The Jazz Desk:

I really like Hiding and Seeking. Of the twelve film works I have by him, it's probably in the top three, definitely top five. As for what kind of jazz, if it is jazz, I see it a soundtrack above all else, and also see the album as a whole as a single composition, with different movements. I can hear jazz in the album, but I do not listen to it as any specific genre or anything like that.

For the record, my favorite is No. 13, Invitation to a Suicide.

Makes perfect sense. The FW series would be a lot different than movie soundtracks. More atmospheric, less punctuation of dramatic moments.

Yes, these and the Masada String Quartets and the Bar Kokhba groups are quite different than Naked City or Spy Vs. Spy. If you're looking for a "jazzier" side of Zorn, I'd recommend the Masada (non-string) recordings with Dave Douglas on trumpet, the brilliant Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet, and Electric Masada.

No matter what your leanings toward Zorn music is, I'd also recommend "The Circle Maker" as one of the best of his Masada string quartet albums.

time for a MAC list

I'd say "where to start" or a list trying to cover most of his oevre in 25 albums would be more useful than a best of.

I was not referring to Zorn.. I haven't heard a single Zorn album :( Nonetheless, I'm going to join the cheerleading squad.

We shall commence to begin to start a list for our friend Rohit, who apparently has misspent his youth and not listened to a single John Zorn album. I'd like y'all to add a note after the selection(s) to give a capsule on why you think "x" belongs on this intro to Zorn list. I'll wade into the waters first...

25 Zorn Albums for Rohit
The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet Voodoo 1985
John Zorn Filmworks X - in the Mirror of Maya Deren 2001

Count = 2

The first is Zorn with his cool-bop best manners on, proving false the canard that avant-garde players can't play. Zorn and collaborators Horvitz, Drummond & Previte roll through 7 Sonny Clark tunes with aplomb. Clark was largely unknown to me before I picked up this album on Black Saint. That didn't hold for long. I have to say I play Zorn's version of Clark as much as I play Sonny himself.


The second is one of the beautiful, lyrical, haunting Filmworks series, and one that I mentioned above. Here Zorn plays piano, with Jamie Saft on organ, Erik Friedlander on cello and Cyro Baptisto on percussion. AMG calls this the most accessible of the Filmworks series and I guess I won't argue. This is a stellar album.

I'd say stronger than "featuring," although I guess I'd have to see what you mean as a f'rinstance. So, Zorn as composer or main player. Groups he's led, like Painkiller, are surely eligible. So, like Connor suggested, we don't just list the Filmworks series, but if we pick something out of Filmworks or Masada, we say why it deserves to be there--in y/our own humble opinion. And you are correct sir--I am a huge Zorn fan, but there are disks I genuinely dislike, and I'm sure there are ones I love that drive other people crazy.

So go ahead, folks, you know how it works here--I rarely if ever pull anything off the lists unless it's just crazy wrong. But I got 25 or more that I could justify on the list, so y'all better hurry.

matetoth said:
25 Zorn Albums for Rohit

The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo 1985
John Zorn - Filmworks X - in the Mirror of Maya Deren 2001
John Zorn - Redbird 1995
John Zorn, George Lewis, Bill Frisell - News for Lulu 1988
Pain Killer - Execution Ground 1994

News For Lulu
Reviewby Scott Yanow
© 2009 Macrovision Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Avant-garde altoist John Zorn teams up with trombonist George Lewis and guitarist Bill Frisell to form a unique trio. Without the benefit of piano, bass, or drums, they interpret the hard bop compositions of Kenny Dorham, Hank Mobley, Sonny Clark, and Freddie Redd, generally not even the better-known ones. The performances are quite concise (Dorham's "Windmill" is covered in 40 seconds), respectful to the melodies, and unpredictable. There are hints of the avant-garde here and there, but also plenty of swinging, bop-oriented solos and coherent ensembles. Very intriguing music that is highly recommended to a wide audience of jazz and general listeners.

25 Zorn Albums for Rohit

The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo 1985
John Zorn - Filmworks X - in the Mirror of Maya Deren 2001
John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone 1985
John Zorn - Redbird 1995
John Zorn & Fred Frith - The Art of Memory 1994
John Zorn, George Lewis, Bill Frisell - News for Lulu 1988
Pain Killer - Execution Ground 1994

count = 7



John Zorn & Fred Frith - The Art of Memory




Simply a great slab of improvisation from two masters of the art.

