and a string quartet.

Again, by and large it's surf music, and it's really well done-- from exciting stuff ("Makahaa") to more laid back ("The Quiet Surf") and a more funky, bluesy sound ("La Flor del Barrio"). The point is, all the surf stuff is fantastic, Ribot reminds us just how versatile and talented he is. The non-surf stuff is a bit of a mixed bag though, from an organ, springy percussion and shakuhachi ("Smarkan") to lush, romantic and bleak ("Mao's Moon") to just totally bizarre and inexplicable ("Bridge to the Beyond"). But with the exception of "Mao's Moon", none of the non-surf songs work as well as the surf material.

A word of caution-- below the present artwork slipcase is some somewhat disturbing artwork. Be forewarned.

In the end, "The Gift" is a decent record, Zorn's done much better, but it's a worthwhile pickup.

I went through a Zorn phase in the early to mid nineties. I thought the Japanese bondage and torture was cool, I thought showing pictures of pre-pubescent Japanese girls urinating was art. I thought seeing severed body parts in a ditch in the ground was neat. Now I realize that all these images paint a picture of a very mentally disturbed man. One can only imagine the activities Zorn has gotten himself into over in Japan. What set me off was buying "The Gift". Having downloaded some tracks and listened to a few on Amazon, I thought "wow Zorn has chilled out and is actually using his musical talents to make good music". So of course I buy the CD and as soon as I open it I have to look at pre-pubescent Japanese girls being tortured and urinating. I hope Zorn has never hurt or traumatized any pre-pubescent Japanese girls in real life, however, at this point I think that is almost a foregone conclusion.

Zorn, I hope you get caught.

If you fell in love with the Naked City song "Sunset Surfer" from Radio like I did, this album is for you.

An entire album of chilled out, mellow Zorn compositions with beautiful melodies and tasteful arrangements. They cover a multitude of styles other than 'surf', maintaining a fairly constant mood but branching into ethnic harmonic structure and jazzy rhythms. There's a lot of diverse instrumentation here, all sorts of percussion, train bells, hand drums, flutes, synthesizers, trumpets... and these are a supplement to what could be a typical rock line up of drums, bass and guitar.

The problem with this album and the thing that prevents it from being an ESSENTIAL purchase is the lack of building on established ideas. Unlike the aforementioned "Sunset Surfer", these songs reach no climax or resolution, in fact they progress almost none at all. Zorn was content to establish an atmospheric, perfectly balanced backdrop and let the musicians jam with it. You've got one or 2 catchy melodies per track, switching to another theme for a little, then switching back. Solos here and there (great ones). Once a track has begun, it quickly becomes predictable. It's a good chill out album.

An all around great cast of players. Mark Ribot is an expressive guitar player, and we've got the legendary Trevor Dunn on bass, albeit playing a supportive role. Naked City alumnus Joey Baron's work here is tasteful and fitting. The other musicians are fantastic as well although less known to me.

Even the decidedly different songs follow the aforementioned structure. The dark, orchestrally-augmented jazz of "Mao's Moon" with solo trumpet is a work of genious. Probably my favorite track on the album, it moves between lush, romantic feel and ominous darkness. The trumpet player does a fantastic job. "Bridge to the Beyond" is the other slightly out-of-place number, also on the darker side of things with Mike Patton showing up briefly to do some chanting in the background. The dissonant, harmonic-filled majority of the song sounds like a build-up to horror movie violence, while the contrasting piano section feels nostalgic. It's a good mix. There's also "Cutting Stone", 7 minutes of a strange, percussive stringed instrument and tribal drums. There's no melody, and I've found this one hard to absorb. Being that it's truly something I don't understand, I won't judge it.

Of the more "Sunset Surfer"-esque tunes, I find myself favoring "The Quiet Surf" for its subtle tension.

I don't really catch the vibe of the album in general as dark like many other here do, although parts of "Mao's Moon" and "Bridge to the Beyond" fit that description. The majority evokes the content, summer night atmosphere "Sunset Surfer" did.

As for the strange and questionable artwork, who really cares? If you don't like it, don't look at it. Most of it isn't flat out obscene anyway, just bondage oriented. No matter what Zorn's attachment to this sort of thing may be, I do kind of wonder why he keeps plastering it all over his releases. Since no one else has said it flat out, the cover (beneath the gift wrap) depicts a young girl on a chair, possibly tied up, holding a gun. A weird image.

