So if you're unfamiliar with the man's œuvre [Fr. Egg - Ed.], where do you start? And who gives a flying one? Easier to shrug and walk away. It's not like there's nothing else to listen to - you're only up to Disc Two in that 81-disc King Crimson The Complete Soundchecks '69-'72 box set.
But then you'd miss this swell album. You should leave it at this, though. No point wading into the bottomless tar pit of his discography hoping for more of the same - this is as good as he gets. Featuring Albert Collins, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Big John Patton, and Robert Quine, it's at once avant-garde (I suppose) and entertaining. Even collegiate wankers The Kronos Quartet and Bill Frisell (hurrah! now the party can start!) don't stink things up too much.
Learn this handy screed for when your confreres mention Zorn like you never heard of the guy:
"Zorn? Seriously? Don't you sense a creative bankruptcy, a sterility of form, in his endless semiotics? Oh, I play Spillane from time to time because it amuses me. As to the rest..." [blow cheeks out, small shake of the head].
That should shut the fuckers up.
I get the queasy feeling th' 4/5 Guys© is going to chime in with a bunch of Zorn I should lissen to, and/or U-Chewb clips of them sobbing "leave Bill Friselll alo-o-ooooone!" Read my lips - I DON'T CARE.
ReplyDeleteSpillane is groovy, though. Ax and it shall happen.
Yeah this is the best one! Great album!
DeleteSpillane is groovy alright.
ReplyDeleteSo are the "Naked City" Records.
Nuthin' wrong with Zorn. I have Spillane, Naked City, In Search of the Miraculous.....An acquired taste much like coffee brewed in one of a Calf's 3 stomachs...and people flock to Starbucks for $20 dollar Chocolate Milk....Pshaw..
ReplyDeleteIf you care to educate my tastes, why not loadup a nalbum? Or drop a hat - which is usually enough to make me change my opinion.
DeleteWaitta goddam minute there - 20 bucks for a malted????
Delete
ReplyDeleteThat Hammer Guy
Willard was a Zorn fanatic...often hyping him up to the heights of Ennio Morricone.
ReplyDeleteI did download a few items but I never played either of them. We are far beyond saturation levels and there just aren't enough units of listening freedom to even consider which music will be selected next. I choose is to lose. It's to the point that it has to be an artistic realization that less is more. Zorn at least made me ponder such truths. The Good, The Bad And The Zorn. The Book Of World Records is obviously a freak show. Do I need a musical taste algorithm?
I downloading this against my better judgement because there is nothing I like better than to tell People I have something that I have no intention of listening to.
ReplyDeleteYum...the bourbon tastes very nice right now. Maybe I'll spin this after all...yuk yuk yuk!
In case this post leaves a bitter, chalky aftertaste - I can't think of anything of less inherent value than an internet opinion, especially on music. My own included. I write to make myself laugh (in a dry, joyless way), and it's hard to do that while being complimentary and pleasant (ie "woke").
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do find the mass of Zorn's output intimidating, and only Spillane has stuck to me after I shook everything else off. If I'm missing out, please do post a link to something I might enjoy (ie at the lowbrow, non-scrapey end of his work - I'm no longer interested in having someone challenge my narrow tastes with post-modern atonality.
Amen.
ReplyDeleteAs a community rsdio every other week for 2 hours new jazz release radio show, I welcome Bill Frisell's productivity. I will play his stuff, and Danny DeFrancesco, too. Fun releases by Loudon III and Jim Kweskin in the "jazz" hole, not to mention Al DiM. the newly late Chick, Carlos' wife, and many other things of little to no interest. Thelonius Monk quartet recorded live at a California high school. Jazz isn't dead, it just smells funny. The units of listening freedom imply the existence of chalky liquids. These, I have tasted.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure if I could go to a local jazz gig I'd damn well go, and have a good time. There aren't any, so I listen to recordings, and here the choice is - do I listen to something recorded seventy years ago, or seventy days? The calendar is irrelevant - I'll listen to the best by the greatest, as I have the choice. People will go on making music, because it's fun and fulfilling and better than not, but Frisell is going to have to get in line, and it's a long one. Not that he cares, or should.
