JOHN ZORN

'Nosferatu' - John Zorn (8/10)

Truth be told, I haven't always liked the work of John Zorn. Although I agree with the notion that his best work is indicative of genius, I often get the impression with his solo albums that- quite frankly- there's not a great deal of intent behind them. Most of his musical ideas are engaging in the very least, but considering the man has put out several albums in this year alone, the hit-or-miss factor with his discography is no surprise. With that in mind, it is a joy and marvel to hear such a well-composed and executed album from him. John Zorn may be one of the most prolific composers out there, but as "Nosferatu" attests, this does not necessarily conflict with his quality. Minding the gap between dark ambient music and jazz, Zorn fashions an engaging and altogether believable horror film experience. However, amidst the subtle dissonance and spooky atmosphere, there are a handful of traditionally beautiful jazz tunes that distance it further from the concept gimmick it could have been made out to be. I wasn't sure what to expect at first, but Mr. Zorn has created something excellent with "Nosferatu".

"Nosferatu", of course, was originally a silent film; a masterpiece of German expressionism that managed to instill a sense of dread and macabre without a single touch of sound. Once again, in 1979, director Werner Herzog reimagined the vampire story into his own version, which ended up a masterpiece in its own right. For Zorn's purposes, I think the attention should be placed on the original. Although I'm not sure this album is timed meticulously enough to function as a proper soundtrack for the film, it's easy to envision the dark soundscapes here scoring a panning shot of a dilapidated manor-castle or a dimly lit banquet hall. "Desolate Landscape" is very much a representation of the ambient style on the album. It largely negates melody or even rhythm, instead focusing on mixing sounds and embellishing certain textures. The result may be lost on some listeners looking for something less abstract, but the effect of the atmosphere comes on strong and fast. It's oddly reminiscent of the same dark ambient stretches that the avant-garde black metal band Deathspell Omega have used in a couple of their albums.

Taking a look at the album titles, you can usually tell when it's going to be a dark ambient track. There is not a wild diversity within these compositions, but each feels distinctive enough to tell apart from the rest. "Fatal Sunrise" and "Death Ship" are other tracks to look out for. Had "Nosferatu" consisted of nothing but these pieces, I would have been impressed by its keen play with textures, but admittedly bored. Luckily, these dark ambient pieces are kept interesting by the fact that they're interspersed among a handful of more conventional jazz tracks. Fans of his work in Naked City may be expecting Zorn's 'jazz' here to be a chaotic swirl, but barring "The Battle of Good and Evil" (which is just as freaky as you would expect!) things are kept soft and even rather beautiful. "Lucy" and "Jonathan Harker" are the two greatest things "Nosferatu" has to offer. Although Zorn occasionally lends his virtuosic alto sax playing, the star performer here is pianist Rob Burger, who makes these largely keyboard-driven tunes come to life. These pieces often come close to feeling cinematic in their own right, albeit in a much different form than the spooky ambient material. Although the more abstract material on "Nosferatu" is something I think will provoke a love-or-hate response in most people, the piano-based tunes should be memorably beautiful by just about everyone's measure.

It's a great album, and Zorn proves here that he can take a concept piece seriously, without it becoming too abstract to process enjoyably. It's almost as if Zorn is Zappa's evil half- brother.

Bram Stoker is 100 years dead as of April 2012. Imagine that. Nosferatu is actually the name of a movie released in 1922 based on Stoker's novel Dracula but the studio wasn't able to get the rights the novel. The music was created for a modern Polish stage production that is supposed to be "of" the novel. I wasn't able to verify what they are actually calling the play, but anyway... I was a big horror movie fan and also a movie soundtrack fan when I was a kid before I got into prog and jazz and classical so I had to go for this album and it has some of all of that all rolled together. Before you even get to the music you have to take a look at and a feel of the package. The Tzadic label gets two thumbs up for all the CD album packaging and artwork I have encountered so far. The outer cover is a velvety textured black cardboard with dark red slick textured lettering and a little bat on the front. The back is also smooth and velvety with dripping blood from the top edge. The booklet is more of a matt finish but also uses slick clear lettering on the front and clear slick blood streaks running down from the top edges of the pages in various patterns. The booklet has a few pages of pictures from the production (play, dance?) and it looks like it would be really good to see. Maybe it will make it to DVD one day.

Two other albums come to mind and they are Philip Glass's Dracula soundtrack for the Bela Lugosi movie that did get the novel rights and Harold Budd's (not at all about Dracula or Nosferatu) She Is A Phantom. The latter album comes closer to it for having vibes and a more atmospheric quality to the music. Put the three together and you'll have a nice spooky trio.