The Gift is mildly recommended to fans of Zorn. To those who aren't yet fans, I recommend buying some Naked City.

It's hard to describe this set without introducing the game piece concept-- early in John Zorn's compositonal career, he fused his love of block oriented compositional structures with his love of improvisation and spontaneous interaction-- the result: a series of rules for improvisation, structuring the event as a game that the players move through and are forced to adhere to. The resulting music tends to be dense and lacking anything resembling traditional structure, while Zorn and many involved are typically pigeonholed as jazz, this music is pretty far from there.

The four pieces assembled here, "Lacrosse", "Hockey", "Pool", and "Archery" are Zorn's output for Eugene Chadbourne's Parachute label-- these were the first LPs he released, together with alternate takes, rehearsals, a lost session, and so on. Each piece is contained in its own jewel case (or fat double/triple as necessary) with its own liner notes, and on top of that is an additional liner note with a few nice essays about the music contained within and a booklet of photos from the sessions. All this is housed in a lovely box with a picture of a rather young John Zorn on it.

A bit about each of the pieces on here: "Lacrosse" is about short events-- ideas never develop because the events are required to be short, creating a rather frustrating listen. The firs tdisc has six takes (including the three issued) of the album and three alternate takes and features Zorn, electronic performer Mark Abbott, violinists Polly Bradfield and LaDonna Smith, and guitarisst Eugene Chadbourne and Davey Williams. The "tinws" version, recorded a year earlier in San Francisco features Zorn, Chadbourne, guitarist Henry Kaiser and sax player Bruce Ackley. Parts of it are fantastic, particularly on the twins version, but largely its frustrating because ideas never develop and the structure is lost.

"Hockey" is a bit more difficult to deal with, but somehow comes off better-- presented in two versions, electric (with Chadbourne, Wayne Horvitz on piano, and Bob Ostertag on electronics) and acoustic (Bradfield, Mark Miller on percussion, and Zorn), both times in several takes-- the idea here seems to be to take turns entering, soloing, and leaving. The electric takes work better as there's more an illusion of structure, although the acoustic part illustrates the concept better.

"Pool" and "Archery" are both combinatoric game pieces-- featuring the musicians in various formations-- "Archery", for twelve piece, limits this to duos and trios, "Pool" has only five pieces and does not. Events, either on the clock or stimulated by a musician or prompter cause change in the ensemble. "Pool" features Bradfield, Miller, percussionist Charles Noyes, Ostertag and Zorn, with Lesli Dalaba prompting; "Archery" has the larger ensemble of Robert Dick (flutes, gamecalls), George Lewis (trombone), Zorn, Coleman, Horvitz, Kramer, Chadbourne, Bill Horvitz (guitar), Bill Laswell (bass), Bradfield, Tom Cora (cello) and David Moss (percussion, voice) with Mark Smith prompting. Overall, "Archery" works better as the continued interaction encourages the musicians well, and even the rehearsal comes off quite well and is full of humor and quite enjoyable.

This set is not for the casual listener-- check out "Cobra" if you're curious about game pieces. For those who love Zorn's game pieces, this is essential.

