Thank-you. I'll watch it sometime when I get bored at work tomorrow!
The Gift sounds intriguing. I like some of Zorn's easy listening stuff.
Just playing Spillane. I like Forbidden Fruit at the end. Side 2 of the LP is 30 minutes long!
A user's guide to John Zorn
- Thread starter sideshowbob
- Start date
Thank-you. I'll watch it sometime when I get bored at work tomorrow!
The Gift sounds intriguing. I like some of Zorn's easy listening stuff.
Just playing Spillane. I like Forbidden Fruit at the end. Side 2 of the LP is 30 minutes long!
kjb
Proof reading not always a strength
Good refresh of thread.
i'd add that there's a sort of follow up to The Gift called The Dreamers which I would recommend.
I saw Zorn's 60th Birthday show at the Barbican a year or so back. There was an amazing diversity to the work from thrash through free jazz to almost liturgical vocal pieces. A friend has recommended his Thredony for Lou Reed
I think it's this one :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NMNX82O/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
but I've not got round to getting it as yet. Has anyone else dipped into the vocal stuff on record?
What about more recent stuff like the Gnostic Trio - I feel like I've lost track of more recent work - not difficult given he remains so prolific.
I have hard Tap - Pat Metheny playing some Book of Angels songs. Not one I'd recommend.
Kevin
i'd add that there's a sort of follow up to The Gift called The Dreamers which I would recommend.
I saw Zorn's 60th Birthday show at the Barbican a year or so back. There was an amazing diversity to the work from thrash through free jazz to almost liturgical vocal pieces. A friend has recommended his Thredony for Lou Reed
I think it's this one :
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00NMNX82O/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
but I've not got round to getting it as yet. Has anyone else dipped into the vocal stuff on record?
What about more recent stuff like the Gnostic Trio - I feel like I've lost track of more recent work - not difficult given he remains so prolific.
I have hard Tap - Pat Metheny playing some Book of Angels songs. Not one I'd recommend.
Kevin
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I've had the remastered version of The Big Gundown for some time. I have three versions. The LP, The first CD and the remastered CD. I stuck with the 1st CD for general listening - probably due to some misplaced early-Cds-are-best idealism – but when I put the remastered one on – is it just me or does if have a greatly improved sound?
And the extra tracks are growing on me. I mistrusted them when I bought it, because they were recorded long after the event with different musicians. But they're interesting and very well played..
And the extra tracks are growing on me. I mistrusted them when I bought it, because they were recorded long after the event with different musicians. But they're interesting and very well played..
johnfromnorwich
even my wife noticed the dif..
This thread has reminded me how much I miss SSBs contributions to the music room.
kasperhauser
pfm Member
Amen. And elsewhere.
kjb
Proof reading not always a strength
Well, thanks Mr D. for refreshing the thread. A copy of "The Transmigration of The Magus" arrived today, propelled by this revised thread, and very lovely it is too. Organ, Guitar (Frisell who never sounds better than when playing Zorn), two harps and two vibes/bells. Book of Angels type tunes but quite gorgeous in this setting.
If I could only have music by one person it would be Zorn's complete works, partly because there is so blooming much of it but also because it cover pretty much all bases.
It's worth checking out The Dreamers. Its from 2007 and quite melodic - one highlight of the birthday concert was a song cycle where Mike Patton did a version on a tune from The Dreamers with lyrics which were , I think, written by someone who'd worked with Norah Jones.
it's twelve minutes into this fabulous sequence and, two and a half minutes in, is a piece of complete magic. The original tune is from Book of Angels 10 - the Bar Kokhba record is another worth seeking out particularly if you like the Circle Maker records.
If I could only have music by one person it would be Zorn's complete works, partly because there is so blooming much of it but also because it cover pretty much all bases.