The track names are fairly indicative of the music you get. The starter track Desolate Landscape starts out the album with foreboding dark ambient music. Mina mellows it out a little while with piano and vibes. The Battle of Good and Evil noisy as you would expect from a battle between good and evil. John gets to in a little of his trademark sax strangling of course. Very industrial sounding a little Nine Inch Nailsish.

Sinistera and Van Helsing have that spooky vibes driven sound that makes me think of the Budd album. Fatal Sunrise brings back some mellower sax work and Bill Laswell steps forward with some atmospheric bass. Hypnosis comes in and spins around your head vibes and electric piano. The Lucy theme has some similarities to another piece from another album, but I can't quite put my finger on it right now. All of the non-undead persons titled pieces on this are really down to earth, mellow, and contemplative. Nosferatu on the other hand is screwy and creepy with rat noises and Zorn's breath.

The Stalking is one of those trademark Bill Laswell ambient dub style pieces. It's a long stalking too, as all stalking should be I guess. Old horror movie stalkings tend to be that way. It's the longest piece. The bass plods on along and creepy keyboards and squealing sax drift in and out and about. The Undead is a quiet piece with John on piano. Death Ship sounds like a creaky old vessel on a dead sea. Jonathan Harker has Rob Burger, the main keyboardist in the group, taking center stage in a duet with the group's percussionist, Kevin Norton, on vibes.

Vampires At Large, bass and electric keyboards lurking about. Renfield, piano and vibes again, hesitant, a little mysterious. Stalker Dub wraps it up, figures, did you remember to shoot it in the head with a silver bullet? No wait? that's all wrong. The stake, the stake, aieeee!!!

I certainly feel lazy, guilty even, by adding my tiny voice to the host of others describing John Zorn's Mount Analogue as 'mysterious' ' but that's the feel the music gives me.

Setting aside the impetus of the surrealist novel of the same name, this is indeed enigmatic music. A sense of the unknown is evoked when you listen to its single track, the music pulls you along a near forty minute trip through South American jungles, rivers, mountains and caves. Or so it does when I hear it.

Once again, much has been said of the accessibility of this release, and when compared to some of Zorn's other works, it is at that. At times it's downright pleasant and soothing, beautiful. In other passages there is a sense of menace that never really gets too dark, accented by percussive thumps and at times, harsh or unsettling chanting. But there's such a lightness to the music elsewhere, whether it comes from the variety of bells or the vibes, or piano in the opening minutes, it's there. (And by 'light' I don't mean to suggest that it has no depth.)

And so what does it actually sound like? World music, definitely, jazz, certainly, the Latin and folk genres, yep and yep. Not a lot of what might be termed more traditional guitar-based prog however, but it's still progressive should you be concerned about genre. But more useful perhaps, would be to come back to that word, 'mysterious.' At times this music sounds like it would fit the discovery of a thousand-year old Temple, or maybe be played during a Shaman's dance. But just have a listen and see what you get, the music is certainly capable of suggesting other images.

On Mount Analogue John Zorn composes and has the Cyro Baptista Banquet of the Spirits quartet perform the work. Kenny Wollesen's vibes in particular play a vital role in establishing and changing mood with suddenness or subtlety as required, deserving of much credit. Perhaps the other standout for me in terms of performance, which was more of a personal favourite, was the organ. Throughout, Marsella does exactly what's needed (as he does on piano too for that matter) and I found myself seeking it out probably more often than any number of interesting percussive instruments or the strings of the oud.

In short, I loved it.

— First review of this album —

John Zorn: At the Gates of Paradise [2011]

Rating: 8/10

At the Gates of Paradise is another installment in a series of piano-driven melodic jazz albums from American composer John Zorn. Back in the 90s, nobody would have expected Zorn to ever release a mellow collection of relaxing jazz tunes. The man is known for creating absolutely brutal and dense avant-garde music that frightens children and small animals. In recent years, however, Zorn has embraced a style that falls on the opposite end of the sonic spectrum. He has dedicated a large portion of his recent compositional energy to light jazz music that could please the average music fan. He is astonishingly proficient in this style. In fact, he may be more adept with this type of music than he is with avant-garde music. At the Gates of Paradise is one of the best albums that Zorn has ever done. An all-star cast of musicians (including keyboard maestro John Medeski) meets Zorn's incredible songwriting to create a masterful piece of work.

"The Eternals" is a gorgeous opener with layers of sparkling piano and vibes. "Song of Innocence" is a contemplative piece of laid-back jazz that makes me want to watch the sun set on a cabana beach. "A Dream of Nine Nights" may be the best mellow jazz piece that Zorn has ever written. The first half is quiet and calming, and the second half is groovy and energizing. Medeski's piano playing is absolutely jaw-dropping. "Light Forms" is the most freeform piece here, with relatively disorganized percussion and piano sounds. "The Aeons" features a hypnotizing piano sequence and excellent bass work. "Liber XV" actually sounds quite spacey. The vibes evoke an image of a cosmic voyage. "Dance of Albion" features an unforgettable main theme and a driving groove. "Song of Experience" ends the album on a tranquil note with more shimmering piano and vibes.