...I'm not sure how I feel about this music. It's bleepy, chaotic, odd. This is NOT the Zorn that most listeners will be familiar with -- these are some of his first recordings, the first put out entirely under his control, back in the late 1970s. These are "game pieces" -- structured enviroments for improvisation -- and as such bear SOME resemblance to the later Cobra recordings; but they're a little, I think, rawer, sparser, "noisier," further out there, and in ways that, in the wrong mood, can be a little alienating (thus far, I like ARCHERY the most, find it the warmest, richest, most embracing of the sessions, while still being, well, weird noise). The musicians are superb, as on any Zorn release -- some of the more familiar names include Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Anthony Coleman, Wayne Horvitz, Henry Kaiser, Kramer, Bill Laswell, and Bob Ostertag -- plus there's a bunch of people I'm less familiar with, like David Moss and Mark E. Miller... Some of these people contribute to the liner notes, as well as the sounds (Bob Ostertag contributes an anecdote about trying to get Zorn to play at a festival of new music at a peak timeslot, and having Zorn refuse, because, as Ostertag explains, "he had this strongly held belief that if you played in front of too many people it ruined the music." Eugene Chadbourne's original notes from LACROSSE are also in evidence) The liner notes are one great reason to buy this set -- for insights into Zorn's development as a composer and performer pre-BIG GUNDOWN, for statements of purpose from the time, and generally interesting anecdotes and insights. The packaging is also beautiful, as with almost any Tzadik release; there are reproductions of the graphic notations used for ARCHERY; there are plenty of photographs of the musicians at work; and there are some cardboard cards with art on them I don't fully understand yet. Discs and booklets are illuminated with bits from the ancient Persian work, "Automata of Al-Jazari," which I know nothing about -- stuff Zorn apparently dug out from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, on one of his routine quests for inspiration. The LP issues of these recordings were limited to runs of a thousand, and are long gone collector's items now; these discs also include lots of outtakes, rehearsals, alternate versions, etc, that have never been released before. They're now also available as separate packages from Tzadik, I think, but if you're seriously interested in this period of Zorn's work, or the nexus between improvised and composed music, or just weird noise to play in the background to disturb your houseguests, it's not such a bad idea to just buy the box. Then you'll have it all and not have to think about it anymore, right? Besides, 7 CDs for a hundred bucks is a pretty good deal, eh...?

well, i got the zorn and elliott sharp quartets at the same time, to get an understanding of the downtown nyc scene.

the cat o nine tales has been reviewed just fine...no need to add. i mean, it seems to be the definition of post modern- snippets of this, snippets of that, put em in a pot and stir....

the dead man "suite" seems to perfect the scraping sounds that allude to zorn's fascination with s/m. it has a bit of the kagel quartets in it, and so far...zorn strikes two home runs in the extremist camp....

still...compare ANY outre quartet against what i consider the behemoth gigantor of experimental quartets, the one by heinz holliger of 1973.

i think i was starting to get too obsessed by the lachenmann, sciarrino, penderecki, kagel, glokobar type NOISE...and all of these composers have worked very hard to make musical sense of brute sound....mixing and matching

the other reviewers expressed a question mark concerning memento mori...and i feel flattered that it posed no difficulties for me, there are a lot of grey dreary dope-sick chords punctuated by various violent outbursts....half way through there is a break followed by a very long elegiac chord punctuated by nine plucks...and then it continues...
it does have that nono/feldman feel with splatters of violent tense scraping and hysterical outburst, but overall the 30min. quartet poses no real listening problems to the seeker. in all, this seems to be the kind of statement that came out of the eighties, especially in nyc....just watch one of the andy warhol bios when listening to this and it might all make sense...basquiat...dope....gritty nyc 1970s-80s art sense....this seems no different than john cale to me, velvet underground...midnight cowboy...very dreary yet comforting in a creepy way.

and maybe i should mention zorn's penchant for explicit graphics....there is quite a pornographic drawing on the inside cover...rear admiral, sir....and it makes me wonder about morals and "art" and such forth...i mean the music is there, but it IS a brutal, raping, s/m, assaulting sound, with surgical sounds...i mean it's not exaggerating to say that this is classical music for a japanese snuff film

the kol nidre...well, it sounds EXACTLY like the arvo part piece...another indication of the 1980's...yea, it's beautiful an all...i have really nothing to say about this piece...it's definitely the "spiritual minimalism" that is sooo in vogue...but hey, no criticism

by the way, the elliott sharp disc is a hundred times more brutal than this album. it almost makes zorn sound homey. the sharp disc is verrry rough listening...take it piecemeal- however lumen from 1996 sounds a little like donatoni meets the terminator!!!

so i DO recommend getting both albums at the same time....currently i have no real further need to seek out more lachenmanns and zorns..has the string quartet reached its limit...if we include the electronic aspect by saariaho and jonathan harvey? have all the sounds been exhausted? what about the different ays of putting these sounds together?

i mean...what OF the helikopter quartet by stockhausen????
where DO we go from here?
ahhhh......

