John Zorn

Naked City
recorded 1989
released 1990
ONE DISC: twenty-six tracks, 55 minutes

This is the first Naked City album. I'd say it's the best one, but then I'm biased — this is the first Zorn album I bought, back in 1996.

If They Might Be Giants hired the best jazz players in New York to make a heavy metal album, it would sound like this. (The major difference is the sense of humor. Zorn's sense of humor is more subtle than TMBGs.)
From The Wire:

Zorn debuted Naked City on Nonesuch in 1989. He denied that it was a supergroup, citing The Golden Palominos as an example of why supergroups never really work. But as ad hoc groupings of musicians go this pretty much brought together the cream of the 80s NYC downtown set. Naked City marks out the group's territory: jump-cutting micro-collages of hardcore, Country, sleazy jazz, covers of John Barry and Ornette Coleman, brief abstract tussles — a whole city crammed into two or three minute bursts.

The album's poles are its finest moments and somehow sum up all that the group seemed to do best: a 'suite' of ultra-brief thrashes which still manage to jump genres two or three times in the space of a couple of bars, and a gorgeous rendering of Jerry Goldsmith's untouched theme from Chinatown, which emerges magically from a haze of free improvisation.

The cover is a famous photograph by Weegee. Some record stores carry the album with the back of the CD booklet as the cover: an illustration of a Japanese girl with a snake slithering through her face. Apparently, this is considered less disturbing than the photo of a man laying on the sidewalk with a bullet wound in his face.



Zorn: The music I wrote for Naked City is the kind of music that gets better the more it is played. I wanted to improve the quality of my live performances and using the same musicians served precisely this end.

The Naked City project (which, compared to the completely improvised ones, is based on composition) was to see how many kinds of music can be made with the same ensemble, to write very different things for the same group.

Nineteen of the 26 songs were written by Zorn. The others were written by John Barry, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, Johnny Mandel, Ornette Colman, Georges Delerue, and Jerry Goldsmith.… (mehr)

CD TZADIK (TZ 7318[US])

1998.
The Port Of Last Resort. (ZORN)

1. Teqiah.

(3:07)
2. Shanghai.

(2:35)
3. Emunim.

(3:32)
4. Ruan. (guitar version)

(4:37)
5. Ebionim.

(3:00)
6. Ahavah.

(3:42)
7. Ruan. (pipa version)

(3:37)
8. Livant.

(1:54)
9. Or Ne'erav.

(6:58)
10. Shanim.

(2:03)
11. Ruan. (solo piano)

(3:42)
Latin Boys Go To Hell. (ZORN)

12. Deseo.

(2:28)
13. Mentiras.

(2:15)
14. Ansiedad.

(2:55)
15. Locura.

(2:47)
16. Sangre.

(1:02)
17. Olvido.

(2:21)
18. Engano.

(2:25)
19. Traicion.

(2:25)
20. Ilusion.

(2:43)
21. Lagrimas.

(4:14)
The Port Of Last Resort (1-11):
Greg COHEN:

bass
Anthony COLEMAN:

piano
Mark FELDMAN:

violin
Erik FRIEDLANDER:

cello
Marc RIBOT:

guitars
Min XIAO-FEN:

pipa
Latin Boys Go To Hell (12-21):
Cyro BAPTISTA:

percussion
Kenny WOLLESEN:

drums
vibes
percussion
1-11: recorded at Avatar Studio, New York City on November 9, 1997. 12-21: recorded at Creative Audio, New York City on July 22, 1997. Produced by John ZORN.
The Port of Last Resort: The Port of Last Resort is a remarkable documentaryabout the Jewish refugees who emigrated to Shanghai from Nazi Germany in the 1930's. Musically this was a prfect chance to call up Min Xiao-Fen, who I had met earlier in the year. One of the world's greatest virtuosos on the pipa, I had th pleasure of hearing her solo concert and immediately hooked her up with Derek Bailey for a CD of duo improvisations on AVANT. Relatively new to improvisation, with a little encouragement she took to it at once and continues to perform with Derek around the world and with me at my regular improv evenings. As a special guest with the members of the Bar Kokhba project, her sensual tone adds just the touch conveying the curious crossrods of the Chinese and Jewish cultures that took place at this special time and in this special place. It is an honor to have her play this music. SHANGHAI, OR NE'ERAV and RUAN were written especially for the film. ENUNIM and AHAVAH developed during rehearsals for Makigami Koichi's Japanese production of Richard Foreman's The Mind King, and were played by the great William Winant on percussion and myself on harmonium. The other four compositions. were drawn from the over 200 tunes that compromise the Masada book, chosen here to portray the range of moods and emotions felt by the ex-patriots in their safe but unfamiliar haven so far from home. Inappropriate for the regular Masada quartet, these pieces have never been heard before and receive delicate and passionate performances by five of my very favorite musicians. These guys are amazing and can play anything you put in front of them. Although they come from veyr different backgrounds, their commitment to a common goal is intense, and the interplay is often telepathic. The beautiful sounds of their instrumetns are captured with depth and sensitivity by Jim Anderson, who has recorded all of the Masada CD's and many of my recent projects. Jim and Kaz are a real team and I thank them both for all they've donne to make my projects sound as good as they do. This recording is one of my best.
Latin Boys Go to Hell: The story behind the making of this music is a long, twisted and painful one. After seeing the film, my feeling was that someone else would probably do a much better job of scoring it than I, so I suggested to Ela (a friend of over 20 years) that she should give a call to Marc Ribot, who was immersed in Latin music with his Postisos project. Ela seemed determined to have me do the job and would not be swayed. I began to rethink the project. A week later, inspired by the idea of doing an all-percussion score, I called Ela with my new approuch. Of course by this time she had been doing some thinking as well and had decided that Ribot was in fact a great idea, so why not include him in the band. Percussion alone seemed completely inappropriate to her. Back and forth it went on a variety of subjects until finally, exasperated and frustrated, I bowed out of the whole thing. Over a month went by and I thought to give a call in to Ela to see what she finally opted for and how the project was proceeding. Not at all, it turned out - Ribot hadn't been contacted and no one had been hired. I told Ela that if she still wanted me to do the music, that I would deliver the percussion score on one condition: that no one contact me until it was completely recorded. She agreed and seemed to love the results. Cyro has always been a blast to work with and Kenny knocked us both out with his dynamic vibraphone playing. What incredible musicians these guys are - and how well they work together. Once we got into the studio this was a fucking party - complete with a Korean buffet of chapchae, pajun, mandoo gui, yang bulgogi, wang kalbi, jae yook gui and the like. Needless to say, the score was barely used in the final cut, Ela opting instead for a potpourri of lame rock and generic disco. I asked for my credit to be changed.… (mehr)