At the Gates of Paradise is a crowning achievement for Zorn. Nearly everything about this album is spectacular: the composition, the musicianship, the atmosphere, the structure. This is an absolute joy to listen to in every way. The only thing that prevents me from awarding this with a full-on masterpiece rating is the lack of musical variety. This is a tiny complaint, though. At the Gates of Paradise is an amazing collection of contemporary jazz tunes that should not be missed by any fan of jazz music. It would behoove Zorn newbies and skeptics to check this out, as well. I honestly can't imagine anybody not enjoying it to one extent or another.

— First review of this album —

John Zorn: Enigmata [2011]

Rating: 3/10

"Enigma" certainly is a good descriptive word for John Zorn's third 2011 release. During my momentous voyages through his monolithic discography, I have come across a few albums that have left me absolutely mystified. Sometimes, this confusion is a good thing; it leaves me with a sense of challenge and a desire to figure the music out. Other times, I am simply befuddled as to how or why an album was created in the first place. How could somebody enjoy it, and for what purpose was it made? This quandary permeated my consciousness while I listened to Enigmata. This 41-minute album features guitarist Marc Ribot and bassist Trevor Dunn making noise; that's it. Composition and improvisation meld together seamlessly, to the point where it is near-impossible to tell the difference between the two. Ribot is an exceptional guitarist, but his playing here sounds like nothing but mindless feedback. Dunn's bass is a pulsating drone backing up Ribot's cacophonous twanging. Needless to say, 41 minutes of this is not pleasant in the slightest.

I really don't know what Zorn was trying to accomplish with Enigmata. Tzadik describes the album as "Captain Beefheart's Magic Band meets Arnold Schoenberg", but the result isn't nearly as interesting as such a label would make one think. This isn't a terrible album; nothing about it disgusts or repels me. However, it is an uninteresting and fairly unpleasant piece of work that even Zorn die-hards may have troubling enjoying. Enigmata is a black sheep among the excellent music that Zorn has released during this young decade. This is pretentiousness at its worst, and it is best avoided.

— First review of this album —

John Zorn: The Satyr's Play/Cerberus [2011]

Rating: 6/10

The Satyr's Play/Cerberus is an album of experimental chamber music from American avant-garde composer John Zorn. Although I am generally not a fan of Zorn classical/chamber compositions, he has expanded his approach to the style over the past few years. Some interesting albums have come out of this musical expansion, and this one may be the most fascinating so far. These two compositions are enormously different in terms of both sound and tone, but they share an odd hypnotic atmosphere that evokes images of the mythical creatures that grace their titles.

'The Satyr's Play' is a 26-minute tribal drum sequence divided into eight parts. This piece sounds the soundtrack to a video game's archetypal 'lava level.' Hypnotizing percussive patterns are layered on top of one another to create a mesmerizing experience. Zorn throws in some useless animal noises and the piece drags on for a bit too long, but this is still an excellent composition. 'Cerberus' is a trio piece for tuba, trombone, and trumpet. Although this isn't a particularly special track, it is an interesting fusion of classical music and avant-jazz. The musicians get some terrifyingly menacing sounds out of their instruments, including blares, burps, and bellows. This time around, the animal noises come from the actual playing.

The Satyr's Play/Cerberus is a step in the right direction for Zorn's chamber music. However, it is still a rather underwhelming release. The sum of this album's parts is greater than its whole; there some awesome ideas at 'play' here, but I find it difficult to maintain interest throughout the lengthy durations of each piece. Zorn found a cool idea and rolled with it without proper fine-tuning. Such is typical with his concert music. Regardless, this is still an interesting release that displays some innovative new compositional elements.

John Zorn: Nova Express [2011]

Rating: 6/10

Nova Express is the first of the five albums that John Zorn released in 2011. 2010 was a prolific year for Zorn; he released melodic-jazz, contemporary-classical, and avant-rock releases during a mere twelve months. This unbelievable productivity continued in 2011, starting with this piece of experimental third-wave jazz. Nova Express features the piano/vibraphone/bass/drums setup that is typical on Zorn's melodic-jazz releases, but this album is not completely mellow. These pieces seem unsure whether or not they want to be melodic or cacophonous. Jangling disharmony contrasts with quiet melody. Sometimes, these two extremes are layered on top of each other to create something that is both mellow and brutal at the same time. Zorn is no stranger to such juxtaposition, but he rarely combines the sonic spectrum in such a fluid manner. Unfortunately, this combination sounds emotionally distant most of the time.