"I don't think of myself as a jazz or rock artist. I think of myself as someone who's using all of these different elements to create something else. But if I had to pick one line where I came from, it would be more classical than anything else." -- John Zorn

_The String Quartets_ is a collection of his best pieces for, well, string quartets, culled from an eight year span. These are the definitive versions of each, conducted by Zorn and performed by the emphatic Quartet DeSade (that's Joyce Hammann and Mark Feldman on violin, Lois Martinon on viola, and Erik Friedlander on cello). Their performances are uniformly stunning. An interest in Zorn and post-modernist 'classical' is a helpful quality before checking out this album.

"Cat o' Nine Tails" is lots of fun, a humorous piece emphasizing very fast, clean changes between styles from cartoon music to rhythmically energetic Eastern European & Russian informed sections to familiar melodies quoted from a variety of sources. It's almost like flipping through television channels and hearing the musical accompaniment to all sorts of different things, with some very jarring clashes in between. If fun genre-hopping isn't your cup of tea, this might not do much for you.

"The Dead Man" is basically a collection of hardcore miniatures arranged for string quartet -- very herky-jerky, violent, and spasmodic, a la Naked City. There are thirteen of them, averaging somewhere around a minute in length. Most people wouldn't like this kind of thing -- but I like dark, torturous, and savage music like this. "Nocturne", the eleventh piece, is particularly harrowing to me.

The next two pieces are by far my favorites. Zorn himself concedes that "Momento Mori" is baffling to most people, and truthfully it is pretty damn inaccessible. Firstly, it is highly serialist with 'free' inclinations which emphasize the piece's highly dramatic gestures and rigor. The structure sounds completely arbitrary and baffling, and Zorn leaves the listener with basically nothing to grasp as he takes you through continuous episodic blocks for nearly 30 minutes. Everyone is different I suppose, but I find it works beautifully if you think of it like peeking into a strange story -- you move along with the music, at the same level, through the chapters and events. It's like the music just IS, and it doesn't begin or end just because the listener presses Play or Stop...a highly Jungian creative mode of nonidentification and unity, fundamental to objective art. It has an Otherness that is elusive but deeply engaging. Ermmmm....if that all makes sense. I find this piece simply excellent although I probably listened to it at least a dozen times before I started to "get" it...and that was merely the first stepping stone to analyzing it effectively. You may find it very rewarding if you give it the attention it requires. Don't expect anything easy.

"Kol Nidre" is one of the most very beautiful of all Zorn's compositions -- a spiritual, funereal piece enlightened by Jewish expression that he remarkably wrote in 30 minutes. Hazy and surreal, it builds on minimalist drone until its powerful climax.

An excellent purchase for Zorn fans and adventurous classical aficionados, especially for "Momento Mori" and "Kol Nidre".

"The String Quartets" contains (not uncoicidentally) four string quartets composed by John Zorn in the late 80s and early 90s. Three of the pieces ("Cat O'Nine Tails", "The Dead Man" and "Momento Mori") were composed at the behest of the Kronos Quartet between 1988 and 1992 while the fourth ("Kol Nidre") was composed in 1996 without commission. All four are performe by a quartet of Joyce Hammann (violin), Mark Feldman (violin), Lois Martin (viola) and Erik Friedlander (cello).

"Cat O'Nine Tails", from 1988, finds Zorn in a frantic mode. The piece is full of excitement, subtle quotations and energy, presaging the Naked City approach of drifting beteween one style and another, seemingly at random though seemlessly fitting together whilst weaving Zorn's tributes to composers he loves. It is sometimes delicate and beautiful, sometimes playful and exciting, and sometimes frantic and explosive. At all times, it's intriguing and entertaining. "The Dead Man", composed around the same time as Naked City's early records, is related to that band's "Torture Garden", and the audible similarities are clear. Composed of thirteen miniatures, not unlike the tracks on "Torture Garden", ranging in length from thirty seconds to about ninety seconds, each movement is of its own style, but like "Torture Garden", there's a distinct sense of unity to these tracks. They flow together, and they sometimes feel less than whole without the others.

