John Zorn Music

I reviewed the rerelease of this album, and suggest you buy the remastered version for the clarity of the remastering job. Not that the original was bad--far from it. It's a fantastic recording--weird and wonderful.

This is one of my favorite Zorn albums, though it's a challenging listen on some of the pieces.

Great record by John Zorn,more for Zorn's fans than Morricone's. Zorn manages to create an inventive and extraodinary blend of modern and film music. We know Zorn has always been a fan of film music specially toon music, but this time he went beyond all expectations. This is a jewel in any record serious collection and I don't mean this music lacks sense of humour! If you can't find this CD, I strongly recomend to get YANKEES in Charly Records reissue. J.L.

Playing around with sound (snippets of different kinds of music, ambient noise, etc.) within a framework of rules (supposedly based on game theory in math). Composed improvisation (someone in the liner notes of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra's Ode says Zorn says if he knows a musician, he knows what he will improvise in a given situation). Ennio Moriccone composed the music for the old Clint Eastwood westerns. Fun stuff.

let me start by saying that what the person who posted the review from august 1998 is not correct. john zorn has done so-called "game pieces" that are based on very strict rules: e.g. "cobra", "pool" and "archery". however, on this tribute he does NOT use that approach. onto my thoughts of this cd then: if you like morricones music and are looking for new and adventurous interpretations - buy it! in the liner notes morricone himself states that he usually objects to the idea of his music being re-interpreted and/or re-recorded by other artists, but that he was pleasantly surprised with zorn's achievements, and that he actually even liked them. which speaks for itself, i'd say. enough said.

I reviewed the rerelease of this album, and suggest you buy the remastered version for the clarity of the remastering job. Not that the original was bad--far from it. It's a fantastic recording--weird and wonderful.

This is one of my favorite Zorn albums, though it's a challenging listen on some of the pieces.

Great record by John Zorn,more for Zorn's fans than Morricone's. Zorn manages to create an inventive and extraodinary blend of modern and film music. We know Zorn has always been a fan of film music specially toon music, but this time he went beyond all expectations. This is a jewel in any record serious collection and I don't mean this music lacks sense of humour! If you can't find this CD, I strongly recomend to get YANKEES in Charly Records reissue. J.L.

Playing around with sound (snippets of different kinds of music, ambient noise, etc.) within a framework of rules (supposedly based on game theory in math). Composed improvisation (someone in the liner notes of the London Jazz Composers Orchestra's Ode says Zorn says if he knows a musician, he knows what he will improvise in a given situation). Ennio Moriccone composed the music for the old Clint Eastwood westerns. Fun stuff.

let me start by saying that what the person who posted the review from august 1998 is not correct. john zorn has done so-called "game pieces" that are based on very strict rules: e.g. "cobra", "pool" and "archery". however, on this tribute he does NOT use that approach. onto my thoughts of this cd then: if you like morricones music and are looking for new and adventurous interpretations - buy it! in the liner notes morricone himself states that he usually objects to the idea of his music being re-interpreted and/or re-recorded by other artists, but that he was pleasantly surprised with zorn's achievements, and that he actually even liked them. which speaks for itself, i'd say. enough said.

There are few albums as diverse as this one. It's a real challenge for any listener. There are three less-than-a-minute tracks of aggressive, hardcore jazz/rock. Then there's the title track, which starts off with a string quartet and ends with the sounds of splitered wood and whip cracks. Cycles du Nord is over ten minutes of wind --- yes, ten minutes of wind. Then there's the music box song, a bit of Latin guitar, and a little lullaby on percussion and celeste.

Buy this if you're feeling VERY adventurous. If not, try Taboo & Exile first. Or The Gift. Those albums have the same format --- lots of different musical styles, including sound effects and noisy stuff --- but they are more accessible.

This CD nicely compacts the range of John Zorn. With pieces like "Bikini Atoll" and "Bone Crusher," Zorn shows his thrash side, also giving Prelapse, a sharp little band who would bill themselves as performers of "John Zorn's unrecorded music," a little nod with their first recorded outing. (It may be out of print, but if possible, score yourself Prelapse's Avant release.) "Cycles du Nord" exemplifies the Morton Feldman-esque Zorn, as he manipulates wind machines and acoustic feedback systems for over 20 minutes. There's "Dreamer of Dreams," which brings out the jazzy Zorn, the one that let Naked City jam and not just thrash, and then there is, of course, the quick-change Zorn with the title track. All this mixed in with the creepy element of Zorn, as "Fils des Etoiles," "This Way Out" and "SooKi's Lullaby," juxtaposed with the rather horrific and at least somewhat sexualized images of young bodies in the insert artwork, make simple-sounding tunes, as though for children, make one want to hide the little ones.