It's worth checking out The Dreamers. Its from 2007 and quite melodic - one highlight of the birthday concert was a song cycle where Mike Patton did a version on a tune from The Dreamers with lyrics which were , I think, written by someone who'd worked with Norah Jones.
it's twelve minutes into this fabulous sequence and, two and a half minutes in, is a piece of complete magic. The original tune is from Book of Angels 10 - the Bar Kokhba record is another worth seeking out particularly if you like the Circle Maker records.
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It's another departure for Zorn. I've never heard The Dreamers or actually knew he was doing songs. The Dreamers is a whole sequence of CDs, right? I guess you are talking about the 1st CD the one with the creatures on it? I get confused with Zorn's recent workm because the projects seem to revisit each other The Dreamers is a CD and then is a band and then they play a Masada Book, for example. The CDs also become a part of a numbered sequence as you mention.
Talking of The Dreamers CD, I have to say I'm a big fan of Chippy's art. Very diverse and really nice use of colours, typography, embossing, metal foils and die-cutting.
I have just ordered the third album by the Nova Express qt - the one that homages Burroughs and Gysin. Another nice cover that interprets Gysin's dream machine. I will check out The Dreamers next. Thanks for the suggestion.
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kjb
Proof reading not always a strength
The Song Project was released as a very pricey but lovely singles box set. No sure I'll shell out £50 for this but it looks far too desireable.
https://www.discogs.com/John-Zorn-The-Song-Project/release/6313593
There's also a live version:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00UK6JKXM/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
As you say The Dreamers is a band/ CD/ series and The Dreamers are the band on the song project
The Dreamers first CD is pretty similar to The Gift - all instrumental in a surf/jazz style played by usual suspects - Ribot, Baron, Saft etc. And it does have a neat cover and, in the one I got, a little booklet of stickers. I think the Dreamers band recorded one more record: as you say it's quite hard to keep tabs on the inter-relationship between the various groups/recordings/groups of songs.
While browsing around I also found this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00VUVDJJW/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
which, from the samples, sounds "interesting". Zorn does sometimes do a fabulous version of what Stereolab called avant grade easy listening.
As an aside, is there anything more joyful than watching Joey Baron play. I was well cheesed off at the Barbican concert as, although I was four rows from the front, Cyro Baptista's large percussion set up pretty much blocked my view of the drums. I ended up standing at the back for the Masada set to see a bit of Baron in action.
Kevin
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Wikipedia has five 'dreamers' CD listed.
I only saw Zorn once and that was at the Barbie, too. Was it the first gig that he came back to the UK after his run-in with customs? It had Frith and Laswell in the band. The only thing I can remember aside from Frith playing customarily barefoot, was a strange event involving Laswell. Laswell was standing on the right of the stage and Frith was on the left. Frith was have a solo turn and during it Laswell slowly walked over behind everyone on stage towards Frith's position. He came up behind Frith and his amp, picked up Frith's towel from the amp, and wiped his sweaty forehead with it. Then walked back. It came across as a deliberate ploy by Laswell to psyche-out Frith during his performance. Struck me as arrogant. I wondered if there was some inter-band rivalry between them. I'm afraid that the rest of the gig was unmemorable.
Avant garde easy listening? Very funny comment from the masters of easy listing. I think that could be applied to a fair bit of Zorn's works. Not sure it's always a bad thing. Look at Morricone - Zorn's role model he did both and the one fed into the other.
Sadly, avant garde is just another style, today. And although Stereolab knew their sources, they were easy listening without the avant garde.
Avant garde easy listening? It's a whole topic.
I see that Zorn cleverly references Stereolab on his site where he decribes the album Andras: The Book Of Angels Volume 28 as 'space-age bachelor pad music for the 21st century'
I only saw Zorn once and that was at the Barbie, too. Was it the first gig that he came back to the UK after his run-in with customs? It had Frith and Laswell in the band. The only thing I can remember aside from Frith playing customarily barefoot, was a strange event involving Laswell. Laswell was standing on the right of the stage and Frith was on the left. Frith was have a solo turn and during it Laswell slowly walked over behind everyone on stage towards Frith's position. He came up behind Frith and his amp, picked up Frith's towel from the amp, and wiped his sweaty forehead with it. Then walked back. It came across as a deliberate ploy by Laswell to psyche-out Frith during his performance. Struck me as arrogant. I wondered if there was some inter-band rivalry between them. I'm afraid that the rest of the gig was unmemorable.