"Memento Mori", dedicated to musician Ikue Mori and composed in 1992, is described by Zorn as "an intensely emotional and complexly hermetic work that continues to defy comprehension by most listeners". Zorn further states that the piece is autobiographical and "largely about lost love and the loneliness of a scholar's existence". At just under thirty minutes, it is an extended listen that is extraordinarily demanding upon its listener-- at times delicate, at times fierce. It is downright captivating and powerful and extraordinarily difficult to describe. I don't think I've totally gotten it yet, but I'm certainly totally intrigued by it, and I'm guessing the more I listen to it, the more fruit it will bear. The album's closer, "Kol Nidre" is a thing of stunning beauty. Let me be very clear that I'm quite enamored with Zorn's classical work (in particular his string trios/quartets), I don't think any of them are quite as moving and powerful as this piece. It's stark presentation and patient development allows the emotive content to come into its own. It caught me off-guard the first time I heard it, and after repeated listens, it still does so.

Zorn's classical work can be difficult to digest, but more often than not they prove a rewarding listen. "The String Quartets" ranks among his finest work. Highly recommended.

zorn rules. everything I hear from this guy blows me away. he has made me realize that music is in everything. this recording is great, especially hearing how zorn can take any medium (in this case, the string quartet), and make something completely his own.

"Voices in the Wilderness" is a collection of pieces from the Masada songbook interpreted by different ensembles as part of the tenth anniversary of the project (and thus the songbook from which these pieces are drawn). Its covers a number of styles-- from traditional klezmer to Middle Eastern fusion to downtown punk to big band jazz to dub and just about everything in between. While its a bit too disjoint to reach the level of excellence much of the Masada material has or to be in heavy rotation in my listening, its a fine recording.

There's a reverence for this music amongst its fans, no doubt including everyone involved in this project, and it shows. Its not like the sort of "tribute album" thing where people contribute poorly realized performances without anything unique to them-- each of these musicians has pulled this music straight into their own idiom. Its all quite good, some of it stands out a bit more than others-- opener "Karaim" by the amazing Pharaoh's Daughter comes to mind (and is the piece that introduced me to that band)-- Middle Eastern traditions fused to the downtown aesthetic takes one of the best Masada pieces and induces a swirling excitement to it. Or "Tirzah" by Pachora-- almost a lo-fi indie rock take on the piece is just lovely and delicate. For that matter, Naftule's Dream's take on "Paran", which starts off twisting the piece into a somewhat more Mediterranean feel before opening it up for collective improvisation is brilliant, and certainly the amazing Mephista (pianist Sylvie Corvoisier, latop electronics wizard Ikue Mori and drummer Susie Ibarra) rarely disappoint, and their cover of "Malkut" is no exception. And while we're talking about folks who rarely disappoint, Mike Patton's take on "Kochot" transforms the melody into a falsetto vocal, gently sung over a delicate keyboard and drum arrangement before moving into the improv section where I suspect all the leads are his voice processed in odd fashion-- Patton has tucked his penchant for metal pretty far away with stirring results.

Honestly, I suspect that a different fan would have written the above paragraph in a different way, there's bound to be something here that anyone familiar with this music would enjoy. Don't look to this as an introduction to Zorn or Masada, but its worth checking out.

Everytime Zorn puts something out, I hope to listen to either something experimental and strange or something that can become my all time favorite album.
Voices in the Wilderness is a shure thing - you can't be wrong with so many good musicians playing some tunes of Masada's songbook. My favorite is Tizah: pacific melody and beautiful interpretation by Pachora.
This may not be the best place to start, but it is as easy listening as Bar Kokhba or The Circle Maker. Let Zorn touch your spirit with his magic music!

The original Masada quartet was formed in 1993. Founder and composer John Zorn has decided to honor Masada's decade long existence by putting together a series of tribute albums. With two discs containing two dozen unique artists' interpretations, this set may be the best argument for the longevity of Zorn's Masada songbook yet. What started with such humble beginnings has blossomed into quite the sub-genre.

As the enfant terrible of the Downtown/East Village, avant garde scene, Zorn was once know for his more experimental musical endeavors. Before Masada, his most renowned effort was the now infamous post-modern, hardcore punk jazz band Naked City. Many a current jazz fan was won over by Naked City's seemingly unclassifiable assault, this reviewer included.

And then came Masada. Zorn's longest running group, it is also his most popular. Masada started as an acoustic quartet of sax, trumpet, bass and drums playing jazz that sounded like Ornette Coleman filtered through klezmer, traditional Jewish folk music. Zorn claimed it was his attempt to write a series of tunes that could eventually become standards. In the ensuing years, he has adapted this songbook to be played by everything from chamber music groups, string trios, to an electric unit. And now there are cover albums.