"Chemical Garden" opens the album with drum blasts and disharmonious piano/vibe insanity. The musicianship here is astounding. "Port of Saints" is more subdued. The driving bass-line gives it a distinct sense of menace. "Rain Flowers" starts off like a free-jazz piece, but it transitions into a nice piano groove with vibe soloing. This is one of the best tracks on the album. "The Outer Half" is pure mellow jazz with pleasant quiet piano work. "Dead Fingers Talk" is a short vibraphone solo that further displays Kenny Wollensen's chops. "The Ticket That Exploded" features some more excellent soloing, but it doesn't do much to separate itself from the rest of the album. The semi-ambient "Blue Veil" features a superb bass solo, but the track drags on a bit as a whole. "IC 2118" pulls more of the same tricks, even though the piano work is undeniably impressive. "Lost Words" is a mellow bass-driven interlude that serves as another highlight. The album ends with "Between Two Worlds", which also happens to be the strongest track here. This is Zorn-style melodic jazz as its best.

Nova Express is a good piece of semi-experimental contemporary jazz, but it doesn't stand out as one of Zorn's best releases in the style. The musicianship is jaw-dropping, but it often seems to be too technically focused (an unusual problem for jazz music). Homogenous compositional structure is also a major flaw here. Still, this is an enjoyable piece of work, and I have fun listening to it. O'o, In Search of the Miraculous, and At the Gates of Paradise are all superior albums, though.

This album puts together music that John Zorn recorded for films (and one for a commercial) between 1986 and 1990. And there are a lot of good ideas in it. But that's where it's problem lies. There are thirty two tracks here, all between one half a minute and three and a half minutes long. The styles are all over the map. There's rock, rockabilly, straight jazz, free jazz, lounge music, samba, classical organ, heavy prog, Frank Zappa styles noise pieces... and all of it quite intriguing. It should be, with guests musicians like Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, and Melvin Gibbs, to name just a few, lending their prowess to the songs.

But as good as many, if not most of the pieces are, their shortness is the issue. In averaging under two minutes each they rarely get a chance to develop much past the underlying rhythms.

But this is music made for the background of films. What do you expect?

John Zorn: Interzone [2010]

Rating: 7/10

Interzone is one of the toughest nuts to crack in John Zorn's discography. If one word could fittingly describe the incalculably diverse range of music that Zorn has released, "challenging" would probably be it. This 2010 release is not the densest album he has ever done, nor is it the least accessible. However, it may be the most difficult to figure out. This three-part piece was conceived as a tribute to William S. Burroughs, so it's obvious that normal compositional structure was thrown out the window here. Interzone is a lengthy collage of nearly every genre that Zorn has ever touched on, and each style is executed with precision.

Much of Zorn's work often features what I call "stop/start composition." Smooth transitions are often discarded in favor of disharmonious juxtaposition of sonic opposites. This is probably my least favorite characteristic of Zorn's music; I find it to be an immature and lazy way of composing that favors an "avant-garde for the sake of avant-garde" approach. It's a major reason why I dislike many of his classical pieces. This compositional style is displayed in full force on Interzone, but strangely enough, it actually works here. The music rapidly shifts from avant-jazz to metal to ambient to tribal music to classical to melodic jazz and so forth, but it all manages to sound totally natural. This bizarre avant-garde stew is difficult to label, a quality that manages to be a strength rather than a weakness. This is Zorn-style genre-busting at its best.

Interzone is one of Zorn's strongest albums. There are some unforgettable moments here. However, some sections don't live up to others. A few movements drag on to the point of monotony, particularly the more minimalistic ones. Regardless, this is still a strong piece of work that even Zorn skeptics should be able to appreciate. In fact, this may be a sensible place for unfamiliar prog fans to start with Zorn. Interzone is an avant-rock monolith.

John Zorn: What Thou Wilt [2010]

Rating: 4/10

What Thou Wilt is an album of contemporary classical music from American avant-garde composer John Zorn. Although I am not normally a fan of Zorn's classical compositions, the past few years have shown him expanding his approach to the style in fresh new ways. The three pieces showcased on this album were originally composed in 1999, so I was immediately wary; his recent innovations were unlikely to be present here. Unfortunately, I was absolutely correct. What Thou Wilt is classical Zorn by the numbers: directionless avant-garde orchestral music with little sense of cohesion, direction, or identity. Good ideas are encased in minutes of indiscernible fluff and unmusical noodling. The musicians are strong as always, but there isn't much for them to work with.

These pieces may be academically interesting, but music fans - even adventurous ones such as me - are not going to find any sort of aesthetic enjoyment here. Cacophonous orgies of strings and endless passages of subtle minimalism may be fun for a little while, but such things utterly fail to entertain for the length of an entire album, much less for an enormous collection of albums. This is about the 694th Zorn release that sounds exactly like this. Hardcore fans may like it, but others should steer clear.