Of course, one could say that this is all the culmination of the vast musical intellect of John Zorn and that there really IS no distinction from one piece to another (and this may be supported by the title, which suggests that this is all just a single volume of Music Romance), and while Prelapse is certainly the second coming of Naked City (and perhaps a little more enthusiastic), and classic names like William Winant and Anthony Coleman and Marc Ribot bring depth to the playing on this disc, there is something ultimately disjointed about this collection. Perhaps I am just not seeing the ultimate connection, and maybe that is my own failing, but this disc fails to deliver its final commonality in the end.

An album of unnerving variation, "Music For Children" is a collection of compositions by John Zorn that seem unrelated but somehow fit together. The album consists of two extended works, three hardcore miniatures left over from Naked City's "Torture Garden", and three mid-length compositions.

The extended compositions end up being the most difficult, the title track, "Music For Children", is a scored for violin (David Abel), piano (Julie Steinberg) and percussion (William Winant). It's one of the more difficult of Zorn's classical pieces, scored in small, seemingly unrelated blocks (of what someone else referred to as cartoon music, though I don't her it), playing silence and the instruments off of each other. It's a thoroughly enjoyable listen, but it hasn't sunk in with me yet just what's going on. But as odd as "Music For Children" is, it's nothing compared to "Cycles du Nord". A tribute to Edgard Varese (an early pioneer of electronic music), Zorn performs on "three wind machines and two acoustic feedback systems", and sonically it sounds like standing in a staggeringly windy city street for twenty minutes-- there's an occasional noise beneath the wind that's hard to make out, and sometimes feedback swells, but by and large it's all about wind. Remarkably, although on my first listen I found it downright irritating (I was in my car), when I played it at work, I found it intriguing.

The Naked City hardcore pieces are performed by a band called Prelapse, with Zorn guesting on two tracks. The total length of the three pieces is just about two and a half minutes, and they're about what you'd expect-- frantic, cross genre blasts. When Zorn doesn't play, there seems to be a distinct lack of personality on the material that leaves me wondering how much Naked City was the sum of its parts and how much Naked City was purely a reflection of Zorn (I suspect somewhere in between is the case).

The remaining three pieces are pretty diverse-- opener "Fils des Etoiles", performed by Anthony Coleman on celeste and Cyro Baptista on percussion and vocal is kind of hard to describe-- it's certainly interesting enough, Baptista sort of half chants over a lovely celeste performance and hand percussion. The remaining two pieces are far easier to digest-- "Dreamer of Dreams", performed by a trio of Marc Ribot (guitar), Erik Friedlander (cello), and Greg Cohen (bass) sounds like an extra piece from "Bar Kokhba". Ribot is smokey and bluesy, and unusually sensitive and his performance is the highlight here, and this also seems to point the way to "The Gift". Closer "Sooki's Lullaby", performed on "celeste music box" by Coleman, is a pretty music box melody that is delicate an quiet, and a nice reprieve after the twenty minutes of rushing wind on "Cycles du Nord".

overall, "Music For Children" is a fine record, it lacks that certain something that Zorn's best work has, but its well worth a listen.

"Fils des Etoiles" is an evocative wonder with Cyro Baptista's percussion and wordless vocals supplementing Anthony Coleman on celeste. The celeste is a keyboard instrument with soft hammers that hit metal plates for bell-esque sounds.

"This Way Out", "Bikini Atoll", and "Bone Crusher" are previously unrecorded Naked City songs performed by the band Prelapse. These would have fit well on _Torture Garden_ -- basically, these "hardcore miniatures" jam as much as possibly into its limited timeframe, from grindcore rushes to twinkling jazz piano. All three are short (the longest is only one minute and ten seconds), genre-hopping, flesh-tearing blasts. John Zorn guests on alto sax on "Bone Crusher".

"Music for Children" is a frightening composition for violin (David Abel), piano (Julie Steinberg), and percussion (William Winant). Unpredictably shifting between playful piano dances, screeching violins, haunting silences, jarring crashes, and flailing combinations that evoke nightmares from an evil void. Very dark and disturbing.

"Dreamer of Dreams" is a subdued beauty where Marc Ribot (guitar) is backed by Erik Friedlander (cello) and Greg Cohen (bass). An elemental, swaying rhythmic study of Zorn's ability to weave beauty and subtlety.

"Cycles du Nord" is something some (read: most) people will find unlistenable, while others may find it interesting. The instrumentation consists of three wind machines and two acoustic feedback systems. Basically, it sounds like a hurricane with ear-shredding frequencies from pitch to buzz. It mellows out towards the end but it mostly abrasive and scary. Perhaps it symbolizes an innocence in exploration or something. I find it very musical...if you REALLY listen to it, you can hear that it is communicating very dynamic moods. Zorn sculpts the sounds and achieves intense contrasts and varieties within this atypical sonic framework. This piece is dedicated to Edgard Varese, an obscure avant-garde composer who influenced Zorn and was also highly regarded by Frank Zappa.