With ethnic rock bands, traditional klezmer groups, piano trios, acoustic jazz combos, organ trios, experimental sound collages, atmospheric vocal stylists and more, there is a surprising amount of sonic variety on display here. In addition to lesser-known artists, there are some more recognizable ones worth mentioning. Medeski Martin and Wood, Peter Apfelbaum, Steven Bernstein, Wayne Horvitz, Tin hat Trio, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Naftule's Dream, Mike Patton and Kramer are but a few of the bigger names to make notable appearances.

All of the assembled artists play this music with a sense of conviction and passion. The only missteps seem to fall in the area of the occasional vocal, a common danger when vocalists try to adapt instrumental music. Overall, this tribute album delivers where many fail, by making a worthwhile addition to a fan's original collection. Here's to another 10 years.

Over 80 musicians play new arrangements of Zorn's free-jazz/klezmer compositions. The result is a marathon of exotic and beautiful music. As if the Jewish jazz approach wasn't enough, these musicians stretch out, simplify, and re-organize the music into strange shapes and sounds.

This is the most eclectic Masada album since Bar Kokhba. Every track is good. Half of them are great (especially Mike Patton and William Winant doing Kochot).

This CD is actually a bargain because it is a 2 CD set. I think Zorn may have pulled a fast one on his distributors because there is almost nothing on the package that says that. I didn't realize it until I opened it up.

I am a Masada addict so I am very biased. Since about 1990, John Zorn has compiled a "song book" for his sometime ensemble, Masada. I think he finished it around 2000.

This 2-CD set (along with the companion Masada Guitars, which is only 1 CD) consists of a lot of Zorn's friends performing music from that book. If you're new to this, you might prefer The Circle Maker or Bar Kokhba. If you're old to it, just go and buy this (and get Masada Guitars, too).

"Film Works IV/: S/M + More" collects five scores by John Zorn. Unlike other scores, Zorn chose not to break these into cues, the result being five very different pieces.

The first two pieces feature small group performances-- "Pueblo" is a superb, gently building Morricone/'50s exotica piece driven by the guitar work of Marc Ribot. This is followed by the score for "Elegant Spanking", performed by harp (Carol Emanuel), viola (Jill Jaffe), cello (Erik Friedlander) and percussion (Jim Pugliese). Zorn constructs a wide open minimalist arrangement that is spacious and, for lack of better word, elegant, evne if it picks up a bit halfway through, it still remains a somewhat minimalist air (Zorn also credits this with inspiring him to explore the instrumentation further on "Redbird").

The remaining three pieces are solo performances-- sandwiched between two Zorn treatments is "Maogai". An exceptionally delicate solo piano theme and variation performance handled by Kuroda Kyoko, the piece is lovely and quite an enjoyable listen, although it doesn't seem to go anywhere. The scores for "Credits Included" and "A Lot of Fun For the Evil One" both feature performances by Zorn, the former credits him with "sound design", the latter with "keyboards". "Credits Included" is largely a sort of haze from which occasional blasts of noise rise out. "A Lot of Fun..." is a bizarre scape of sounds and rhythms interspersed with the voice of Aleister Crowley. While both pieces are reasonably intriguing, neither is the sort of thing I find myself listening to over and over again.

All in all, it works out to be a relatively average soundtrack piece by Zorn-- the first couple tracks are well worth having, but the effort is a bit too mixed to really feel anything strongly about it.

John Zorn's Game Pieces make for difficult recording-- as a system of improvisation, their inherent lack of traditional structure can make them a difficult listen. A Game Piece is a set of rules for improvisation, a framework in which musicians communicate with each other to establish a performance that exists outside of composition and free improv in its own area. The early recordings could be so dense or obscure in their structure that they were nearly impossible to listen to on record(Pool being a good example). This tended to be true more of the early Game Pieces-- as time wore on, Zorn appears to have developed musicians who understood his vocabulary better and were able to realize recordings that actually sounded like recordings. Case in point: "Xu Feng".