DeleteToday's musicians have the technique, the opportunity, and the means. What they lack is the context and the culture that produced [YOUR JAZZ COLOSSUS CHOICE HERE]. Everyone's making music (of whatever genre) that refers back to its influences, its creators, attempting to reheat the soufflé. I'm not saying they should just pack up their instruments and go home, but thanks to the music business (with all its evils) I can listen to those who did it first and best, and it sounds new every time.
Are we Miles from nowhere? Already!?!
DeleteGod, how I wish there were "No Opium Smoking Allowed" still hanging throughout the old entertainment and groggery districts. I know that if they were still part of the decor, I would be a Jazz and pillow enthusiast. There's nothing better than becoming the music and I just can't get into it unless I'm kinda blue on a Persian (d)rug. What? I am awake...and listening with my eyes closed.
So what? It sounds really good when I can follow the music.
PAPAver knows best. That's what is missing from modern culture...Ancient medicine and ageless music.
I just wish I could prove it.
I like his album "Nekkid City"; their version of henry Mancini's "A Shot in the Dark" goes between horrible skronk and swingin' jazz.
ReplyDeleteI'm listening to Naked City right now, as we type. Something was nagging at me, so I resorted to wiki, thus:
Delete[The band] was initiated by Zorn as a "composition workshop to test the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup."
I'm not sure what this means. I don't hear anything particularly testing, composing-wise, here. I hear genre cherry-picking, and a camp sense of reference. If it weren't for the outbursts of free-jazz skronk, it could be a good bar band working the changes just before they put the chairs on the tables. If that's the point - then what's the point? Cleverness? Irony, god help us?
If Zorn is serious (I can't imagine him any other way) about testing compositional limits, he might lend an ear to Song Cycle, which does exactly that, without the "challenging" free jazz.
So I had my moment of openness, but Spillane does this (whatever "this" is) better, and I'm back to the comfort of my prejudices.
Saw Naked City in Liverpool 1989. Zorn's then-obsession with Thrash/Hardcore was very apparent and his inter-song banter was pretty cool ("This one is another entry in the Elvis Presley murder files"). In recognition of the gig's locale Zorn dedicated a number to "a great great group that hails from this city...renowned around the world...putting Liverpool on the map...
DeleteCarcass" (boom-tish)
Agree -- the spazz jazz and shrieking wears very thin very fast for me. I much prefer the slow burn of Spillane even when I listened to loud fast music more often.
DeleteThat line about "testing the limits of composition in a traditional rock band lineup" - he's either got a sense of humor I didn't credit him with, or he's full of shit. There's no middle ground here. The Naked City compositions are plain and generic - without th "spazz jazz" (nice) splatter they'd serve as a union scale B-movie soundtrack (and again, if that's the point - what's the point?). There are many rock/pop musicians who genuinely did "test the limits of composition" - Zappa's use of insane time signatures and complex arrangements far exceed Zorn's own compositional limitations. Or John McLaughlin, Steely Dan, Beefheart/Magic Band, Grateful Dead, Soft Machine, etc. etc.
DeleteZorn is a charlatan (and not in a good way, like The Charlatans). But Spillane would be good by anybody.
I have been a Zorn fan for many years (since the late 80s). Being in close proximity to NYC, I was able to see many, many incarnations of his perform live. Especially the month long birthday celebrations. Spillane is very good, Naked City is a favorite, as well as his Film Works series, and Painkiller. If you don't like the skronk, check out the Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet which is probably his most straight ahead recording. I do find, however, that in the last 10 years or so, he has become very repetitive, and it's lots of recycling, and more about quantity than quality.
ReplyDeleteThe upside of musicians that smatter their notes across countless releases is they sometimes put out brilliant stuff! Wading through with an optimistic mindset might depend on what caught your ear first. The downside of seeking out such a musicians catalogue is you need more hours than you probably have left in life to begin to enjoy them. I've enjoyed maybe a dozen Zorns, but i've only kept maybe 3, maybe 4 of his stuff.
ReplyDelete