"SooKi's Lullaby" is a short, lovely song played on music box (again Anthony Coleman). Enchanting, delicate, and probably the most appropriate song for a child you'll find on this album.

How do such disparate styles hang together? Remarkably well, although the connection is mostly thematic rather than musical. To get a partial sense of the purpose behind this album, I will share with you an excerpt from the liner notes:

"Rich ground for love and enthusiasm, innocence is delight in the natural charm of being and the unconscious experience of contradictions which no longer have a tragic character. To attain the virginal joy of innocence, one must not little contradictions consciously, or know tragedy and thoughts of death, because such knowledge is baffling, complex, and requires disjunction. Innocence resists tragedy but welcomes love, because the innocent, never troubled by inner contradictions, have generous impulses."

Other passages in the booklet elaborate on different ideas, and there are images inside of creepy dolls reflecting myriad attributes of childhood. Ultimately I think the album's musical entirety is an unusual contemplation on childhood's nature.

A very interesting album, though perhaps oit should come with a disclaimer, since actually exposing children to these songs would equate to child abuse and turn them into serial killers.

Ranging from soft music box themes to wind machines to Naked City-style pieces, _Music for Children_ is a diverse work of dissimilar moods encapsulated by a striking theme.

John Patton's career goes back over 40 years. He actually scored several hits by Lloyd Price (remember Personality ???) before a fruitful association with the likes of GRANT GREEN and Blue Note Records. - - From the begining John distinguished himself for a unique style of Jazz organ playing. If you're looking for just another Jimmy Smith copycat... forget this one. John is a founding member of two schools of the B-3, one the "heavy" experimental one, which would be taken over by Larry Young, and the other SOUL JAZZ, which would be taken over by Reuben Wilson, Charles Earland and countless others. BIG JOHN PATTON though is the roots. And here he is in the '90s with a sound that's the perfect blend between classic soul Jazz organ playing and hints of things to come. This album is one of his best. Earthy, Unconventional, hip and lot's of energy. John is alive and well, so keep an eye out for him - - I recently saw him in NYC with Reuben Wilson and he was hotter than ever. GET THIS ALBUM then dig deep into his classics then let me know what you think.

This project is every mega-fan's wet dream: the chance to make a feature-length film about the subject of one's passion, only to override that subject with one's own ego. Claudia Heuermann is essentially the star of her little film. She relegates Zorn, his music, and the Downtown New York milieu to the sidelines so she can muse droningly about the art of filmmaking and how important she is to the process that's supposed to be happening here. Each time this film shows some potential to give us some depth -- through the music if not its evasive subject's own words -- it fails, drifting off to another of Heuermann's musings about film and, less often, Zorn. There are dozens of prime concert clips, interview fragments, and other teasers in this film, but they are simply left as that: teasers, reminding us briefly that the subject is supposed to be Zorn and not the director. Now someone needs to come along and *really* make a film about this misunderstood genius, Zorn.

I can't say I loved every second of this movie. I found the filmmaker and her narratives so irritating I wanted to shoot her by the end of the film. However, what she did manage to capture of John Zorn and his process is so fascinating I can't help but recommend it to ANYONE who is interested in making music, whether they can wrap their heads around his music or not. Sure, you have to put up with her drivel and her whining, but it's worth it in my opinion just to watch Zorn instructing an improvisational ensemble on the use of flash cards, directing an orchestra that includes a guy slurping and spitting water and another sawing the legs off chairs, and of course his strangely insightful if cryptic theories on music. As an artist and musician, I found it massively inspiring and I recommend it to all my like-minded friends, with the caveate that she's intolerable and they probably won't dig all the music right away...

The negative reviews of this documentary and its creator Claudia Heuermann are unfair. It's pretty obvious that John Zorn's decision to absent himself from the film-making process ("I hadn't spoken to Zorn for over a year," Heuermann says at one point) is at the heart of the documentary's problems. Without its subject's active participation, Heuermann seems to have had to fall back to a different, problematic approach to her film and its subject (that she was evidently passionate about and committed to) which ultimately leads to the issues that the other reviewers here so eloquently kvetch about.

Heuermann's 'Sabbath In Paradise' (1997) is an interesting and accomplished investigation into the beginnings of the NYC Radical Jewish Culture scene. With informed, thoughtful input from Anthony Coleman (the movement's intellectual powerhouse for my money), Andy Statman and Marc Ribot, among others, it proves that Heuermann is a talented director with the vision to work in an area of contemporary music that requires documenting in an intelligent way, such is it's highly-conceptual basis.

This is still interesting though. Good footage of Zorn's various projects, game piece rehearsal footage, Naked City stuff, Masada stuff, some classical stuff and a bit of Zorn sounding off about Germany. Perhaps Heuermann could have gone to Zorn's peers for the insight that Zorn was not able/willing to give her (sadly, as his contributions to the extra documentary on the 'Sabbath In Paradise' DVD are entertaining and interesting enough) but she didn't.