One of the other reviewers of this record likened it to King Crimson's Thrakattak-- this is probably the best comparison I've heard for the music. It is essentially improvised rock music-- guitarists Fred Frith and John Schott, electronic musicians Chris Brown and David Slusser and drummers Dave Lombardo and William Winant whip together a stew of rock-based improv that ranges in mood from explosive and angular ("The Fate of Lee Khan") to almost gentle ("The Beauty of Yang Hui-Chen"). Essentially, it's an improv metal record.

For everyone? Maybe not, but as far as Zorn's Game Pieces go, this one is about as accessible as they come, and for those looking to explore this area of his career, this is a good place to start. Recommended.

_Xu Feng_ sounds like John Zorn meets _Thrakattak_ -- devastating structured improvisation of aggressive chaos, alien beauty, and extreme musical talent. The rules of this game and the chosen performers seek to emulate the high-speed intensity of the martial arts actress for which the piece is named. Zorn's six-man lineup is a little smaller than other game pieces, but the sonic depth is not compromised. On guitars, you have the mighty Fred Frith and John Schott, on electronics/computers you have Chris Brown and David Slusser, and on drums & percussion you have metal juggernaut Dave Lombardo and avant-garde genius William Winant. Under Zorn's conducting, this lineup navigates the most violent, intense game piece yet composed. From the crunchy, discordant assault of "The Valiant Ones" to the high-speed clamor and destruction of "Dragon Gate Inn" to the lovely underground alien-world sounding "The Beauty of Yang Hui-Chen" or the part of "Trouble at Spring Inn" where pure chaos turns into a spiky, stuttering blues chord with heavy, liquid percussion, every single track is completely satisfying. It is difficult to describe the music: imagine 90s King Crimson on a night of their most terrifying improv, unleashing a sonic fury that can rend the flesh off your bones and still delight you with the sheer joy of it all. Definitely pick this up.

The sounds of this particular game piece sounds like the[...] child of Naked City and Painkiller, and indeed NC alum Fred Frith plays.

The combination is intriguing--two guitarists, two percussionists and two electronicists (??), though evidently these game pieces could also be done with just six percussionists. The tracks here don't come across as stifling as other game pieces, but instead as a free-flowing thrash-improv by these six Zorn-picked artists into some of the dissonance and jazz power of Naked City and also the bone-gnashing belly flop of Painkiller. Aside from a lot of self-aggrandizing in the liner notes, Zorn also notes that the process of a game piece is as much involved in the choice of musicians as the structuring of the piece itself, and this particular go-round of the game piece seems to be more open in letting out these musical voices.

This may also be because these musical voices are so powerful--aside from Fred Frith, some other notable names are William Winant and John Schott. Possibly, these talents were a little too overbearing to be utterly controlled by Zorn and ended up creating their own sound. I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of Zorn's intentions in the game pieces, but this game piece is one that seems to actually work on that level. This effect may also come from Zorn's description of the process here being more like a Kung-Fu film, full of competition and conflict rather than subservience to its conductor/director/sensei. This CD is brash and full of bird-flips and face-kicks. Quite worth picking up.

More twisted improv and chaos from the great John Zorn. When he's not examining the peculiarities of Jewish jazz with his band Masada, pushing the limits of modern composition with his on/off group Naked City or composing cartoon music for Japanese S&M films, Zorn amuses himself in this arena - sonic chaos and freeform avant garde improvisation. Fans of Zorn's experimental outfit Cobra might be drawn to this project - whose pieces were composed from 1977 to 1989 (picking up where Cobra left off). What Zorn does is "structure" the improv - though you would be hard pressed to tell there's a method to this madness. It's screaming freeform - with the players (including Chris Brown: electronics, Fred Frith: guitars, Dave Lombardo: drums & percussion, John Schott: guitars, David Slusser: electronics snf William Winant: drums & percussion) attacking their instruments with ear-splitting intensity. Arguably more agressive than Cobra - and, thankfully, not quite as fractured. Not for the weak at heart or newcomers to Zorn's world of music.

It's really hard to think of anything bad to say about this cd, it's jazz and it sounds pretty darn good. John Zorn plays alto sax on this cd along with Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and Joey Baron on drums. There's definitely a very good vibe to this cd that carries through all 10 tracks.

If you're into jazz or avante garde music and haven't heard of Zorn, you have alot to look forward to. This cd could be considered one good place to begin that exploration.