YANKEES (WITH DEREK BAILEY & GEORGE LEWIS)

The at times minimal, at times cacophonous, Avant-garde Jazz stylings of Mr. John ZORN, featuring here Derek BAILEY (guitar) and George LEWIS (trombone). Released in 1982, this is... a world to itself.

These are like musical scrawlings. Like scratches of ideas, etched into a bizarre little disc. 5 songs. They are as follows:

1. "City City City": scratching, scurrying, randomness, pings, pig squeals, meandering. Do you want full sentences, or what? I don't know what I can offer you here.

2. "The Legend of Enos Slaughter": now with more squeals(!), now with more scurrying randomness(!); Is the trombone the voice of this Enos Slaughter, or just farts? I got nothin'. Avant-garde Jazz, though I've tried (and succeeded with, in part; Hello Dave HOLLAND, John SURMAN, Roscoe MITCHELL, etc.), is not really in my wheelhouse (or understanding).

3. "Who's On First?": The shortest piece on here at just around 3 minutes. What is there to say that I haven't already? (Sorry?)

4. "On Golden Pond": And from the shortest track, we get to this, the longest track at nearly 18 minutes (and if this was on LP, as I assume, they must have really stretched its sides thin...). A few words here: rattle-tat-tat, gurgles, sawing, struggling, more farting, bubbling and more gurgling. Actually calls to mind some of the weird *SNORK* sounds made by Zappa and Co. on Lumpy Gravy and We're Only In It For The Money. We actually also get some of our first bits of what I would consider melody! Neat! /s

5. "The Warning Track": more meandering, more squeaking and squawking, what I'm unsure are vocalizations or the sound of lost horns. Have I mentioned farting in this review yet? I want to make clear, here and now, these are not real, actual farts.

So... the consensus so far, I'm going to have to agree. Is this music? Of course! Is it bizarre? Oh yeah... Who on here, at least, is going to be interested in this collection of songs? Not too many. And to those who, as I have, decide to venture here, best of luck to you.