So, flawed and a missed opportunity, yes - but I really don't believe the vehement criticism here is justified or even directed in the right direction. It's OK, and it's all that's out there. And Zorn is such a unique character that surely any attempt to 'capture' or explain him is doomed to failure.

Claudia Heuermann's "A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: Twelve Stories About John Zorn" is not quite what it seems. Expectations ran high, a documentary about John Zorn, the man who rarely grants interviews and when he does, seems to say everything and not say anything at all, whose music jumps genre to genre in a matter of seconds, captivates some, horrifies others, and has a strange sway over its fan.

What Heuermann did though was quite a bit different-- she told the story about her trying to make the movie, about her relationship with Zorn, from the moment she first discovered him (a friend playing her Naked City's "Torture Garden") to her meeting him for the first time, travelling to New York and deciding to make a movie about Zorn. It's really a piece abuot self-discovery, about learning to be one's "own parent".

Along the way, we get snippets of interviews with Zorn, brilliant statements, footage of rehearsals, recording sessions, remastering of "The Big Gundown" and live performances from Naked City, Painkiller, Masada, Bar Kokhba, Emergency, and "Rituals". We also get a brief explanation of game pieces and a picture of a frustrated artist who can't stop looking, who views music as problem solving, and who does it not for listeners, but for himself and the musicians.

This is the second time I've watched this-- the first time was when it first came out, and I was still in the process of discovering Zorn's work through a chance encounter at an independent movie theater (Naked City was the house music before the show, and somehow I knew who it was). Three months and a dozen or so Zorn CDs later and this came out to guide my way, to help put the pieces together.

A year after that and my Zorn collection is bordering on obscene and the piece still holds weight. It still is entertaining, and yeah, its not a lot of revelatory stuff, but it's a worthwhile viewing. Truth to be told, in many ways, the piece gave validity to my own view on my choice of career and my great passions. And I keep thinking that maybe when my coworkers ask why I'm making the four hour trip to New York City yet again to see some obscure musician who they've never heard of (and who if they did hear, they'd probably dislike), maybe in those situations I should let them borrow this and certainly Heuermann's experience isn't really that much different from mine. Isn't that powerful enough to merit a recommendation to someone else?

If you're just learning about Zorn, get this, it's critical. If you're already initiated, you probably already have it. It's got its flaw, but invariably, it's a deeply personal expression, how could it not? Either way, it's a fun film to watch. Recommended.

I hesitate to call this film a documentary, for it seems to serve the mystique of John Zorn rather than circumvent it (or move through it) to examine the work of a man who has broke open a whole new way of composing music. Even more than serving the mystique (done through endless misses between the film maker and her subject matter and only brief glimpses of music being made), the film ultimately seems to serve the film maker to muse upon the process of creating films...but hardly in any way that provides insight.

There are interesting, brief glimpses into Zorn putting together a game piece performance, for example, but I came out of this feeling that I had been given some opportunity to glimpse some of the people behind the music, but no further understanding of the music or the artist behind the music than what I have devised through my own listening and through articles I've read talking about noise as well. Obviously, this film wants to examine the music more than the man, but I think it did it very poorly, with only brief peeks at Zorn's various styles and some interesting blurbs from Zorn himself, but more I felt that I just watched someone trying to make a documentary about Zorn and generally failed, so she decided to put herself in the movie to fill it out some.

A lost opportunity.

Tracks...

1. Cage And The Long Island Expressway And Enlightened Whistler (David Byrne)
2. John Cage Excerpt #1
3. In Just Spring (Debbie Harry)
4. John Cage Excerpt #2
5. Proust (Arto Lindsay)
6. John Cage Excerpt #3
7. John Cage Descending (Ars Hell And Mutt)
8. John Cage Excerpt #4
9. Verlaine: Part 2 La Bleue (John Zorn)
10. John Cage Excerpt #5
11. Right In The Head (Chris Stein)
12. John Cage Excerpt #6
13. Dishwasher (Amy Denio)
14. John Cage Excerpt #7
15. Cheap Imitation (David Weinstein And Shelly Hirsch)
16. 329 Overtones For John Cage (Lee Renaldo)
17. Helmut Newton Told Me, Wish You Were Here, Oh! To Be Invited To The Venice Biennale
18. John Cage Excerpt #8
19. Overpopulation And Art (Jello Biafra And Eugene Chadbourne)
20. John Cage Excerpt #9
21. An Excerpt From Metal Machine Music (Lou Reed)
22. Indet (Elliot Sharp)
23. John Cage Excerpt #10
24. The Wonderful Widow Of Eighteen Springs (Joey Ramone)
25. John Cage Excerpt #11