John Zorn - 'Naked City'

 

Fellow native New Yorker, John Zorn, has been one of the most interesting and exciting figures in contemporary music for years, and never has the phrase "wild eclecticism" been more apt.  That eclecticism is wildly abundant on this wonderful album, as John and Company blast through the music of Ornette Coleman, Henry Mancini, Ennio Morricone, John Barry, and of course John Zorn himself.   They move quickly through jazz, swing, blues, free jazz, noise, rock, thrash, and surf, often in the same song.   This is great music for today's attention-span addled human.  I played this for my grandchildren when they were little, and they thought its fast moving, often changing songs were a fun and entertaining listen. So will you.

'Naked City' starts out with "Batman", which is John's uptempo envisioning of what Batman's theme should sound like, and it's totally hip.  This is followed by Morricone's "The Sicilian Clan".  Next up is "You Will Be Shot", a terrific Zorn original that changes just about every ten seconds; touching on rock, noise/thrash, and blues/swing.  I could go on and on; fruitlessly attempting to describe track after track.  That, however, is beginning to seem increasingly pointless as I listen to this album.  It sounds so cliché, but you must truly listen to this album for yourself to have any kind of understanding of what a cool album this is.

Not many bands could pull off the ridiculous changes present here.  On paper, this should be a mess.  However, thanks to John Zorn's vision and skill (and that of his bandmates) this works wonderfully, and way better than it should.  If you are interested in Zorn and have yet to delve into his intimidating and massive catalog, this is a great place to start.

Much in the same way Miles Davis did, John has a knack for assembling the right band for the right project.  The band that he put together for 'Naked City' was absolutely perfect, and up to the task of tackling these diverse, high energy arrangements. Bill Frisell on guitar, Wayne Horvitz on keys, Fred Firth on bass, and Joey Baron on drums were the perfect partners in crime for this brilliant creation.  I've seen this line-up live several times, and they were nothing short of sublime.

For the freeload, tell us what your all-time favorite television crime drama is.

Coincidentally, this is mine.