AMG Review

Based upon the ancient Roman methodology for remembering architectural sites and the meanings built into their structures, guitarist Fred Frith and saxophonist John Zorn pull out all the stops in creating a body of improvisation that does not rely on symbolic invitations or responses, but is instead a collaboration that builds an imposing musical structure from forgotten trends, hidden sonic languages, and metaphorical tonal construction. From the opening moments of "The Combiner," where Frith twines his guitar from the table into a rope with Zorn's microphonics and multivalent scalar invention, you can hear a sort of communication being authored just beyond your reach. That the dynamics of the collaboration match so perfectly, offering glimpses of both restraint and tension before obliterating them with humor and pure aggression, should be no surprise -- the pair sought to do this from the outset. In "The Ladder," Frith moves himself into a corner with funky soul chords and splattered arpeggios that Zorn picks up and transforms into a mutant vanguard swing. The tempo is dizzying as Frith rips open his chords for their found sonic elements and Zorn goes in to shore up the idea, flipping it over and turning it inside out as only a master improviser can do. By the time you reach "The Fountain and the Mirror," the players have switched roles many times, each playing support and leader, turning what were merely notions for collaborating along a certain path into audible bodies with their own pulses, minds, and blood. This is a revelatory album, and a near matchless collaboration.


John Zorn - The Big Gundown



Something completely different from the tough improvised music of the above - this is Zorn showing off his fun side. A veritable plethora of downtown musicians shine on these re-imaginings of Morricone's great scores. I got this when it came out and it was one of my earliest introductions to the 'avant-garde'; it remains a favourite.

AMG Review

On this intriguing concept album, altoist John Zorn (who also "sings" and plays harpsichord, game calls, piano, and musical saw) utilizes an odd assortment of open-minded avant-garde players (with a couple of ringers) on nine themes originally written for Italian films by Ennio Morricone, plus his own "Tre Nel 5000." These often-radical interpretations (which Morricone endorsed) keep the melodies in mind while getting very adventurous. Among the musicians heard on the colorful and very eccentric set (which utilizes different personnel and instrumentation on each track) are guitarists Bill Frisell and Vernon Reid, percussionist Bobby Previte, keyboardist Anthony Coleman, altoist Tim Berne, pianist Wayne Horvitz, organist Big John Patton, and even Toots Thielemans on harmonica and whistling among many others. There are certainly no dull moments on this often-riotous program.

25 Zorn Albums for Rohit

Buck Jam Tonic - Buck Jam Tonic 2003
John Zorn - The Big Gundown: John Zorn Plays the Music of Ennio Morricone 1985
John Zorn - The Circle Maker - 1998
John Zorn - Filmworks X - in the Mirror of Maya Deren 2001
John Zorn - Redbird 1995
John Zorn - Six Litanies for Heliogabalus 2007
John Zorn & Bobby Previte - Euclid's Nightmare 1997
John Zorn & Fred Frith - The Art of Memory 1994
John Zorn, George Lewis, Bill Frisell - News for Lulu 1988
Pain Killer - Execution Ground 1994
The Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo 1985

count = 9





Review

This 1997 duet recording between drumming ace Bobby Previte and saxophonist John Zorn is indicative -- pretty much -- of what Zorn's music was like at the time: There are plenty of hard bop linguistics mixed in with film noir themes and screeching, burning skronk. There are also short, lucid moments of melodic tranquility that prefigure much of Zorn's work from 1999 on. But mostly, this series of duets reveals something else, that two players from similar backgrounds, who have played in the same bands together and can understand each other on an almost symbiotic level, can still approach the same musical problem from two different sides and come up with the same answer. Nowhere is this clearer than on sections ten through 14 (there are 27 sections in all), which total about seven of the CD's 41 minutes. Here, Previte hears Zorn insistently and responds with short, crisp rim shots, rolling tom-toms, and scattershot cymbal runs that tend to stretch out the time, turn it loose from its constraints inside the work, and move forward into whatever frame Zorn chooses next. For his part, Zorn hears the thrumming of the cymbals and decides to speed up the piece in order to match Previte's double time. They both arrive in the pocket at the same time and kick the energy into an overdriven state of chaotic -- yet jubilant -- free improv, where there are no ties to gravity at all until Previte introduces a tom-tom and Zorn responds with a gorgeous angular legato. This is only one of dozens of surprises on Euclid's Nightmare. Zorn fans will be familiar with the level of histrionics employed here, while followers of Previte's more refined work may be put off by the constant atonality of the work.




Buck Jam Tonic is a double album of improvised music by John Zorn, Bill Laswell & Tatsuya Nakamura . The album was released on the Japanese Wilddisc label in 2003 and is comprised of one disc mixed in Tokyo and another mixed in New York City. A vinyl edition was also released containing only the Tokyo mix.

thanks again