Avant garde easy listening? Very funny comment from the masters of easy listing. I think that could be applied to a fair bit of Zorn's works. Not sure it's always a bad thing. Look at Morricone - Zorn's role model he did both and the one fed into the other.
Sadly, avant garde is just another style, today. And although Stereolab knew their sources, they were easy listening without the avant garde.
Avant garde easy listening? It's a whole topic.
I see that Zorn cleverly references Stereolab on his site where he decribes the album Andras: The Book Of Angels Volume 28 as 'space-age bachelor pad music for the 21st century'
mmaatt
pfm Member
Interesting, IMO Bill Laswell is actually a pretty average musician, but what he's good at is bringing other talented musicians together and getting important recordings out - he was by far the weakest member of Last Exit (the late Ronald Shannon Jackson features on the Albert Collins track on Spillane), yet they wouldn't have existed without him.
Good thread though even if it's an old one - I once saw Bill Frisell perform John Zorn's music at the Barbican, which was very good as I recall.
Must get some more records - I only have Spillane.
mat
boneman
pfm Member
This is a highly recommended set of Zorn's music from "The Book of Angels" -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016QE453Q/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016QE453Q/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
Painkiller.
I find myself listening to the Guts Of a Virgin 12" more and more. It never appealed to me as much as the Naked City albums, but it's really grown on me recently.
So, I've just ordered Buried Secrets on 12", partly because I found Laswell's dub-style bass interesting on it.
I find myself listening to the Guts Of a Virgin 12" more and more. It never appealed to me as much as the Naked City albums, but it's really grown on me recently.
So, I've just ordered Buried Secrets on 12", partly because I found Laswell's dub-style bass interesting on it.
foxwelljsly
Me too, I ate one sour too.
I've had a number of skirmishes with Zorn & Tzadik's catalogue and have a lot of it, though far from all. I haven't bought anything since O'o, the second Dreamers album, which was sublime, even if it sounded alarmingly like Ronnie Hazlehurst in places.
The one album of his I would drag from a burning house would be At the Mountains of Madness by Electric Masada on which this astonishing band truly tear the roof off the sucker. Two spellbinding sets touching metal, bubbling pushy prog, freeform avant garde noise, glitch techno and all points in between. It is a thing of wonder, groovy as **** and rippingly entertaining music.
There's a 2 hour radio 3 Jazz File Zorn documentary which is well worth listen.
The one album of his I would drag from a burning house would be At the Mountains of Madness by Electric Masada on which this astonishing band truly tear the roof off the sucker. Two spellbinding sets touching metal, bubbling pushy prog, freeform avant garde noise, glitch techno and all points in between. It is a thing of wonder, groovy as **** and rippingly entertaining music.
There's a 2 hour radio 3 Jazz File Zorn documentary which is well worth listen.
I've just bought Dream Machines played by the Nova Express Quartet and can't work out what to make of it. Not sure if it's the same as your Hazlehurst reference, but it's essentially easy-listening jazz featuring a vibraphone. I can't really fathom the Burroughs/Gysin idea behind it. I find Zorn's output bewildering diverse at times and not always to my taste.
Is that the Steve Beresford documentary? I have that one on minidiscs.
Zorn has been incredibly prolific and his music covers a wide range. Some of it definitely comes across as 'easy listening' and fails to engage my interest fully. Certainly I need to be more selective.
I do agree though that Mountains of Madness is just outstanding. I also like the Masada disks and stuff like the Circle Maker and Bar Kokhba.
I do agree though that Mountains of Madness is just outstanding. I also like the Masada disks and stuff like the Circle Maker and Bar Kokhba.